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A 

COMMENTARY 



ON THE 



HOLY SCRIPTURES : 

CRITICAL, DOCTRINAL AND HOMILETICAL, 

WITH SPECIAL KEFERENCE TO MINISTERS AND STUDENTS. 



BY 

JOHN PETER LANGE, D. D. 

PROFESSOR OF THE0L067 IN THE UNIVERSITY OF BONN, 

ASSISTED BY A NUMBER OP EMINENT EUROPEAN DIVINES. 
TRANSLATED, ENLARGED, AND EDITED 

BY 

PHILIP SCHAFF, D.D. 

PROFESSOR OP SACIIED LITERATURE IN THE UNION THEOtOGICAL SEMINAnr, NEW YORK. 

IN CONNECTION WITH AMERICAN AND ENGLISH SCHOLARS OF VARIOUS 

DENOMINATIONS. 



VOLUME II. OF THE OLD TESTAMENT: 

EXODUS AND LEVITICUS. 



NEW YORK: 
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS, 

743-745 EKOAD-WAY. 



EXODUS; 



OE, 



THE SECOND BOOK OF MOSES. 



BY 



JOHN PETER LANGE, D.D., 

PEOFESSOE OF THEOLOGY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF BONN. 



TRANSLATED BY 

CHARLES M. MEAD, PH.D., 

PEOFESSOE OP THE HEBEEW LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE IN THE THEOLOGICAL 
SEMINAEY AT ANDOVEE, MASS. 



NEW YORK. 
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS, 

743-745 BROADWAY. 



Copyright, 1876. 
jiT SCRIBNEK, ARMSTRONG & CO. 



PREFACE BY THE GENERAL EDITOR. 



Dr. Lange's Commentary on Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers was not published till 1874. 
Dr. Scheoedeb's Deuteronomy was issued in 1868. 

The two corresponding English volumes were begun several years ago. The present volume 
contains : — 

1. A general and special Introdiwtion to Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers. It unfolds Dr. 
Lange's original and ingenious view of the organic unity and trilogy of the three Middle Books 
of the Pentateuch and their typical import. The translation is by Eev. Howabd Osgood, D. D., 
Professor in Kochester, N. Y. 

2. The Commentary on Exodus by Dr. Langb, translated, with many additions, by Re^r. C. M. 
Mead, Ph. D., Professor in the Theological Seminary at Andover, Mass. The Textual and Gram- 
matical notes, some of which are very elaborate (e. g., pp. 72-75), belong wholly to the American 
Edition, there being no corresponding part in the German of Lange. The "Doctrinal" and 
" Homiletical," which in the German edition are put together at the end of Numbers, have been 
appended to the Commentary proper. 

3. The Commentary on Lemiicas by Eev. Pbederic Gardiner, D. D., Professor in the Berke- 
ley Divinity School, Middletown, Conn. This part differs in one respect from most of the series. 
It was alreaay far advanced before the commentary of Langb appeared, and it then seemed best 
to complete it on the plan begun, incorporating into it as much as possible of the German work 
of Lange. For the general structure and arrangement of this commentary, therefore, Dr. Gardi- 
ner is responsible ; but the greater part of Lange, including every thing of importance, and espe- 
cially every thing in which there is any difference of opinion, has been translated and included in 
the work. Nearly the whole of Lange's "Homiletical," and a large part of his "Doctrinal," have 
been distributed to the several chapters to which they pertain. Every thing from Lange is care- 
fully indicated by his name and by quotation marks; all matter not so indicated is by the trans- 
lator, and is not marked by his initials, except in the case of remarks introduced into the midst 
of quotations from Langb. A large part of the translation was prepared by Eev. Henry Fergu- 
son, of Exeter, N. H. 

The Commentary on Numbers and Deuteronomy will appear in a separate volume early in au- 
tumn. The remaining parts of the Old Testament division are also fast approaching completion. 

PHILIP SCHAFF. 



UsioK Theol. Seminaet, New Yoek, \ 
April 2Sth, 1876. J 



IlfTRODUOTION 



TO THE 




If , 

m ill 



ill lis i 11 Piiffl 



BY 



JOHK PETER LAFGE, D.D., 



PEOFESSOE OF THEOLOGY IN THE UNIVEESITY OF BONN. 



TRANSLATED BY 

HOWARD OSGOOD, D.D., 

EOCHESTEE, N. T. 



NEW TORE: 
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS, 

743-745 BEOADWAY. 



THE 



THREE MIDDLE BOOKS OF THE PENTATEUCH. 



A. GENERAL INTRODUCTION 

OF THE THREE MIDDLE BOOKS OF THE LAW CONSIDERED 

AS A WHOLE. 



2 1. THE EELATION OF THE THREE MIDDLE BOOKS OP THE PENTATEUCH TO THE 

WHOLE PENTATETJCH. 

While the Pentateuch describes the Law of the Lord in its whole compass as the 
symbolical, typical, fundamental law of the kingdom of God, its universal basis stated 
in Genesis, and its universal purpose in Deuteronomy, it appears to be the unique 
character of the three middle books to set forth this law as the law of Israel strictly 
considered. They are the fixed, written, literal law of God for this people his- 
torically bounded and defined. But since this people should not live egotistically for 
itself, but be a blessing of the nations, and also a type of the nations to be brought 
into the kingdom of God, its law is not merely a law for the Israelites. Throughout 
it has a typical meaning as far as its ordinances and shadows indicate the principles of 
spiritual life and the divine regulations for all the nations of the kingdom of God, for all 
Christian nations. Israel is the type of Christian nationalities. Israel's law is the type 
of Christian theocratic systems in their ethical, ecclesiastical and political regulations. 

It is therefore both one-sided and erroneous to mistake either the national and directly 
popular meaning of the Mosaic law in earliest times or the Judaizing and superficiality con- 
cerning this law in the Kationalistic era. This last view Kationalism has held equally with 
the Pharisees. Paul had this in view in his opposition to mere legality. The law of the 
three middle books is literally and particularly the law of the people of Israel; but this peo- 
ple Israel is essentially a type of the people of the kingdom of God ; not only of God's peo- 
ple in general, but also of national institutions, of Christian nationalities. The significance 
of Israel in respect to Christian nationalities has been excellently set forth by Pastor Bram 
of Neukirchen. Concerning the significance of nationalities in the Christian Church, comp. 
my Vermischfe Schri/ten, New Series 11, p. 185, and W. Hofiinann, Deutschland, 1870, 
Vol. 2. 

We may consider the special religion of the patriarchs as the subjective religion of the 
individual conscience led by divine grace, as a walk before and with God directed by special 
instruction from God and by complete obedience of faith. But now commences the predo- 
minantly objective form of religion in which the people of Israel, as an individual, are led by 
an external social code of laws and by mysterious external tokens of God. The patriarchal 
religion as compared with the Mosaic is more subjective, which gives it a gleam of New 



GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO THE THREE MIDDLE BOOKS. 



Testament or of Protestant evangelical freedom and joy (Gal. iii.), as we see portrayed in 
the life of the Sethites : whilst the religion of Moses is that of promise contained in the 
training of the people, and therefore the external law and symbols are chiefly employed; as 
in a similar manner in the Middle Ages Christendom served for the elementary training 
of the nations. But on the other side a great progress is shown, in that now for the first 
time a whole nation is made the people of God, instead of a holy family living by them- 
selves, and in that the simple word of God and the simple covenant of circumcision unfold 
into a complete code of laws and an organization of worship and of society. It is also an ex- 
ceedingly important fact that Deuteronomy again points out the spirituality of the law, or 
throws a bridge over to the prophetic era — a fact frequently mistaken. Comp. Gen. 
Introd. p. 49. 

I 2. THE PAETICULAE RELATION OF THE THREE MIDDLE B00K8 TO GENESIS. 

According to the preceding, it is not correct to speak of Genesis as the introduction to 
the following books. According to that view, the Old Testament was designed as a particu- 
lar and national Bible for the Jews. It is rather the archives of the foundation of the uni- 
versal and indestructible kingdom and people of God, whose coming is prefigured by the 
typical people of God, Israel, and by the typical kingdom of God, the theocracy. For it is 
the high destination of Israel that in becoming the representative of the concentration or 
contraction of God's kingdom in process of development, it should prepare and bring about 
the expansion or enlargement of the real and complete kingdom of God as it is promised in 
the blessing of Abraham (Gen. xii. 3), but especially in the second part of the prophet Isaiah 
(chap, xliii. 21 f ). Yet ^^^ Catholicism of Genesis tends to this typical speciality by defining 
narrower circles for the Messianic promise. The first circle is the universe itself in the sig- 
nificant religious contrast, heaven and earth. The second circle is the earth, ■ Adam with 
his race. The third circle is the nobler line of Adam in the Sethites in contrast to the line 
of Cain. The fourth circle is the family of Noah baptized with the water of the flood and 
uivided into the pious and blessed family of Shem and the humanitarian and blessed people 
of Japhet. Then the distinctive genealogical speciality is begun by the setting apart of 
Abraham. His posterity is ennobled by a series of exclusions ; Ishmael, the children of 
Keturah and Esau, are shut out from the consecrated circle of Israel. Indeed within this 
circle great distinctions are indicated, though in the three books the tribes of Judah and 
Joseph (Ephraim and Manasseh) stand far behind that of Levi. Thus Genesis, which in 
its Catholicism is one with the loftier Genesis, the Apocalypse, ends with the foundation of 
the Jewish nationality, with the seed-corn of the typical people of God in the house of 
Jacob. 

The three middle books in relation to Genesis are the record of the first typical fulfill- 
ment of the divine promise which was given to Israel, and through Israel to mankind (Gen. 
XV. 13, 14). They inform us how a people of God grew out of the holy family, a people born 
amid the travail of oppression and tyranny in Egypt. This people, consecrated to God, 
come out through the typical redemption, which first makes them a people, and which is 
based upon the fact that the Almighty God (El Shaddai) appears under the name Jehovah, 
and proves Himself Jehovah. For in the revelation of God as Jehovah, as the covenant 
God who ever remains the same, and ever glorifies Himself by His faithfulness, there inhere 
two very diverse revelations, since by the first it was not proved that he would continue to 
return. As in geometry we must have two separate points in order to determine the dis- 
tance of a third point, so in the region of faith we must have two indications of salvation in 
order to conclude assuredly that the covenant-God will continue to return. In this way for 
the first time the name Jehovah obtained its full significance, though it was known in ear- 
lier times in connection with the prevailing name El Shaddai : just as at the Reformation 
the word "justification'' was invested with a new meaning, though it had been known 
before. On this redemption the theocracy (Ex. xix.) was founded, and appeared not in 
abstract forms, but in concrete, historical characteristics, in ethical, ecclesiastical and politi- 
cal laws. This code of laws was a boundary separating Israel from all other peoples, placing 



J 3. THEIR PARTICULAR RELATION TO DEUTERONOMY. 3 

them in strongest contrast to other peoples, making them particularly the executioner of the 
Canaanites, who had come to ruin through the practice of unnatural lust. By this Israel 
would have become actually, according to the idea of the Pharisees, " odium generis hu- 
mani," had they not been predestined to be educated as the teacher of the peoples and as the 
mediator of their salvation. 

2 3. THE PAETICITLAR EELATION OF THE THREE MIDDLE BOOKS TO DEUTEEONOMY. 

Doubt has been expressed whether the man Moses who, in the spirit of the severe jurist, 
issued the code of laws contained in the three middle books, could also be the author of the 
essential parts of Deuteronomy. Doubts of this sort appear to pre-suppose that a law- 
giver should make his own ideals, his loftiest thought a code for his people. But very 
false conceptions of the best legislation lie at the foundation of this view. A wise lawgiver 
will approve himself by the manner and mode in which he accommodates his. toftiest views 
of right to the culture or want of culture of his people. Moses therefore might have given 
a law to his people corresponding to their culture as he found it, by mere external form, the 
very letter of the law, and the enlargement of the bald form by picturesque representations 
of a ceremonial worship which appealed to the senses and thought, not less than by a strong 
organization of the whole people. All this Moses might have done in the character of a 
Jewish Solon. But his giving an ethical, ecclesiastical and civil national law which was 
throughout a transparent representation, the symbol and type of the kingdom of God, proved 
him to be a prophet led and illumined by the Spirit of God. 

Throughout his whole course Moses had been educated equally as a Jewish specialist of 
his times and as a catholic embracing all future humanity. As the adopted child of the 
daughter of a Pharaoh, he was educated in all the wisdom of Egypt, the most renowned cen- 
tre of human culture of that time, and he also became familiar among the sons of the desert, 
the Midianites, with a noble patriarchal house. But as he was a true spiritual heir of Abra- 
ham, his personal experiences formed the basis for the catholic enlightenment imparted to 
him. 

But as a prophet of Jehovah it could not be hidden from Moses, that with the institution 
of the covenant-religion in the forms of the external law, there was danger that the majority 
of his people might go astray in the mere letter of the law and in seeking righteousness by 
works. This danger of misunderstanding his law he met by bringing out in the second law, 
in Deuteronomy, the germs of spirituality which lay in the first law, and thereby opened a 
way from the isolation of Israel by its code to the spiritual catholicity which was to be de- 
veloped in the prophets. Such a transition is unmistakably shown in the original portions 
of Deuteronomy which we distinguish from the final compilation. We are not called to treat 
of this compilation, or to ofier any review of treatises upon it (e. g. Kleineet's Treatise, Das 
Deuteronomium und der Deuteronomiher). 

In the first place, there is throughout Deuteronomy a solemn prophetic tone. Then 
there is the historical account of the miraculous leading of Israel in the light of Jehovah's 
grace, who pardoned the transgressions of the people, and even made Moses a typical 
substitute for the sins of the people (chap. iii. 26, 27). Israel and the law do not appear 
here in the lightning-flame of Sinai ; Israel is the glorious people among the nations (chap. 
iv. 7), and the fiery law by which Jehovah made Himself known to Israel is comprised in 
the words : " Yea, he loved the people " (chap, xxxiii. 3). Respecting the form of the reve- 
lation on Sinai, not the terrors at the giving of the law are recalled, but the fact 
that Israel heard only the words of God ; they did not see His form, in order that the danger 
of making images of God might be averted (chap. iv. 15). Thus decidedly were the people 
directed in the way of spiritual worship. The command against image worship in its length 
and breadth becomes a long-continued, positive demand for spirituality in religion. In the 
repetition of the ten commandments (chap, v.), in the tenth, the wife is placed before the 
house, and the critics have greatly troubled themselves with the question whether this posi- 
tion (chap. V. 21) or the reverse in the decalogue (Ex. xx. 17) is the right one. This alter- 
native would make no essential change ; for in Exodus the lawgiver speaks, but in Deutero- 



GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO THE THREE MIDDLE BOOKS. 



nomy the prophet who interprets the law. According to the law the wife is part of the 
house and the property of the man; according to her spiritual relations, she is above the 
house. By the law of the Sabbath (its importance as regards worship in Leviticus must be 
distinguished from its ethical value, Ex. xx.) the principle of humanity, which was stated in the 
first sketch of the civil law (Ex. xxiii. 12), is further developed (Deut. v. 14, 15). Especially 
remarkable is the expansion of the first commandment in the declaration : Thou shalt love 
Jehovah thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might (chap, 
vi. 5). The covenant-sign of circumcision is here referred to the circumcision of the heart, 
regeneration (chap. x. 16; xxx. 6). 

In Leviticus, after the curse and the blessing, come a few words of promise of the resto- 
ration of'israel (chap, xxvi.) ; but here how greatly is that promise expanded in prophecy 
(Deut. chap, xxx.) 1 This prophetic tendency in Deuteronomy is not obscured by the severe 
enactments against the Canaanites (chap, vii.) ; they are rather, on the one side, moderated 
(chap. vii. 22), and, on the other side, the reason for them is given (ver. 22). If more 
is said in this book of the Levites than of the priests, it is a proof not of the exaltation, 
but of the lessening of the priesthood, a step towards the general priesthood. To these are 
added the laws of a genuine humanity in the laws of war (chap, xx.) and also in various 
commands touching forbearance and morality. And finally the solemnity of the song and 
of the blessing of Moses. The grand antithesis between the song and the blessing makes 
these chapters the flower of Deuteronomy : in the song the curse referred to culminates ; in 
the blessing, the promise. As Genesis from a universal basis converges to the particularity 
of the three middle books, so Deuteronomy diverges in the direction of catholicity. This 
shows that the particularity of the three books is economical and temporary, and that a 
golden thread of spiritual significance, of symbolical, typical suggestion runs through the 
whole law. 

For the distinction between Deuteronomy and each of the three middle books, comp. 
the article "Pentateuch'' inB-ERZOa'a Real- Ikeyclopxdie. 

i 4. THE EELATION OF THE THREE MIDDLE BOOKS OF THE LAW TO EACH OTHER. 

The internal, essential relation of the three middle books of the law to each other is not 
defined with sufficient theological exactness either by the Hebrew names which are the first 
words of the books, H'lDE' n7S, K^p?!- ^IIP?, or by the Greek names of the Septnagint rep- 
resenting the principal subjects of the books (comp. Habtwig's Tabellen zur Einleitung des 
Alten Testaments, 2 Aufl. S. 28). 

An approximate distinction is found in the old division of the law into the moral, cere- 
monial and civil law. Yet these three forma do not sufficiently correspond to the concrete 
character of the three books. 

But in perfect accord with the distinguishing marks of Messianic prophecy, we may 
designate the first book (Exodus) as the prophetic book of the theocracy, the second (Levi- 
ticus) as the priestly book, the third (Numbers) as the kingly book, the book of the army, 
its preparation and marches, and service of the heavenly king. In the sequence of these 
books there is mirrored the sequence of the offices of Christ, whilst in the history of Israel 
the rule of the prophets (judges included) comes first, then the rule of the kings, and lastly 
the rule of the priests.* 

That in the preparation of the three books this distinction was intentionally maintained 
appears from the plainest marks. A cursory consideration might, for instance, ask : why do 
we not find the large section containing the erection of the tabernacle in Leviticus rather than 
in Exodus, since the tabernacle is the holy place of Levitical worship ? According to the 
explanation of the Scriptures themselves, the tabernacle is primarily not the house of the 
oflerer, but of him to whom the offering is brought ; not the priest's house, but God's house, 

• Ewald greatly mlBunderstanda the matter when he makes the following order: God's rule, kings' rule, saints' rule. 
God's rule, or the theocracy, is not a form of government; it is the principle of government; but in permanent sovereignty 
it controlled all the three forms of government until they ended with the destruction of Jeiiisalem. 



? 5. ORGANISM OF THE THREE BOOKS AS TO THEIR UNITY, ETC. r, 

the temple-palace of Jehovah, where He is present as law-giver, and maintains the law given 
on Sinai ; we might say, it is the Sinai that moves with the people ; and therefore it is the 
house where Jehovah ever meets with His people through the mediation of His representa- 
tives. The significance of the tabernacle as the place of the revelation of the glory of God 
comes out very clearly at the close of Exodus {"'J^.'in 'TIS and Jinjjn hTlit). 

But we must more exactly define the two parts of Exodua. 

The first part (chaps. i.-xviii.) narrates the formation of the people of Israel up to the 
foundation of the theocracy by their redemption, that is, the typical redemption and creation 
of the people of God and the typical foundation of the kingdom of God. The second part 
(chaps, xix.-xl.) comprises the giving of the law, the ethical law, and the tabernacle as the 
dwelling-place of the Law-giver. To this is added in Leviticus the law of worship and in 
Numbers the political law, for the most part illustrated by examples. 

The first part (chaps. i.-xviii.) is therefore the real foundation of the three books, the sin- 
gle trunk which is further on divided into three codes of laws. But the preponderance of 
the prophetical and ethical law, of the decalogue over the law of worship and the civil law 
is shown by its place in the foundation, and it also appears from the fact that with the deca- 
logue the outline of the three-fold code of laws is given (Ex. xx.-xxiii.). 

In accord with the same law of a definite characteristic distinction of the books, we find 
in Leviticus the laws of the festivals arranged. All those festivals are placed before them as 
priests (chap, xxiii.). The Sabbath appears here not in an ethical point of view as the day of rest 
but in its relation to worship as the day of the great assembly and as the basis of all other 
festivals ordained by God (chap, xxiii.). But all these festivals are preceded by the distinc- 
tive mark of Leviticus, the complete directions concerning the great day of atonement (chap, 
xvi.). In like manner the ten commandments and all the statutes are conformed to the 
priestly idea (chap, xix.); and so the fourth book of Moses, the book of the army of God and 
of the beginning of its marches, true to its character, commences with a muster of the people 
fit for war. 

Numbers therefore stands with the impress of the kingly revelation of Jehovah. It 
forms the foundation for the conscription of the army of the Lord (chap, i.-iii.). And if the 
Levites are again mentioned here, it is because they are now appointed to sanctify the march 
of the people of God and their wars (chaps, iii. 44 — chap. iv.). The laws of purification, 
which were inculcated in Leviticus with respect to worship, are repeated here that the camp 
of the army of God should be kept clean, in order that the army may be invincible (chap, 
v.). All directions with respect to sacrifice which are repeated here are given more or less 
for this end (chaps, vi.-x.). And therefore the two silver trumpets, which sounded the inarch, 
form the last of all these regulations. But the ofiences of the people, their calamities and 
judgments, afford visible proofs that it is the typical march of the people of God and the 
divine guidance of the people which are set before us (chaps. xi.-xvii.), and that by severe, yet 
gracious interposition, the errors of the people are removed. And then, preceded by new 
Ordinances for purification, and, since the assembly needed a new incitement, by the death 
of Miriam and Aaron in due time, and by the purification of Moses himself with the assem- 
bly through great perturbation at the waters of Meribah (chap, xx.), the great conquests of 
Jehovah (one had long before taken place) follow, though these are again interrupted by 
new transgressions by the people (chap, xxi.-xxv.). The second enumeration of the people 
marks the end of the preliminary foundation of the state (chap, xxvi.), and hence there fol- 
low sketches of the political and ci-vil law (chap. xxvi. f ). The regulations of the festival 
again occur here, because of their relation to the civil order of the state. All further di- 
rections are merely outlines of the future typical state (chaps, xxx.-xxxvi.). 

§6. THE ORQASISU OF THE THBEE BOOKS AS TO THEIR UNITY AND THEIR SEPARATE 

PARTS. 

The ethical and prophetic legislation of Exodus is based on the formation and redemp- 
tion of the people of God : it is also the prophecy of the better legislation, the erection of a 
true spiritual kingdom of God by the vivifying laws of the Spirit of Grod. The typical, sac- 



GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO THE THREE MIDDLE BOOKS. 



rificial rites of Leviticus are connected with this prophecy by internal relations. Then on 
the basis of consecration through sacrifice, the army of God, according to the book of Num- 
bers, comes together in order that, being led by God in its marches and purified by peculiar 
judgments, it may execute judgment upon the world and lay the foundation of (jod's state. 

In accordance with the three-fold division Moses appears most prominently in Exodus 
(Exodus is therefore peculiarly the book of Moses), Aaron in Leviticus, and the princes and 
leaders of the twelve tribes in Numbers. We have already mentioned that this three-fold 
division becomes four-fold because we must distinguish in Exodus the general fundamental 
portion (chaps, i. — xviii.) from that which is special. 

The organism of Exodus — The theocracy as prophetic and ethical, or as the sole foundation of 

worship and of culture. 

Exodus is divided in general into two parts ; the first part (chaps, i. — xviii.) narrates the 
formation and redemption of the people of God, more strictly, the formation of the people of 
God and their redemption until the institution of God's state or the theocracy ; the second 
part (chaps, xix. — xl.) narrates the institution of the covenant and the ethical and propheti- 
cal law of God by itself, a compendium of the whole law as special training unto Christ, until 
the completion of the habitation of the ever-present Law-giver. 

The first larger division is divided again into the history of the typical origin and re- 
demption of Israel (chaps, i. — xii.), and into the history of the confirmation of the redemp- 
tion by the typical consecration (chaps, xiii. — xviii.). The fundamental thought of the first 
part of the history of redemption is deliverance through suffering, a deliverance marked by 
the institution and celebration of the passover, with the solemn exodus begun with the re- 
past of the exodus, the passover (chap, xii.). The fundamental thought of the second part, 
or of the history of the confirmation of the redemption, is the separation of Israel from the 
Egyptians by the passage through the Red Sea, accomplished by means of the pillar of cloud 
and of fire (chap, xiv.), celebrated in Moses' song of victory, and taking shape in the prepa- 
ration for the theocratic covenant. The first part describes merely the pangs of birth until 
the birth, the second describes merely separations or typical consecrations. 

The second larger division (chaps, xix.— xl.) is divided into the history of the covenant 
of the first legislation (chaps, xix. — xxiii.), of the institution of the covenant (chap, xxiv.), 
and of the ordering of the tabernacle together with the reception of the written law (chaps. 
XXV. — xxxi.) ; further into the history of the apostasy in the setting up of the golden calf, 
of the restoration of »he covenant through chastisements, and of the law renewed partly in 
severer, partly in mi der terms (chaps, xxxii. — xxxiv.) ; finally into the history of the erec- 
tion of the tabernac! 3, by which Mount Sinai or the house and the revelation of the Law-giver 
is brought within th congregation of God (chaps, xxxv. — xl.). 

Remark. — Some commentators and writers of Introductions never give themselves the 
trouble to discover the arrangement of these books, but, on the contrary, tell us the sources 
whence they were compiled. This is plainly scientific aberration, the result of an ambitious 
but owl-like criticism, an anatomical history of literature, which without right desires 
to be called theology. However thoroughly one may pursue the question of the sources, that 
will not release us from the duty of understanding 'the books aa they are according to their 
logical structure and religious intention. 

The organism of Leviticus — The theocracy as priestly; after the dedication of the covenant-con- 
gregation to Ood follows the dedication of the covenant-people to Jehovah, the holy covenant- 
Ood, by means of theocratic consecration, for the purpose of manifesting theocratic holiness. 
The fundamental thought of this book is ofiering, but offering as atonement or the typi- 
cal atonement with God (chap. xvi.). Both the principal divisions correspond with this. 
First, the holy rites (chaps, i.— xvi.) ; second, the holy life (chaps, xvii.— xxvii.). In the 
first section the various offerings are set forth in order, beginning with the burnt offering and 
ending with the peace offering (chaps, i. — vii.). It is worthy of remark that in this book it 
is repeatedly said, " when one brings an offering," whilst the ethical decalogue speaks abso- 



I 5. ORGANISM OP THE THREE BOOKS AS TO THEIR UNITY, ETC. 7 

lutely " tkou shalt." In the second section follow the directions concerning those appointed 
to the oflfice of mediation by sacrifice, the priests, i. e., of those who in a typical sense are 
worthy to draw near to God in behalf of the sinful people (Jer. xxx. 21) chaps, viii. — x. 
Then follow the directions concerning the animals of the typical offering, clean beasts which 
as distinguished from unclean beasts are alone fit for an offering (chap. xi.). Then is 
described the typical cleanness or purification of the offerers, i. «., of the Israelites bringing 
the offering. With these directions is reached the festival of the yearly offering for atone- 
ment, the central point and climax of worship by offerings (chap, xvi.) 

Hence there now follow in the second division the typical consequents of the typical 
offering for atonement, the precepts for maintaining holiness, a. All killing and eating of 
flesh becomes in the light of the offering for atonement a thank offering (chap. xvii.). b. 
Since the table of the Israelite as a priest is hallowed, so is also his marriage (chap, xviii.). 
This priestly holiness pertains to all the relations of life; first, positively (chap, xix.) ; second, 
negatively (chap. xx.). Above all it demaads a typical positive maintenance of holiness in 
the priestly ofiBce itself (chaps, xxi. — xxii. 16), as well as perfection in the very animals to 
be offered (chap. xxii. 17-33). To the keeping holy the animals for offering is joined the 
keeping holy the festivals on which the offerings are brought (chap, xxiii.) : so also the acts 
of offering (chap. xxiv. 1-9). The keeping holy the name of Jehovah is inculcated by an 
instance of punishment (chap. xxiv. 10-23). The very land of Israel must be kept holy by 
the Sabbatic year and the great year of jubilee (chap. xxv.). The general law of the typical 
holy keeping is then followed, as a conclusion, by the sanction or declaration of the holiness 
of the law itself; the promise of the blessiog, the threatening of the curse (chap. xxvi.). 

But why does ch. xxvii. speak of special vows ? Here also the law points beyond itself. 
Vows are the expressions of a free, prophetic, lofty piety. They point to a higher plane, as 
the consilia evangelica of the Middle Ages sought to do this, but could do no more because 
they made the law of the spirit of Christ a mere external law of the letter, and just as the 
longings inspired by the consilia evangelica found their solution in a life of evangelical faith, 
so the desires expressed by Old Testament vows found their solution in the New Testament. 
But under the law they were to be regulated according to law. Yet even in the great day 
of atonement there were two ceremonies which pointed beyond the Old Testament ; first, an 
offering for atonement in accordance with all legal offerings ; second, the putting of the un- 
known, unatoned sins on Azazel * in the desert. 

The organism of the Booh of Numbers — The theocraey as kingly in its relation to the world. 
Tlie army of Ood. Its preparation. Its march to take possession of the inheritance of Qod. 
Its transgressions, its defeat and rejuvenescence under the discipline of its king Jehovah and 
under the leading of Moses to the border of the promised land. 

The fundamental thought of the book of Numbers is the march of the typical army of 
God at the sound of the silver trumpets, the signals of war and victory for directing the wars 
of Jehovah, until the firm founding of God's state, and the celebration of the festivals of vic- 
tory and blessing of Jehovah in the land of promise (chap. x. 1-10). Around this centre are 
grouped the separate parts of the book. 

The conscription and the order of the camp of the holy people form the first part : at the 
same time the Levites are assigned to lead the army of God (in a symbolical sense as a banner, 
not in a strategic sense, chap. iii. 22) ; they are also mentioned here as being the servants of 
the ark of the covenant, the symbolic banner of the army, to precede the army (chs. i.-iv.). 

Upon this in the second part follow the directions for the typical consecration of the 
army, especially for putting away whatever would defile (chap, v.), and for self-denial on the 
part of the army (chap. vi. 1-21) ; then the solemn blessing of the army (chap. vi. 22-27), 
and the gifts and offerings which the leaders of the army brought for the tabernacle as the 
central point (staff and head-quarters) of the army of God (chap vii.). Then in conformity 
with this high purpose the splendid lights of the tabernacle and those who were to serve them, 
the Levites, are spoken of (chap. viii.). In addition to these consecrations there are enact- 

• [See note, p. 43]. 



8 GENEKAL INTRODUCTION TO THE THREE MIDDLE BOOKS. 

ments for keeping clean the army by the feast of the passover and the supplementing of the 
law of the passover by that of the second passover for those unclean at the first, stragglers in 
the holy march, and by the law for strangers eating the passover (chap. ix. 1-14). 

The third part, the central point of the book, forms a special section. It describes the 
pillar of cloud and of fire over the tabernacle as the divine signal for the marches of Israel, 
and the blowing of the silver trumpets as the human signal following the divine (chap. ix. 
15— X. 10). 

Then in the fourth part the departure of Israel from Sinai and the first division of its 
marches, its chastisement by a series of calamities, transgressions and judgments, which 
proves that this army of God is only symbolical and typical. This occasions the institution 
of a new purification of the people by the sprinkling of water, mixed with the ashes of a red 
heifer, which has been made a curse. This section ends with the death of Miriam and of 
the high-priest Aaron (chap. x. 11— chap. xx.). This part includes the march to Kadesh 
and the long sojourn there till the departure of the new generation for Mount Hor. Special 
incidents are, the burning in the camp and the miraculous gift of food by manna and quails; 
the boasting of Aaron and Miriam against Moses ; the dejection of the people at the report 
of the spies and their defeat afterwards in their presumption ; a new regulation of the peace- 
oflferings, which encloses a new prediction of the promised land ; a violation of the Sabbath 
and the judgment accorded to it; the rebellion and destruction of Korah's faction; the mur- 
muring of the people against the judgment which had overtaken the &ction, and the deliver- 
ance of the people from the judgment intended for them by the incense offered by Aaron, at 
which time the position of the priesthood is still higher advanced. And finally, apart by 
itself comes the catastrophe at Meribah, when both Moses and Aaron sinned and were 
punished. 

The fifth part describes the second division of the march of the Israelites, which appa- 
rently is to a large extent a return ; but it now begins to be a march of victory, though some 
great transgressions of the people are followed by great punishments. On this march, which 
begins at Mount Hor and continues through a great circuit around the land of the Edomites 
to the encampment of the Israelites at Shittim in the plain of Moab, Eleazar the new high- 
priest stands by the side of Moses ; at last Joshua comes forth more positively as the repre- 
sentative of Moses (chaps, xxi. — xxv.). The two transgressions of Israel, their murmuring 
because of the long journey, and their thoughtless participation in the revels of the Midi- 
anites in the land of Moab, are punished by suitable inflictions, which are again followed by 
theocratic types of salvation. The blessings of Balaam form the central point of the exalta- 
tion of Israel now beginning. 

With the sixth part begin the preparations for entrance into Canaan. First there is a 
new enumeration of the now purified people, the new generation. Then an enlargement of 
the law of inheritance, especially in reference to daughters who are heirs. Then the conse- 
cration of Joshua as the leader of Israel. The directions with regard to the offerings which 
are now made more definite are a presage of the march into Canaan, or of the beginning of a 
time when Israel will be able to bring these offerings. The new law of the feasts given here 
bears a similar signification. The seventh new moon, the great Sabbath of the year, is made 
chief of all, as a sign that Israel now enters into its rest. Here also the sphere of the vow 
appears as one of greater freedom, and above that of the legal offerings ; but at the same time 
it must be brought under the rule of law. A last blow against the heathen, the campaign 
for vengeance on the Midianites, by which Israel is purified, forms the conclusion of these 
preparations (chaps, xxvi. — xxxi.). 

The seventh part contains the commencement of the settlement of Israel in Canaan. 
First, the settlement of the tribes of Reuben and Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh, are 
described. This is followed by a retrospect of the wandering in the desert; and by an anti- 
cipation of the future, consisting of an encouragement to enter the land, defining the bounda- 
ries of the land and those who should allot the land, at the same time particularly mentioning 
the cities of the Levites and of refuge. Finally the inheritance of the tribes is ensured against 
division (chaps, xxxii, — xxxvi.). 



I 6. RELATION OF THE THREE BOOKS TO HOLY SCRIPTURE IN GENERAL. 9 



§ 6- THE BELATION OF THE THREE BOOKS TO HOLT SOEIPTUEE IN GENEEAL, AND TO 
THE NEW TESTAMENT IN PAETICOLAB. 

These three middle books are in an especial sense the law books, or the law of the Jewish 
people. But even for the Jewish people they are not books of a mere external law for the 
regulation of an external state. With such a view these books would be read as the heathen 
law books of a powerful heathenism, and the Jewish people would be regarded as a heathen 
people among the heathen. In fact the Jewish people who made the law a covenant of the 
partiality of God and of righteousness by works, has been shattered as a, nation, and cast out 
among all people. 

In conjunction with the special legal and national signification, these books, as books of 
revelation, have a symbolical side ; in their literal commands and historical features they 
present in symbol lofty spiritual relations. The law of circumcision announced in Genesis 
becomes the symbol of a circumcision of the heart. This symbolical side of the law in limited 
construction, becomes further on through the law in broader construction, the larger revela- 
tion of God in prophecy, till the latter passes away in the morning beams of the Spirit. 

But, thirdly, the three books have a typical side ; they set forth the future real, i. e., spi- 
ritual redemption and its fruit, the new covenant and the real kingdom of God, that is, the 
New Testament in preparatory and fundamental outlines. If we regard merely the symboli- 
cal and typical, that is the spiritual side of the three books, we have the New Testament in 
the Old, the beginnings and foundations of the eternal revelation of salvation (Heb. xi. 1 f.); 
if we regard only the exterior we have the national law of the Jews, whose burden and im- 
possibility of fulfillment must lead to Christ (Acts xv.). But regarding both sides at once, 
we have the picture of a strong concentration or contraction of the kingdom of God as a pre- 
paration for its future unlimited expansion and catholicity. 

The positive side of this history of legislation is the lofty spiritual aim and significance 
of the law, its prophetical and Messianic bearing. Its negative side consists in its bringing 
out prominently that the law as law cannot give life, but that under the law the people con- 
stantly stumble and fall, and only by divine chastisements and grace, by priestly intercession 
and atonement, by true repentance and faith, do they again reach the path of salvation. 

Within this law — irrespective of its expansion in Deuteronomy — there is great progress 
and growth, as is shown in the diflference of the relations before and after the setting up of 
the golden calf, between the first and second tables of the law. 

At the first giving of the law the people see the lightning and hear the thunder on the 
mount, and in mortal fear hurry away. Moses alone must speak with God for the people. 
But Moses was able so far to quiet the people, that after the giving of the law Aaron, Nadab, 
Abihu, and seventy elders, with Moses, were able to approach the top of the mount, and there 
behold God, and eat and drink (Exod. xxiv.). At the second sojourn of Moses on the mount, 
we do not hear of these fearful signs. From mysterious concealment and silence, he comes 
forth with shining face, before which Aaron and the princes, who at the first giving of the 
law beheld God, retreat ; and their slavish fear, and that of the people, is again quieted by 
covering Moses' face with a vail. Jehovah Himself, also, in order to reassure the people, 
makes known from Sinai the meaning of the name Jehovah ; that He was " God, merciful 
and gracious, long-suffering and abundant in grace and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, 
forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin, but leaving nothing unpunished, and visiting the 
iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children, unto the third 
and fourth generation." But on the other hand, it is now determined that Jehovah will 
accompany the people, not as Jehovah Himself, in the midst of the people, but in the form 
of an angel- before them, that is, in the form of Old Testament revelation and law. Asa 
mark of this positive separation, Moses removes his tent as a provisional tabernacle outside 
the camp ; an act which brings to mind John the Baptist in the wilderness ; and the congre- 
gation in the camp is by that declared unclean. 



10 GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO THE THREE MIDDLE BOOKS. 



J 7. THE RELATION OF THE THREE BOOKS TO THE KECOKDS ON WHICH THEY WERE FOUNDED. 

The logical connection and the organic unity of these three books are exhibited in unde- 
niable precision, clearness, and beauty. 

And not less clear is it that this whole complex of the Jewish national law is arranged 
not according to the strict requirements of history but of religion ; a sacred tabernacle though 
made of historical materials ; not a mere didactic composition, but a concrete didactic dispo- 
sition strung upon the threads of history. Separating the historical from the didactic ele- 
ments we find that the first historical portion (Exodus, chaps, i. — xviii.), makes a book by 
itself. Joined to this, as a second book, is the second part of Exodus ; the book of propheti- 
cal and ethical legislation. Leviticus contains no trace of historical progress ; it is simply the 
law-book of Levitical worship. The first section of Numbers (chaps, iv. — x. 10), forms the 
outline of the theocratic, kingly legislation. Then at the blast of the silver trumpets the 
people depart from Sinai. And now follow, the second historical part of the whole 
work, the march from Sinai to the plain of Moab, and various new legal precepts, as special 
circumstances occasioned them. Thus the three books arranged according to theocratic pur- 
poses make five books, a smaller Pentateuch in the greater. Though we raay not lay special 
stress upon the sacred trinity of this law, yet it is worthy of remark, that the ethical legisla- 
tion progresses through the stadia of development, that the legislation concerning worship 
from beginning to end is a finished system, which is further on supplemented by the civil 
legislation, while this last is enlarged as historical occasions required, in accordance with the 
usual course of civil legislation. But that this concrete unity did not proceed from a single 
human author under divine inspiration, appears from many proofs, as well as from the very 
nature of these books. First of all, this is shown by the connection with Deuteronomy, in 
which it is plain that previously-existing records were arranged by a subsequent editor. Such 
records are also iu these books quoted or presupposed, for instance, the songs (Numb. xxi. 17 
ff., 27 fi".) : the history and especially the prophecies of Balaam. 

In general we cannot with certainty decide between those parts which had Moses for 
their author (as for instance Bleek does in his Introduction, recognizing many such parts), 
and those which are due to a later revi-sion or addition ; but from satisfactory proofs we make 
the following distinctions : 1, Those originals which are fundamental, to wit, the primary, 
traditional and written records of the genesis of the people — especially of Joseph — then the 
outlines of the theocratic legislation (the passover, the decalogue, the tabernacle, the law of 
offerings, etc., songs, forms of blessing, encampments) ; 2, the arrangement of the law into 
three parts by the hand of Moses ; 3, a final later revision, which, by arrangement and addi- 
tion, sought to present the complete unity of the Pentateuch. 

That such collected originals were the foundation of these books needs no argument. 
But that Moses himself distributed the materials into three parts, appears from the great sig- 
nificance of this organic three-fold unity with its Messianic impress, from the designation of 
the tabernacle, not for Levitical but for ethical legislation, as well as from the break in the 
whole construction before the death of Moses. It is particularly to be remarked that the 
three legislations manifest their theocratic truth by their interdependence ; either by itself 
would present, judged by common rules, a distorted form. 

That these three books were made by dividing up a larger book which enclosed within 
itself that of Joshua, is a modern scholastic view without any proof. As regards the distinc- 
tion between Elohistic and Jehovistic portions, it may have some importance for Genesis. 
But maintaining the great importance of the revelation in Exod. vi., thenceforth the distinction 
between the two names must rest only on internal relations, not upon portions to be critically 
distinguished. For instance, when, from the calling of Moses (Ex. iii.) and from the inter- 
course of Jehovah with him (Exod. vi.) it is asserted that this is a compilation from two dif- 
ferent accounts, the assertioa is made at the expense of the internal relations of the text, 
which plainly show a perfectly logical progress from one section to the other. In consequence 
of the decided refusal of Pharaoh to let the people of Israel go for a religious festival in the 
desert, and on account of the increasing oppression of the people which brought them to 



g 8. HISTORICAL FOUNDATION OP THB THREE BOOKS. H 

despair, Jehovah, aa the covenant-God of Israel comes forth in the full glory of His name. 
With this new significance which He gives to His name, He repeats previous promises (Exod. 
iii. 8-15) and assures the redemption of the people by great miracles and judgments, and 
their admission into a peculiar covenant relation. That the first general account anticipates 
some particulars of the second transaction is not an argument against it. 

In view of the totality of the Mosaic legislation the fundamental law asserts itself, that 
as already mentioned, the essential parts are in the highest degree interdependent. Mose«, 
as the author of the decalogue only, would no longer be Moses ; but a system of offerings 
which was not founded upon this ethical basis, would seem to be an institution of sorcery. 
The preparations recorded in the book of Numbers, without these conditions precedent, would 
have to be regarded as measures for a conquest of the world by war. The proof of this com- 
pact organism of the Pentateuch is the complete interdependence of the separate parts. 

For the sources of the Pentateuch, especially of these three books, see Bleek, Introd. to 
Old Test. The various views, see in "Uebersicht der verschiedenen Vorsiellungen uber 
Vrsprung und Zusammenaeizung des Pentateuchs," page 172. According to Ewald, the 
Mosaic sources are diflBcult to disentangle. The defenders of a single authorship are 
indicated in Haetwig's Tabellen, pp. 28, 29. Comp. Bunsen's Bibelwerk, 2 Abtheilung, 
Bibelurkunden, p. 108. 

§ 8. HISTORICAL FOUNDATION OF THE THREE BOOKS. 

The Bange of this History. 

Cheonology. — ^In these books of the Pentateuch we have narrated the history of the 
birth of the people of Israel up to its complete development as a nation. As the typical his- 
tory of the people of God, it is a miniature of the birth of Christianity. The course of the 
history begins with the theocratically noble origin of the people, and continues until they be- 
hold their inheritance, the promised land. Betwixt these is the history of an obscure embry- 
onic condition, in which they gradually become a people, though at the same time they sink 
deeper and deeper into slavery, and of a birth as a nation in the midst of severe pangs, by 
which redemption is accomplished, and which is then confirmed by the discipline of the law 
and God's guidance of them through the desert, where the old generation dies away and a 
new generation grows up. 

The narrative is joined to Genesis by the recapitulation of the settlement of Israel in 
Egypt, and of the death of Joseph, and continues to the time of the encampment in the plain 
of Moab, shortly before the death of Moses. According to Exod. xii. 40, the Israelites dwelt 
in Egypt four hundred and thirty years. To this must be added the sojourn in the desert, 
forty years (Numb. xiv. 33 ; xxxii. 13). The whole period of this history is therefore four 
hundred and seventy years. But out of this long period only a few special points are marked. 
The origin of the people dates from the death of Joseph to the commencement of the oppres- 
sion. Of this interval we learn nothing. It is a period covered with a veil like that which 
covered the birth of Christianiiy from the close of the Pauline epistles to the great perse- 
cutions of the second century. 

The duration of Israel's oppression cannot be accurately defined ; itbegan at an unknown 
date, which preceded the birth of Moses and continued till his mission to Pharaoh. Then 
Moses was eighty years old, and Aaron was eighty-three years old (Exod. vii. 7). To this 
must be added the forty years of the march in the desert (besides the period in which Egyp- 
tian plagues occurred), and accordingly Moses at his death was one hundred and twenty years 
old (Deut. xxxiv. 7). That Moses was forty years old when he fled into the wilderness, and 
then lived in the wilderness forty years with Jethro (Acts vii. 23-80) is the statement of Jew- 
ish tradition. See Comm., 1. c. 

The undefined period of the Egyptian plagues, which from their connection followed one 
another quickly, is terminated by the date of the exodus. The period from the departure 
from Egypt to Sinai, and from Sinai through the desert to Kadesh, is clearly marked. De- 
parture on the 14th (15th) Abib or Nisan (Exod. xii. 17) ; arrival at Sinai in the third month 
(Exod. xix. 1 ) ; departure from Sinai on the 20th day of the 2d month of the 2d year (NumU 



12 GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO THE THREE MIDDLE JJOOHIS. 

X. 11) ; arrival at Kadesh Barnea in the wilderness of Paran ia the 2d year (the spies' forty 
days, Numb. xiv. 34) ; abode at Kadesh (Numb. xxi. 1 ; Deut. i. 46) to the arrival at the 
East bank of the Jordan thirty-eight years. In the fortieth year of the exodus they came to 
Mount Hor, where Aaron died on the first day of the fifth month (Numb. xxxiiL 38). On 
the first day of the eleventh month of the fortieth year, Moses delivered his parting words to 
Israel (Deut. i. 3). 

Goethe was therefore right when he said thatlsrael might have reached Canaan in two 
years. But he did not understand God's chastisement, nor, we may add, the human saga- 
city of Moses, which together occasioned a delay of thirty-eight years. And so Goethe's de- 
nial of Moses' talent as a ruler is a proof that he utterly misunderstood the exalted and sanc- 
tified worldly wisdom of Moses. But quite in accord with Goethe the Israelites, against the 
will of Moses, did make an attempt to take possession of Canaan (Numb. xiv. 40). 

The endeavor to fill up the obscure interval between the death of Joseph and the history 
of Moses by the supposition of revelations proceeds from the idea that Old Testament reve- 
lation must be made continuous, agreeing with the continuity of the biblical books. But 
this would obliterate the distinction between periods and epochs made in Old Testament 
history, as well as the peculiar import of revelation at chosen times. It is only through a 
perception of the spiritual rhythm in the history of the kingdom of God (of the distinction 
between the XP^'^O'; in which a thousand years are as one day, and the nacpol^ in which a day 
is as a thousand years) that we reach an understanding of the great crises of revelation. 
Schiller's words : " es gibt im Mensohenleben Augenblicke" etc., may be paraphrased thus : 
there are moments in human life when it is nearer than at other times to the spirit of reve- 
lation, to eternity, to the other world. Concerning the strictures of De Wette, Vatke, and 
BEtTNO Bauer on the "great chasm " in the chronology, see Kurtz's Hist, of Old Covenant, 
VoL II., p. 21. Yet in that obscure interval came forth the special significance of the name 
Jehovah as already mentioned. 

On making the length of the sojourn in Egypt four hundred and thirty years, see this 
Comm. on Gen. xv. 13. This Comm. on Gen. xiii. Delitzsch, Gen., p. 371. This Comm. 
Acts vii. In relation to the various readings in the Septuagiut, Samaritan Codex, and in 
Jonathan (the sojourn in Egypt 430-215 years), see Kurtz, Eiet. of the Old Covenant, Vol. 
II., p. 135, as well as concerning the statement of Paul (Gal. iii.), which Kurtz explains 
by his citation of the Septuagint, while we date from the end of the time of promise. The 
objections which are made to the chronology of the Septuagint see examined in Kurtz as 
above. On the amazing conjectures of Baumgarten, see Kurtz, Vol. II., p. 143. Accord- 
ing to BuNSEN, the limit of the sojourn in Egypt is too short; according to Lepsius it was 
only ninety years. 

We compute as follows : the whole sojourn was four hundred and thirty years. The 
thirty years were not counted because the oppression did not immediately begin ; therefore 
four hundred years of oppression. But as the four hundred and thirty years (Gal. iii.) are 
apparently counted from Abraham, it would appear that the period in which the promises 
were made to Abraham and the patriarchs ended with the death of Jacob. 

Egypt. 

For the description of this land, where the Israelites became a nation, we must refer the 
reader to the literature of the subject, particularly to the articles on Egypt in Winer's Bihl. 
Bealworti-rbueh ; Zeller's 5i6/. WoHerbuch ['Egy^t) ; Herzog's Beal-Eneyclopadie ; Bun- 
sen, Egypt's Place in History; Hengstenberg, Egypt and the Books of Mosts, with Appen- 
dix, Berlin, 1841 ; Uhlemann, Thoth, odtr die Winsenschaften der alten Egypter, Gottingen, 
1855 ; Ebeks, Egypten und die Bucher Moses', Vol. I., Leipzig, 1868 ; Brugsch, Reiseberichte 
ausEgypten, Leipzig, 1855; Brugsoh, Die Egyptische Qrabervelt, ein Vortrag, Leipzig. 1868- 
8am. Sharpe, History of Egypt, 2 Vols., London, 1870 ; A. Knoetel, Cheops, der Pyramiden- 
erbauer, Leipzig, 1861 ; Travels, Schubert [see also the maps in the Ordnance Survey under 
direction of Sir Henry James, F. E. 8.], Strauss, Sinai und Oolgotha, etc. Bee the bibliog- 



? 8. HISTORICAL FOUNDATION OF THE THREE BOOKS. 13 

raphy of the subject in Kurtz, Hist, of the Old Covenant, Vol. II., p. 380. Also, in Dans, 
Egypt, Egyptians. 

For a sound knowledge of the history of Israel in Egypt one must consult the maps, etc. 
Eiepert, Atlas der alien Welt ; Henry Lange, Bible-atlas in Bunsen's Bibelwerk ; Chart and 
Conspectus of the written characters in BauciflCH. £eiseberichte. Long's Classical Atlas, 
New York, 1867. 

God's providential arrangement that Israel should become a nation in Egypt is shown 
by the following plain proofs : 

1. The people must prosper in that foreign land, and yet not feel at home. This was 
brought about, first, by a government which knew Joseph, that is, by national gratitude ; then 
by a government which knew not, or did not wish to know Joseph, and which made the 
sojourn in Egypt very oppressive to the people. 

2. The rapid growth of the people was favored by the great fertility of Egypt, which 
not only supplied abundant food, especially to a pastoral people living by themselves, but 
also revealed its blessing in the number of births. 

3. A people who were to be educated to a complete understanding of the great antithesis 
between the blessing and the curse in divine providence could be taught in Egypt better 
than elsewhere to know the calamities attendant upon the curse. Here too were found the 
natural prerequisites for the extraordinary plagues which were to bring about the redemp- 
tion of the people from slavery. 

4. The capacity of Israel, to receive in faith the revelations of salvation and to mani- 
fest them to the world, needed as a stimulus of its development, contact and attrition with 
the various civilized nations (Egypt, Syria, Assyria, Phoenicia, Babylon, Persia, Greece, 
Rome). The first contact was pre-eminently important; by it the people of faith were pre- 
pared by an intercourse during centuries with the oldest civilized nation. Their lawgiver 
was educated in all the wisdom of Egypt, and the conditions of culture for the development 
of the religion of promise as a religion of law, the knowledge of writing, education in art, 
possession of property, etc., formed a great school o£ instruction for the people of Israel. 
The external culture of the theocracy and the Grecian culture of sesthetics grew from the 
same stock in Egypt. 

5. And yet the national as well as the spiritual commingling of the people with Egypt 
must be precluded. The people were preserved from a national commingling by the antipa- 
thy between the higher Egyptian castes and that of shepherds, and by Israel's separate abode 
in Goshen, as well as by the gloomy, reserved character of the Copts and by the constantly 
increasing jealousy and antagonism of the Egyptians. The spiritual commingling was ob- 
viated by the degradation of the Egyptian worship of animals and the gloominess of their 
worship of the dead to a people who had preserved though but an obscure tradition of mono- 
theistic worship of God. That the people were not altogether free from the infection of 
Egyptian leaven is shown by the history of the golden calf; yet this infection was in some 
degree refined by a knowledge of the symbolic interpretations held by the more cultured 
classes of Egypt, for the golden calf was intended to be regarded as a symbol, not as an idol, 
as was the case in later times among the ten tribes. 

Israel in Egypt, the JSyhaos, Pharaoh. 

The date when the Israelites settled in Egypt has been, in earlier and later times, 
variously given, and with this indeflniteness of times has been joined the relation of Israel 
to the Hyksos mentioned by the Egyptian historians, who migrated into Egypt, and were 
afterwards driven out. 

For the Biblical Chronology we refer to the exhaustive article by Roesch in Herzog's 
Beal-Eneyclopddie. "Among chronologists who accept the scriptural accounts Scaliger, 
Calvisitjs and Jacob Cappbl place the exodus in 1497, Petavius in 1531, Marsham in 
1487, Usher in 1491," etc. De Wette makes the sojourn of the Israelites in Egypt to be 
from 1921 to 1491 B. C. [Bihlische Archdologie, p. 28). Various computations are found in 
the treatises, Biblische Chronologic, Tubingen, 1857 ; Becker, Eine Zarte der Chronologic 



14 GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO THE THREE MIDDLE BOOKS. 

der Hdligen Sahnft, Leipzig, 1859 ; V. Gutschmid, Beitrage zur Geschichte des Alien Orients 
zur Wurdigung von Bunaen's Egypten, Bd. 4 and 5. The chronology of Manetho is exhaus- 
tively treated by Ungee, Chronologie des Manetho, Berlin, 1867. 

Some chronologists of the present day by the combination of Egyptian traditions have 
arrived at results very different from the above. According to Lepsius (see Kuktz, Vol. 
II. 409), the Hyksos came into Egypt as conquerors about the year 2100 B. C, and after a 
sojourn of five hundred and eleven years were driven back to Syria. " After this about two 
hundred years pass away before the immigration of the Israelites into Egypt, which, as well 
as their exodus about a hundred years after, took place under the nineteenth dynasty." 
Sethos I. (1445-1394, by the Greeks called Sesostris) was the Pharaoh under whom Joseph 
came to Egypt: his son Eamses II., Miamun the Great (1394-1328), was the king at whose 
court Moses was brought up ; and his son, Menephthes (1328-1309), the Amenophis of Jose- 
phus, waa the Pharaoh of the exodus, which took place in the year 1314. See the remarks 
by Kurtz and this Comm., Introd. to Genesis. 

According to BimsEN (Bibelwerk, Bibelurkunden Theil I., ? Ill), the Israelites lived in 
Egypt many hundred years before their enslavement. Then a few centuries more passed 
until the oppression culminated under Ramses II., and under King Menophthah (1324^1305) 
the exodus took place. Here Biblical Chronology is made entirely dependent on conjec- 
tures in Egyptology. It does not speak well for the infallibility of the research, that one 
requires only ninety years, the other about nine hundred years, for the sojourn of the Israel- 
ites in Egypt. 

In this connection the following questions are to be considered : 

1. What is the solution of the difference between the four hundred and thirty years as 
given in Exodus and the period shortened by the two hundred and fifteen years of the patri- 
archs, as given by the Septuagint and the Samaritan codex ? 

2. What is the solution of the statement of the Bible that the building of Solomon's tem- 
ple was begun four hundred and eighty years after the exodus of the children of Israel out 
of Egypt (1 Kings vi. 1)? 

3. What relation does the history of the Israelites bear to the account by Manetho of 
the Hyksos and the lepers? 

As to the first question, we refer to the explanation in this Comm., Genesis xv. 14. 
Comp. Kurtz, Vol. II., p. 133. As to the second question, see this Comm. ; The Books of 
Kings by Baehr, 1 Kings vi. 1. The reconciliation of this statement with other chronolo- 
gical statements of the Bible is found, first, in the view that many of the periods mentioned 
in the Book of Judges are to be regarded as contemporaneous ; second, in the indefiniteness 
of the four hundred and fifty years of the judges (Acts xiii. 20). 

The third question has become the subject of various learned conjectures. The account 
of Manetho concerning the expulsion of the Hyksos and the lepers from Egypt seems hith- 
erto to have obscured rather than illustrated the history of Israel in Egypt. According to 
the first account of the Egyptian priest Manetho (Josephus, c. Apion I. 14), people from 
eastern lauds invaded Egypt under King Timaus, conquered the land and its princes, and 
ruled five hundred and eleven years. They were called Hyksos, that is, shepherd-kings. 
At the end of this period they were overcome by a native king, and finally having capitu- 
lated, were driven out of their fortress, Avaris, by the king's son Thummosis. They then 
retreated through the desert to Syria, settled in Judea, and there built a city (Hierosolyma) 
which could hold their entire host (240,000 persons). Josephus referred this tradition to 
the exodus of the Israelites. 

The second account of Manetho tells of an expulsion of the lepers (o. Apion, I. 26). Ame- 
nophis, an imaginary king, desired to see the gods. He was commanded by another Ameno- 
phis first to clear the country of all lepers. From all Egypt he collected them, eighty thou- 
sand in number. The king sent them first into the eastern quarries, later into the city 
Avaris, where the Hyksos were said to have entrenched themselves. A priest from Heliopolis, 
chosen by them, taught them customs which were opposed to those of the Egyptians. Then 
he called the Hyksos from Jerusalem to a united struggle against the Egyptians. King 



i 8. HISTORICAL FOUNDATION OF THE THBEE BOOKS. 



Amenophis marched against the united forces with 300,000 men. But fearing the gods, ne 
retired to Ethiopia, while the enemy committed the greatest atrocities in Egypt. The priest 
(Osarsiph) who led the lepers, now called himself Moses. After thirteen years Amenophis came 
with Ethiopian confederates, defeated the shepherds and the lepers, and pursued them to the 
Syrian boundary (see the full account in Kurtz, v. 2, pp. 380-429). 

These utterly fabulous stories are well fitted as a stage for the higher learning. According 
to Josephus and many others, the Hyksos were the Israelites, according to others the Hyksos 
lived with the Israelites, and if so, according to one view, they were the protectors and de- 
fenders of Israel, according to an opposite view, they were the oppressors of Israel (Kurtz, 
vol. 2, p. 380). According to Lepsius, the Hyksos were expelled two hundred years before 
the immigration of the Israelites. According to Saalschutz, the destruction of Pharaoh in 
the Red Sea, and the destruction of the dynasty of the Hyksos, occurred at the same time ; 
but the expulsion of the Hyksos took place later. 

In a careful consideration of the stories of Manetho great difficulties arise against every 
conjecture. If the Hyksos left Egypt for Jerusalem before the Jews, then history must show 
some trace that the Jews in their march through the wilderness to Palestine came upon this 
powerful people who preceded them in migration. If the Hyksos left Egypt after the Isra- 
elites, then the Hyksos in their journey to Jerusalem must have met with the Israelites. 
Finally, if these pastoral people were together in Egypt, the shepherd-kings could not have 
preserved an entire separation from the Jewish shepherds. Kurtz supposes that the Hyksos 
were Canaanites, and the immigration of Israel took place under their supremacy. He also 
finds in the legend of the lepers a reference to the Israelites, a view which requires some 
modification, if Manetho's connecting the lepers with the Hyksos points to the Mosaic ac- 
count that a mixed multitude joined themselves to the departing Israelites. 

Hbngstenbekg, in his work "Egypt and the Books of Moses,'' with an appendix, "Mane- 
tho and the Hyksos," opposes the prevailing view that Manetho was the chief of the priesthood 
in Heliopolis, the most learned in Egypt, and wrote the history of Egypt by order of king 
Ptolemy Philadelphus, using the works which were found in the temple. His reasons are 
the following : evidences of striking ignorance of Egyptian mythology, of geography, etc., 
remarkable agreement of his account of the Jews with the statements of writers like Chsere- 
mon, Lysimachus, Apion, Apollonius Molo, all of whom lived under the Roman empire. 
There are no other witnesses who corroborate his statements. Manetho was a forger of later 
times, like Pseudo-Aristeas. In later times there was a large number of Jews who cast off 
their nationality, only retaining the national pride and antipathies, of whom Apion was an 
example. Accordingly Hengstenbeeg holds the view, " that the Hyksos were no other than 
the Israelites, that no ancient Egyptian originals formed the basis of Manetho's accounts, but 
that the history preserved by the Jews was transformed to suit Egyptian national vanity." 

If we grant the statements concerning the historical character of Manetho it is still pos- 
sible that there arose in Egypt false traditions of the sojourn of the Israelites and of their 
exodus. It is easily conceivable that the national pride of the Egyptians did not perpetuate 
this history, as it really was, on their monuments : and it is just as conceivable that the un- 
pleasant tradition of this history was transformed in accordance with Egyptian interests and 
with different points of view. The legend of the Hyksos intimates the origin, mode of life, 
and power of the Israelites, that by them great distress came upon Egypt, and that they went 
away to Canaan and founded Jerasalem, while the legend of the lepers, to please Egyptian 
pride and hatred, has made of the same history a fable. The names Avaris and Hierosolyra , 
as well as other marks, prove that these two legends are very closely connected. A. Knoetei, 
in his treatise " Cheops " presents a peculiar construction of Egyptian history, which pro- 
ceeds upon the supposition of the untrustworthiness of Manetho. That the shepherd kings 
came from Babylon, and imposed upon the Copts the building of the pyramids and the wor- 
ship of the dead, is a surprising statement in a work showing great research. 

That an intimate acquaintance with Egypt is shown in the Pentateuch, is proved by 
Hengstenbeeg with great learning in the work quoted above. He has also manifested un- 
deniable impartiality, as his departures from the orthodox traditions prove in his history of 



16 GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO THE THREE MIDDLE BOOKS. 

the sacrifice of Isaac, of Balaam, of Jephthah's daughter, and in the paragraphs on " The signs 
and wonders in Egypt," " Traces of Egyptian customs in the religious institutions of the 
books of Moses." That his purpose was apologetic cannot obscure the worth of these inves- 
tigations. 

The influence which Egyptian art and science must have exerted upon the culture of the 
Israelites, as well as the antagonism between Israelitish and Egyptian character, has been 
treated in a summary way by Sam Shaepb in his History of Egypt* How much the Israel- 
ites owed to Egypt in respect to science and art is an interesting chapter in ancient history ; 
and here something should be said on the relation of the religion of Egypt to that of Israel. 
Moses, whose name is Egyptian, and means " son of water," was brought up in the neighbor- 
hood of Heliopolis, the chief school of Egyptian philosophy, and, according to the legend, 
received through Jannes and Jambres most careful instruction in all the wisdom of the 
Egyptians, while many Israelites had given themselves to the idolatry and superstition of the 
land. This is the reason, according to Manetho, why so many Egyptian customs are expressly 
forbidden in the Mosaic law, whilst others, which were harmless, are accepted in it. A 
comparison of the customs of both nations would throw much light upon their relative posi- 
tions. The grand purpose of the separation of the Israelites from other nations was the un- 
equivocal maintenance of monotheism. Moses therefore declared that the gods which were 
commended to the veneration of the ignorant masses by the Egyptian priests were false gods. 
The Egyptians worshipped the stars as the representatives of the gods, the sun by the name 
Ea, the moon as Joh or Isis ; but among the Israelites a worshipper of any of the heavenly 
bodies was stoned. Among the Egyptians sculpture was the great support of religion ; the 
priests had the god hewn out in the temple, and there prayed to it ; they worshipped statues 
of men, of irrational beasts, birds, and fishes ; but the Israelites were forbidden to bow down 
before a chiseled or carved image. Egyptian priests shaved ofi" their hair, but the Israelites 
were forbidden to make a bald place, or even to cut the ends of the beard. The inhabitants 
of lower Egypt cut marks on their bodies in honor of their gods, but the Israelites were for- 
bidden to cut their flesh or to make any marks in it. The Egyptians put food in the grave 
with the corpses of their friends, and on their behalf sent presents of food into the temples ; 
but the Israelites were forbiddenf to put any food with a corpse. The Egyptians planted 
groves in the courts of their temples (like the later Alexandrine Jews in the courts of their 
synagogues) ; but the Mosaic law forbid the Israelites to plant any tree near the altar of the 
Lord. The sacred bull, Apis, was chosen by the priests of Memphis on account of black 
color and white spots, and Mnevis, the sacred bull of Heliopolis, bore nearly the same marks ; 
but the Israelites were ordered in preparing the water of purification to take a red heifer, 
perfect and young. Circumcision and abstention from swine's flesh was common to both 
Egyptians and Israelites; but the Egyptians ofiered swine's flesh to Isis and Osiris, and ate 
of it once a month, on the day after the full moon, after the sacrifice. 

In addition to their knowledge of nature, the Egyptian wise men were acquainted with 
sorcery and magic, which they used for the deception of the common people. When Moses 
came before Pharaoh with signs and wonders, their magicians imitated him in some cases" 
The Egyptian sorcerers and magicians exerted a great and often injurious influence on the 
spirit of the nation ; they spoke as if they were the messengers of heaven ; an abuse which 
two thousand years after the law could hardly restrain, though it condemned to punishment 
any who asked their advice. But the Mosaic law empowered the people to punish those who 
would seduce them, and commanded them to stone any who practised magic or witchcraft. 

We must now speak of some things which the Israelite law-giver borrowed from the land 
he left. The Egyptians inscribed the praises of their kings and gods on the inner and outer 
sides of the walls of their buildings, and in the same manner the Israelites were commanded 
to write the chief commands of their law upon the posts of their doors and gates. The Egyp- 
tians adorned the carved images of their gods with wings ; the Israelites were commanded to 
place at each end of the ark a cherub with outstretched wings. In a picture of a religious 

* [I have boea unable to veriiy this rererence in the last edition of Sbabpe's Egm^U—B.. 0.] 
t Ps not the author mistaken as to any prohibition of this ?— H. 0.] 



I 8. HISTORICAL FOUNDATION OF THE THREE BOOKS. 17 

procession in the time of Eameses III., there is a representation of a statue of the god Chem 
being carried, which measures two and a half cubits in length, and one and a half cubit in 
height, agreeing in form and measure with the ark which the Israelites made for the taber- 
nacle. When the Israelites in the desert were bitten by serpents, Moses made a serpent of 
copper, and fastened it upon a pole, that those bitten might look upon it and be healed ; 
similar serpents are often seen on Egyptian standards ; and finally, when the Israelites fell 
into idolatry, and demanded that Aaron should make them a god, he made them a golden 
calf, the same animal they had frequently seen worshipped at Heliopolis under the name 
Mnevis, and which they themselves perhaps had worshipped. 

The Israelites brought with them from Egypt a knowledge of the art of writing, and in 
the perfection of the alphabet and the mode of writing, as well as the more important matters 
of religion and philosophy, they soon surpassed their teachers. The Egyptian hieroglyphics, 
at first representing syllables, made no further progress except that later they were used as 
phonetic signs of syllables. In the enchorial character (current hand) on papyrus, the more 
clumsy signs were omitted, and all strokes were made of equal thickness by a reed pen. Un- 
fortunately Egyptian religion forbade all attempts at change or reform, and therefore in all 
ornamental and important writings the hieroglyphics were retained, which otherwise would 
probably have been changed to signs of letters. The enchorial writing was used only in cur- 
rent hand ; but it never reached the simplicity of a modern alphabet. The Hebrew square 
characters were derived directly from the hieroglyphics, and the world owes it to the He- 
brews that instead of writing in symbols an alphabet was formed by which a sign expresses 
a sound. The Israelites admired the grand buildings of the Egyptians, but made no attempt 
to imitate them. They early saw the great pyramids, and might have known when and how 
they were built, but they probably satisfied themselves with the remark, that giants built 
them. That Israelite religion and philosophy were not derived from the valley of the Nile 
appears from the following : among the Israelites there was no encouragement to trade, for 
the taking of interest was forbidden by law; women were not permitted to be priests; the 
reward of the good and the punishment of the wicked was not, as among the Egyptians, ex- 
pected after death, but here on earth ;* religious mysteries were as foreign to the Israelites as 
to the Egyptians the thought that the earth could be deluged by rain. In general, Helio- 
polis, from its close connection with Chaldea, received far more science and instruction from 
Babylon than it returned thither. On the similarity between Egyptian and Israelite cus- 
toms comp. Thoth by UHLEMAins', p. 7. Ebbbs, Egypten und die Bucher Moses, Vol. I., 
Leipzig, 1868. 

Orowlh of Israel in Egypt. 
If we regard the sojourn of Israel in Egypt as so short in duration as Lepsius would 

* [This i8 the common view, but it does not accord with some of the plainest facts of revelation. At the beginning of 
the Pentateuch stands the account of the death of Abel by the hands of Cain. Accepted aa righteous by God (Gen. iv. 4; 
Heb. xi. 4), the younger brother, for no crime on his part, is murdered by the elder; and this murderer, though under a 
curse, lives to become the head of a long line of descendants, "who enjoy in rich abundance the good things of this world. 
The righteous is cut off in early youth. The wicked lives in security and wealth. If there were no other revelation on 
this subject in the Pentateuch, this account would be sufficient to teach every believer in God, who is just, that His re- 
wards and punishments are not confined to this world, but must be expected beyond death. Enoch was righteous before 
God, but he had not lived to half the age of the other patriarchs before the Flood when he was translated. Was his reward 
here 1 Heb. xi. 5, 6. The expectations of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, as to their reward, were utterly deceived, if they were 
confined to this world. And what was the reward of Moses on earth ? He tells us in the 90th Psalm that after three-score 
years and ten the strength of man is "labor and sorrow;" and in Deuteronomy he rehearses to the people the panics of the 
burden he had borne in leading the people, and declares that death on the eastern side of the Jordan was to be his punish, 
ment for his sin at Meribah. No, all these patriarchs prove by their lives the truth of Paul's words respecting all believers 
that "if in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable." Their latter days must have been 
shrouded in impenetrable gloom if they looked for their reward here — and in that gloom the promise of God mu?t have var- 
nished for them and for us. Bat the New Testament plainly says that all these men were men of faith. "Now faith is as- 
surance of things hoped for, a conviction of tilings not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good report. ***** But 
without faith it is impossible to please God ; for he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a Bewarder 
of those who diligently seek Him." Heb. xi. 1, 2, 6. Jesns says the doctrine of the resurrection was taught by Moses 
(Matt. xxii. 32 ; Ex. iii. 6), and the Epistle to the Hebrews asserts that both Abraham and Moses believed it (Heb. xi. 13- 
19, 26). The only rational solution of their lives is a belief in rewards and punishments after death. The earliest revela- 
tion, in the first four chapters of Genesis, was enough by itself to establish this faith. — H. 0.] 

2 



18 GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO THE THREE MIDDLE BOOKS. 



make it, then it would not have been possible in that time for Jacob's family to become a 
great nation. But if, on the other hand, we accept twice the length of time given in the 
Bible it would be questionable whether the people, through so long an oppression, could 
have preserved their Jewish peculiarities and religious traditions, as in this interim, they 
were left to natural development on the basis of patriarchal revelation. " It has been argued 
from 1 Sam. ii. 27 that there was not an interruption of divine revelation during the stay in 
Egypt. But the argument is unsound. The meaning of the words, ' I plainly appeared unto 
the house of the fathers, when they were in" Egypt, in Pharaoh's house,' efc., is fully ex- 
hausted if we suppose them to refer to the last year of the sojourn of the Israelites there. 
At the same time it is a strong proof that religious consciousness was kept alive in the hearts 
of the people, that in so many of the proper names which were given during that period 
(Numb, iii.) the name of God la found as one of the component parts." Kurtz, Vol. 
II., p. 177. 

Moses found existing among his people an organization of the tribes, heads of tribes, 
who as elders exercised authority in their tribes (Ex. iv. 29). The religious zeal which Levi 
first manifested in fanaticism (Gen. xxxiv.) seems to have remained in a purer form in the 
tribe of Levi, as appears from the call of Moses, from the course of the sons of Levi at the 
punishment of the idolatry of the golden calf, and from the blessing of Moses. 

A tendency of the Jews to dispersion, the opposite pole to their strong coherence in their 
peculiarities, in its loftier motive prefigured by the emigration of Abraham (Gen. xii.), first 
shows itself in the separation of Judah (Gen. xxxviii.), and seems to have been felt fre- 
quently during the settlement of the Israelites in Goshen. Concerning an earlier emigra- 
tion (1 Chron. vii. 21) of some of the sons of Ephraim to Canaan, and a colonization of some 
of the sons of Judah in Moab (1 Chron. iv. 22), comp. Kurtz, vol. 2, p. 177. The Danites in 
the time of the Judges (Judg. xviii.) left their home and conquered the city Lais in northern 
Canaan, and gave to it the name Dan. Later the tribe of Simeon left their narrow bounds 
within the tribe of Judah and disappear among the other tribes (1 Chron. v. ) : a circum- 
stance which throws light on the last statement of the tradition in the blessing of Moses in 
which Simeon's name is wanting. Even in Egypt many Israelites seem to have exchanged 
their home in Goshen for settlements among the Egyptians, for in this way alone could arise 
the familiar relations with Egyptian neighbors, which appear in the presents to the Jews of 
articles of silver and gold. Similar to the tax-gatherers under the Romans in the time of 
Christ were the Jewish scribes and bailifis whom the Egyptians obtained among the Jews 
themselves to confirm their despotic rule over them. In like manner the two midwives, who 
probably were the heads of a class of midwives (Ex, i. 15), are described as Hebrews. 

? 9. MOSES. 

Comp. the articles under this title in Winer, Heezog, Zeller (bibl. Worterbuch), and 
the index of the literature further on. We regard as the peculiarity of Moses, legal consci- 
entiousness in a highly gifted nature under the leading of the revelation of God. Hence he 
stands in the history of the kingdom of God as /car' e^ox^, the servant of God in contrast to 
the Son in the house, who in a yet higher, the very highest sense, was the servant of God 
(Heb. iii.). Hence his renunciation of the world is based upon his " respect to the recom- 
pense of the reward " (Heb. xi. 26). As a champion of the law, but in misunderstanding of 
the law, he smote the Egyptian (Ex. ii. 12) ; then he became the protector of the oppressed 
women in the desert. For forty years he maintained his faith clear ; then he thought he 
had failed of the conditions of his call, and felt that by the wrath of God he was brought 
near to death because his Midianite wife had probably long been a hindrance to the circum- 
cision of his sons (Ex. iv. 24). It is specially remarkable that though he governed the people 
in the desert with a strong hand by the law, he condemned himself because for an apparently 
small omission or transgression (Numb. xx. 12) he saw' prescribed by Jehovah his great 
punishment, which indeed he prescribed for himself,* that he should not with the people 



• [There is no warrant for this in Numb. xx. 12; xxvii. 14; Deut. xxxii. 51, 62 j Psalm cvi. S3, or elsewhere, that I am 
aware ot Moacs' death was not brought about by his remorse, but was accomplished as God had foretold and by Sod.— H. O.J 



2 9. MOSES. 19 



enter the land of promise. This is the legal conscience of an eminently ethical mind. Moses 
thus stands in strong contrast to a fanatical spiritualization, which, like the company of 
Korah, would anticipate New Testament relations, as well as to the soulless perversion of the 
law into mere rules, else he could hardly have broken the iirst tables of the law, or have 
come down with the second tables from Sinai with his face shining, or in the original docu- 
ments forming the basis of Deuteronomy, have drawn the lines of a spiritual inter- 
pretation of the law. Aaron, who could play the fanatic (Ex. xxxii. 5), as a man of mere 
legal rules, together with Miriam, at times opposed Moses (Numb. xii.). As the faithful 
steward of the law, Moses stands in harmonious contrast to the Gospel economy; 
only a temporary and intermediate evangelist, who on Sinai (Ex. xxxiv.) had heard Jeho- 
vah's exposition of His name ; the faithful theocrat, who by law and symbol pointed to 
Christ (Numb. xi. 29). 

As nature points beyond itself to the region of spirit, as the law points beyond itself to 
the Gospel and its royal law of freedom (James i. 25 ; ii. 8), the law of the Spirit (Rom. 
viii.), so the mediator of the divine law points beyond himself to the Prophet of the future 
(Deut. xviii. 15). At the beginning and the end of his declaration of the ethical law in the de- 
calogue there are the germs of the coming law of freedom, " who brought thee out of the 
house of bondage," " thou shalt not covet." 

Besides Moses' relation to Christ we must mark within the Old Testament his relation 
to Elijah and Elisha. Elijah is the Old Testament counterpart of Moses on the side of legal 
retribution ; but Elisha is the expounder of Moses as to the spirituality of the law, its gentle- 
ness and mercy, the coming gospel. 

The grandeur of the genius of Moses appears in striking contrasts, pre-eminently in the 
contrast of his firm conscientiousness with his prophetic power as a seer ; then in the contrast 
of his eminent worldly wisdom, with his inner spiritual life ; in the contrast of his delicacy 
with his heroic vigor ; in the contrast of his deep sensitiveness to the signs of the curse and 
the signs of the blessing ; and finally in the opposite traits of the mildest humanity, yea, of 
priestly self-sacrifice (Ex. xxxii. 11, 31 ; Numb.: the laws of humanity) and of the inexora- 
ble firmness of the law-giver (Ex. xxxii. 27; Numb. xiv. 28; chap. xiv.). 

That Moses should not be identified with Jewish superficial legality, with the letter of 
the law that " killeth," though as a national law-giver he was compelled to exercise specially 
the ofiice of death (2 Cor. iii. 7), that this was not his whole oflSce (as Luther would lead us 
to infer), is apparent from the fact that by the side of the ethical law he has placed the law 
of atonement, the theocratic reform of the traditional law of ofierings. And that he did not 
intend to establish a real hierarchy is proved by his laying the basis of civil rights, the first 
article of which regulates the emancipation of slaves. We judge the Papacy too leniently 
and wrongfully when we assert that it is a return to the Old Testament priesthood — a priest- 
hood that would absorb utterly all prophecy and all political authority 1 

Among the great law-givers of antiquity Moses stands in solitary grandeur. He alone 
gave to others the two most popular offices in national life : the high-priesthood to Aaron, 
the chief command of the army to Joshua. As prophet he points beyond himself and his 
institutions to the future; he does not obliterate the hope of the future which Abraham had 
impressed upon his religion, but filled it with life and unfolded it chiefly through symbols. 
But it was the Spirit of God who, in addition to his great genius, and by means of special 
direction, made him capable of these great things. The common characteristic of all mighty 
men of God and of faith, who made known the revelation of God, unconquerable patience 
aud endurance, the sign of the victorious perseverance of the kingdom of God, especially of 
Christianity, as it appeared in many individuals, the firmness of Noah, Abraham, Jeremiah, 
but pre-eminently the patient and long-suffering perseverance of the Lord, these also appear 
in typical traits, and though imperfect, yet in peculiar beauty, as the special marks of the 
character of Moses. Hence in his old age a single act of impatience, reflecting the severely 
punished impatient act of his earlier years, was sorely requited, though this single false step 
was so turned by God as to give to his life a solemn and glorious ending on the eve of enter- 



20 GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO THE THREE MIDDLE BOOKS. 



ing Canaan (Deut. xxxiv.). He was not allowed to pass into obscurity behind Joshua, the 
general, or to close his life without solemnity at an unimportant time. 

Finally there is one trait in the character of Moses to be considered which has been 
almost entirely overlooked, because, in the interest of an abstract supranaturalism, or of a 
criticism which resolves them into myths, his miracles have been discussed without respect 
to their means. If we believe in a charisra, that is, that a gift of nature is always the basis 
of a gift of grace, and this gift of nature becomes a charism by being purified and inspired 
by the Spirit of grace, we will find this synthesis constantly appearing in heroic proportions 
in the sphere of revelation. And accordingly it was a sense of nature grand and deep, an 
instinctive sensibility for nature which Jehovah made the exponent of His revelations in 
nature in Egypt and the wilderness, the miracles of Moses. For if every scriptural miracle 
is a miracle both of knowledge and of power, then in the miracles of Moses there is surpass- 
ing knowledge, a piercing into the depths of nature which the Spirit of the Lord opened to 
him. His power is a dauntless trust in God, by which he lifts his rod, which accomplishes 
the miracle, not as by magic, but as a symbol, pointing to the strong arm of the Lord. With 
respect to Moses' knowledge of the deep things of nature, we can distinguish his knowledge 
of natural history, of the earth, of geology, of psychology, and of the laws of health; but 
each of these the Spirit of revelation had made a charism. 

§ 10. THE DESERT AND THE MIDIANITES. 

It seems to be a primary law of the divine economy and instruction that the people of 
God should be born in servitude and brought up in the desert (Hos. ii. 14; ix. 10). For not 
only did the nation of Israel come forth from the house of bondage and take its stamp in the 
desert, but also Israel's reformation after the Babylonian captivity under Ezra, its second 
Moses ; and Christians grew to be the people of God under the despotism of the old world 
and in the great desert of asceticism, and the Christian Reformation was compelled to pass 
through servitude and the desert. For the German Reformation the desert was prepared by 
the devastations of the thirty years' war ; the French Reformation received its purification 
in the Church of the desert. 

As the land arose out of the earlier formation of the sea (Gen. i.), so the deserts, like the 
steppes, appear to have come forth by changes in the formation of the sea, as though they 
were bottoms of seas, rocky, stony, salt and sandy plains, without water or vegetation. The 
old world is to a large extent covered with deserts, and the Arabian desert, with which we 
are concerned, with its many parts and projections, is pre eminently the desert (see Winee, 
Worterbuch), having, in connection with the great stretch of desert from the northwest 
coast of Africa to northern Asia, two great wings, the desert of Sahara in North Africa and 
the desert of Zobi in Northern Asia. The desert is nearly allied to the region of the dead, 
to Hades ; it forms dead places of the living earth, and is the place of death to many pil- 
grims who attempt to cross it. Yet water has won for itself many parts of the desert (as 
the earth has won a portion of the sea by the formation of islands), steppe-like pasture-lands, 
real shepherds' commons (I^HD) and spice-bearing oases. The most remarkable conquest 
has been that of the Nile, the father of Egypt, over the desert on its right and left bank. 
The Red Sea also intersects the desert. 

As to the configuration of the Arabian desert, we refer to the articles in the lexicons on 
the desert and Arabia, as well as to the most important narratives of travels and to maps. 

The Midianites, to whom Moses fled, snd among whom he was prepared for his calling, 
seem to have been a nomadic branch of an Arabian tribe, descendants of Abraham and Ke- 
turah (Gen. xxv. 2-4), which had its home on the eastern side of the Elanitic gulf, where 
the ruins of the city of Madian still testify to their settlement, and which carried on the 
caravan-trade between Gilead and Arabia, from eastern lands to Egypt, whilst another 
branch extended eastward to the plain of Moab. Thus they became closely interwoven with 
the history of the Jews. Midianite merchants brought Joseph as a slave to Egypt ; with the 
nomad Midianite prince, Jethro, Moses found a refuge for many years; and Jethro exerted 
important influence even in the organization of the Mosaic economy, and assisted the mis- 



J 10. THE DESERT AND THE MIDIANITEB. 21 



sion of Moses by a fatherly care for his family (Ex. xviii.). On the other hand, it was the 
Midianites who, in league with the Moabites, by means of their wanton idolatrous festivals, 
almost brought the people of Israel to destruction (Num. ch. xxv. and xxxi.), so that Moses 
found it necessary to take vengeance on the Midianites, that his people might be freed from 
their customs, as they previously had been freed from Egyptian customs by the passage 
through the Red Sea. Again, later in the time of the Judges they were a scourge of the 
Israelites, from which the Israelites were delivered by the victory of Gideon (Judg. ch. vi. 
and 8). In Isaiah Ix. 6 a nomad Midianite people is mentioned, part of whom were peace- 
ful shepherds in the desert, and others formed a band of Arabian robbers. Comp. the art. 
"Midian " in Winer and Kuetz II. 192. 

The March through the Desert, 

For a comprehensive synopsis of the literature, see Kurtz II. 860 ; BRiEM, Israels Wan- 
derung von Oosen bis zum Sinai, Elberfeld, 1851 ; Ebers, Durch Oosen zum Sinai, Leipzig, 
1872. 

From the Indian Ocean the Arabian gulf stretches north-westwardly, and divides Asia 
from Africa until it reaches the isthmus of Suez. Its eastern side bounds Arabia, and its 
western side bounds Ethiopia, Nubia and Egypt. On the north it branches fork- like; the 
left prong, the Sea of Sedge, or the Hero opolitanic Gulf, extends towards the Mediterranean 
with which, as is shown by the Bitter lakes and a Mediterranean gulf, it is loosely connected, 
while the right prong, the Gulf of Akabeh, or the Elanitic gulf, seems by a long reach to seek 
the Dead Sea, with which it is connected by the long ravine of the Arabah. Between the 
two gulfs is the Arabian desert, through which lay a great part of the journey of the Israel- 
ites. This journey was first along the Gulf of Suez, and then by the west shore of the Ela- 
nitic gulf, and through the Arabah to Kadesh ; then it returned to the head of the Elanitic 
gulf. The smaller division of the journey begins with the crossing of the Arabah at the 
head of the gulf, in order to pass around the mountains of Seir and in the plains of Moab to 
exchange the toil of the pilgrim for the march of war. 

In the adjustment of the minute, but not very clear accounts of the journey through 
the desert (Ex. ch. xiv.-19; Deut. x. 12-21, 33), we must, as Von Eaumer rightly remarks, 
distinguish between days' jotirneys and encampments or days of rest, as well as between 
mere encampments and long settlements. So also we must distinguish between the stations 
of the encampments of the people and the marches of the army. 

It seems also very important to distinguish between the two sojourns of the array (not 
of the mass of the people) in Kadesh. The true key for the solution of the greatest difficulty 
in the determination of the stations appears to be in Deut. i. 46 : " So ye abode in Kadesh " 
(again) "many days," " according unto the days that ye abode there,'' (0^?^] It^X D''a\3, 
baa( nori ^fiipa; heK&-&Tja-9s). The Vulgate has only " multo tempore." According to Kno- 
BEL this means: they remained still in Kadesh a long time, to wit, just as long as they did 
remain. But we prefer to translate : equal to a time ye wished to make it your abiding resi- 
dence. The two sojourns in Kadesh will not seem so improbable, if, as according to Von 
Eaumer's map, the people twice went over the route from the Elanitic gulf to Kadesh. In 
Deut. i. 46 we are told, the Israelites at the first time left Kadesh to pass into Palestine j but 
when they were smitten by the Amorites, they settled in Kadesh (Num. xx. 1). 

The first division of the whole journey in the Arabian desert extends to the first settle- 
ment of Israel in Kadesh in the desert of Paran (Num. xiii. 1 ; Deut. i. 19). The sections 
of this journey are as follows: 1. Journey from Barneses to Succoth and Etham, and turninar 
in the direction of Pi-hahiroth on the sea-shore ; 2. Passage through the sea and journey to 
the encampment in Elim ; 3. From Elim to Sinai, and encampment before Sinai (Ex. xiii. 
17 — six. 1) ; 4. Departure from Sinai, and journey parallel with the western coast of the 
Elanitic gulf to Hazeroth and to Kadesh in the desert of Paran (Num. x, 12 — xiii. 1) ; 5. 
Certain incidents of the first settlement in Kadesh ; the spies ; the insurrection of the people 
against Moses ; the decree of God that that generation should die in the desert, and that the 



22 GENERAL INTKODUCTION TO THE THREE MIDDLE BOOKS. 



wandering should last forty years (Num. xiv. 34) ; the fool-hardy march of the people and 
their rout to Hormah, to which the supplementary account returns (Num xx. 1) : " And the 
children of Israel, the whole congregation, carae into the wilderness of Zin ;" so that they 
returned from Hormah back again to Kadesh. The second division of the journey through 
the desert includes the obscure thirty-eight years' abode in Kadesh (Deut. i. 46). The de- 
cree of Jehovah was fulfilled in this period. After this comes the journey to Mount Hor, 
the chain of mountains forming the eastern boundary of the Arabah (Num. xx. 23), and 
not lying in the land of Edom. After that Moses was compelled by the threatening attitude 
of the Edomites to give up the attempt to reach the eastern side of the Dead Sea from Ka- 
desh across the Arabah (Num. xx. 20). The death and burial of Aaron on Mount Hor (for 
another name of the place, see Dt. x. 6) necessitated a longer sojourn (Num. xx. 29). It is 
again related that the kiug of the Canaanites at Arad fought Israel when he heard that they 
would force their way into the land by the way to Atharim. The Vulgate translates : " by 
the way of the spies," and exegetically this is doubtless right; it is the same history which 
is told in Num. xiv. 45, as appears from the locality, Hormah (Num. xxi. 3). But the fact 
is again mentioned because with it is joined the assertion that Israel received satisfaction for 
this defeat. 

The first countermarch was from Etham to Pi-hahiroth, the second from Hormah to 
Kadesh and Hor, and the third makes a complete return from Hor to the head of the gulf 
of Akabeh, "to compass the land of Edom" (Num. xxi. 4; Deut. ii. 1). In the neighbor- 
hood of Elath and Ezion-geber the road led them between the gulf of Akabeh and the end 
of the Arabah onwards to the desert of Moab. With the crossing of the brook Zered the 
decree of the wandering was accomplished, and therefore the whole period of this wandering 
is stated at thirty-eight years (Deut. ii. 14). The words " the space " (of time) " in which we 
came from Kadesh-barnea,'' plainly indicate the first departure from Kadesh towards south- 
ern Palestine, and the second long sojourn in Kadesh is included in the thirty-eight years. 
The Israelites were not to pass through the centre of Moab (Deut. ii. 18), or through the ter- 
ritory of Ammon (ver. 19). From the wilderness of Kedemoth, near by a city of the same 
name in what was afterwards the territory of Reuben, the conquests begin. The embassy to 
Sihon at Heshbon asks permission for a peaceful passage through his land, though Moses 
foresaw the hostile refusal aad its consequence, as he had when he asked Pharaoh to permit 
the people to go into the desert to hold a feast (Ex. v. 1). This policy is justified by the 
consideration that the grant, though highly improbable, would have obliged the grantor to 
keep his word. After the conquest of Heshbon east of Jordan over against Jericho, northern 
Gilead from Wady Arnon to Mount Hermon was the fruit of the victory over Og, King of 
Bashan, who made the first attack (Num. xxi. 33 ; Deut. iii.). The conquered country was 
apportioned, and the army returned to the "valley over against Beth-peor" (Deut. iii. 29; 
Num. xxii. 1), where Moses gives his last orders before closing his course in mysterious soli- 
tude on Mount Nebo (Deut. xxxiv. 6). Here at Beth-peor, or in the plains of Moab, the 
people were brought into great danger by Balak, the King of Moab. He did not succeed in 
cursing Israel, but in enticing them by the counsel of the false prophet Balaam, who had 
just before been made to bless them (Num. xxxi. 8). In Beth-peor they were near to the 
temple of their idol, where obscene idol feasts were held. The enticement was accomplished 
by the Moabites and by that branch of the Midianites which had its home in the mountains 
to the east ; but the war of vengeance which Moses ordered, and which was intended to pre- 
vent the moral degeneracy of the young generation who had so grandly begun their mission 
was called a war against the Midianites, perhaps in tenderness to Moab. The war was con- 
cluded, and Moses' work was done. 

There were the best reasons for the circuitous marches of the people. For the first cir- 
cuit the reasons are given. Had they gone direct through the desert to Canaan, they would 
have been compelled to fight with the Philistines, and they were not prepared for this (Ex. 
xiii 17) In addition to this, there was a second purpose in the counsel of God ; Israel mast 



2 10. THE DESERT AND THE MIDIANITES. 23 

pass through the Red Sea, that thereby destruction might come on Pharaoh pursuing them 
(Ex. xiv. 1). 

For the second circuit there are also two reasons. As Israel at first would not venture, 
even with Jehovah's aid, to enter southern Palestine, and then made the attempt presump- 
tuously without Jehovah, and was punished with defeat, their courage, the courage of the 
old generation, was broken. But when the new generation strove to march through Edom 
to attack Canaan from the east, they were forbidden to do so on account of their relationship 
to Edom ; and hence the motive for their great circuit and return to the Red Sea. And 
again they must make detours in order to avoid war with Moab and Ammon. On this 
march the way led them between Moab and Ammon, so that the capital of Moab was on the 
left and the territory of Ammon on the right. 

The desert through which Israel passed, Arabia Petrsea, is divided into a succession of 
separate deserts, of Shur, of Sin, of Sinai, of Paran, etc., stretches of sand, of gravel, of stones 
and rocky wastes. 

For the geography of Edom and the lands east of Jordan, see the articles Seir, Moab, 
Ammon, in the Bible Dictionaries ; and the numerous books of travel, Vosr Schubert, 
Strauss, Palmer, Teistam, Porter, Burton; the geographical works of Bitter, Dan- 
iel and others, especially the geography of Palestine by Von Raumbe, Robinson and 
oth«rs. 

On the differences in the indications of the lines of March, comp. Winer, Arabisohe 
Wilste, though he does not adhere to the simplicity of the Biblical narrative. In order to 
harmonize these statements, we must suppose that the list (Num. xxxiii.) contains not only 
the encampments and day's journeys, but also lesser way-stations, and we must also remem- 
ber the oriental custom of giving several names to the same object, and in addition, there 
may be interpolations in places not well understood. 

As has been remarked, there were two sojourns in Kadesh, but not as they are usually 
conceived from a misunderstanding of Num. xiii. 1 ; xx. 1, and xxxiii. 36. The station 
Moseroth (Num. xxxiii. 31) must be identical with Mount Hor, where, according to Num. 
xxxiii. 88 (comp. Dent. x. 6 ; Num. xx. 22), Aaron died, and if we accept the list of stations 
as without error (Num. xxxiii.), the sojourn in Kadesh must have been near Moseroth 
(Num. xxxiii. 31). The verses 36 to 40 appear to be an explanation which perhaps was 
taken from the margin into the text. According to Num. xxxiii. 31 the Israelites came from 
Moseroth to Bene-jaakan ; but according to Deut. x. 6, they came from Bene-jaakan to Mo- 
sera. This contradiction is solved by supposing that on their journey northward, they came 
from Moseroth to Bene-jaakan, and marching southward, they removed from Beeroth Bene- 
jaakan to Moseroth, which agrees with the shorter narrative. It appears then from the 
parallel accounts that Aaron died at Mount Hor on the return march to Moseroth, and fur- 
ther, that the sojourn in Kadesh is to be sought in the well-watered country of the sons of 
Jaakan. It is also plain that we can speak as truly of the sojourns in Kadesh as of one. 
There were two sojourns of the army in Kadesh, since after its march from Kadesh towards 
Canaan, it was brought back to this encampment ; but the mass of the people had remained 
there. The following is the list of stations (Num. xxxiii.) and the parallel statements: 



1. From Rameses to Red Sea, Pi-hahieoth. 
Ramesefi. 
Suceoth. 
Etham. 
Pi-hahiroth. 

i. Fbom Red Sea to Sinai. 
Marah. 
Elim. 
Red Sea. 
Desert of Sin. 
Dophkah. 
Altish. 
Rephidim. 
Sinai 



Exodus. 

Suceoth. 

Etham. 

Pi-hahiroth. 



Desert of Shur; Marah. 
Elim. 

Desert of Sin, between Elim and Sinai 
(Quails (anticipated on account of the mauaa, see 
Num. xi.), Manna, Sabbath). 



24 



GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO THE THREE MIDDLE BOOKS. 



5. Feom Sinai to Ezion-gebee, and thence to Bene-jaakan, 

(Kadesh). 

Kibroth-hattaavah. 

Hazeroth. 

Kithmah.. 

Bimmon-parez. 

Libuah. 

Rissah. 

Kehelathah. 

Mount Shapher. 

Haradah. 

Makheloth. 

Tahatk. 

Tarah. 

Mithcah. 

Hashmonah, 

Moseroth. 

Bene-jaakan (Kadesh). 

4. Feom Kadesh to Ezion-oebeb. 
Hor-hagidgad (Moseroth ?). 
Jotbathaho 
Ebronah. 
Ezioa-geber (vers. 36-40, later addition). 

6. From Ezionhsebeb oe Mount Sbir on its East Side to 

boundary of moab. 

Zalmonah. 

Pun on. 



Oboth. 


Oboth. 


Ije-abarim. 


Ije-abarim. 


Feom the boundabt of Moab to the plains ov Moab 


Brook (Valley) of Zered. 


opposite Jericho. 


Arnon. 


Dibon-gad. 


Beer. 


Almon-diblathaim. 


Matt an ah. 


Abarim near Nebo. 


Nahaliel. 


Plains of Moab, opposite Jericho. 


Bamoth. 




Mount Pisgah. 




Plains of Moab. 



Num. xi. Prom Sinai to Desert of Paran. 

Taberah, Kibrotli-hattaavah (Qoalls). 
Hazeroth. 



Desert of Paran and Kadesii-barnea (Deut. i 19), 

especially Zin (Kadesh, Deut. i. 46). 
Kadesli-Hormah, Nam. xiv. 45. 
Hormah-Kadesh. 



Num. zx. 22. Kadesh, 
Hor. 



Bed Sea. 



The statements of the Book of Numbers are more clearly defined by those of Deutero- 
nomy. 

1. General direction from Horeb or Sinai to the mount of the Amorites {Kadesh, Deut. 
i. 6). March through the desert to Kadesh-barnea, ver. 19. 

2. Sortie from Kadesh to the mount of the Amorites. Defeat and return to Kadesh. 
Settlement there for a long time, ch. i. 43-46. 

8. Return by Mount Seir to the Red Sea, chap. ii. I. 

4. From Elath and Ezion-geber march northward on the eastern side of Mount Seir. 
March through desert of Moab, chap. ii. 8. Passage of brook Zered. March through the 
boundary of Moab. Avoidance of the territory of the Ammonites. Passage of the Arnon, 
chap. ii. 24. 

Special notice, chap. x. 6, 7, concerning Aaron and the priesthood. These verses appear 
to be an interpolation, as ver. 8 refers to ver. 5. At this time, by the ordination of Eleazar, 
son of Aaron, the tribe of Levi was entrusted with the priesthood, chap. x. 8. March from 
Beeroth-jaakan (Kadesh) to Mosera (Mount Hor). Thence to the stations Gudgodah and 
Jotbath (Hor-hagidgad and Jotbathah, Numb, xxxiii.). 

The whole narrative is made clearer by the well-founded view that Mount Hor is used in 
a wider and in a narrower signification. According to the first, it signifies the range of Seir, 
while the Hor on which Aaron died is also called Moseroth, near Hor-hagidgad or Gudgodah. 
Similarly Kadesh, in its narrower signification (Kadesh-barnea) must be distinguished from 
Kadesh in its wider signification. 



? 11. THE SOJOURN OF THIRTY-EIGHT YEARS IN KADESH. 25 

The common interpretations make the people to have marched twice from Ezion-geber 
to Kadesh, and twice from Kadesh to Ezion-geber. This contradicts Deuteronomy. 

After the decree of Jehovah that the old generation should die in the wilderness, there 
could be no purpose in the people's making long marches hither and thither. They must 
have moved only so far in the desert of Paran around the central point, Kadesh, in the de- 
sert of Zin, as the mode of life and the sustenance of a nomadic people required. 

On the question, whether Horeb or Serbal, see Ebers, Burch Oosen zum Sinai, Leip- 
zig, 1872. 

§ 11. THE SOJOURN OP THIRTY-EIGHT YEARS IN KADESH. 

In the midst of the marvellous journey through the desert there is a period, Hke that 
between Joseph and Moses, hidden in obscurity. We only know that Jehovah left the peo- 
ple to their natural development, so that the old generation trained in Egyptian servitude 
died in the desert, and a new generation of brave sons of the desert grew up. The troubles 
of Israel correspond to this difiference between the old and the new generation. 

The sins of the old generation are pre-eminently sins of despondency : as the displeasure 
of the Israelites in Egypt at the mission of Moses (Ex. v. 21; vi. 9); the lamentation of the 
people at Pi-hahiroth (Ex. xiv. 10, 11) ; the murmuring at the bitter water of Marah (Ex. 
XV. 23, 24) ; the longing for the flesh-pots of Egypt in the desert of Sin (Ex. xvi. 3) ; the 
murmuring on account of the want of water at Massah and Meribah (Ex. xvii. 7) ; the flight 
of the people from the mount of the law (Ex. xx. 18) ; the cowardly motive in setting up the 
golden calf (Ex. xxxii. 1) ; the sin of impatience (Numb. xi. 1) ; the pusillanimous longing 
for flesh to eat (Numb. xi. 4-10) ; the perversion of the law to a mere set of rules by Miriam 
and Aaron (Numb. xii. 1) ; finally the faint-heartedness of the majority of the spies and of 
the whole people (Numb. chap. xiii. — chap. xiv. 1 f ), which they sought to atone for by a 
presumptuous attempt. 

During the sojourn in Kadesh there occurred the rebellion of Korah's company (Numb. 
xvi. If.), the rebellion of the whole people (Numb. xvi. 42), and the second rebellion on ac- 
count of the want of water (Numb. xx. 11). Here appears a youthful, presumptuous self- 
assertion. The old generation demanded a hierarchy (Ex. xx. 19) ; on the other hand, the 
new generation would anticipate the universal priesthood. 

The sins of the new, strong generation that marches from Kadesh have the impress of 
presumption. At first they were vexed because of 'the way and the food (Numb. xxi. 4, 5), 
and they were punished with fiery serpents. Then, later, in Shittim, they took part in the 
idolatry of the Moabites, and committed whoredom with their daughters (Numb. xxv). 
Soon after this the tribes of Eeuben and Gad make demands for separation, which only the 
authority of Moses suflSces to direct aright (chap, xxxii.). 

As regards the long middle period of the sojourn in Kadesh, Kurtz supposes a period 
of defection or of exclusion for thirty-eight {Lehrbuch der heiligen Oeschichte, p. 89) or thirty- 
seven years [Hist, of Old Covenant). " The theocratic covenant was suspended, and therefore 
the theocratic history had nothing to record. Circumcision, the sign of the covenant, was 
omitted ; they profaned the Lord's Sabbaths, despised His laws, and did not live according to 
His commands (Ezech. xx.). Bumt-oflferings and meat-offerings they did not bring, but they 
carried the tabernacle of Moloch and the star of their god Remphan (Saturn), figures which 
they made (Acts vii. 43 ; Amos v. 25, 26). But the Lord had compassion on the outcasts, and 
restrained His anger, so as not to destroy them. He fed them with manna, and gave them 
water from the rock to drink." KuRTZ, in his History of the Old Covenant, rightly says, that 
as the people could not have found food at one place for thirty-seven years, the mass of the 
people must have been, after the decree against them, scattered in small bodies over the 
whole (?) desert, and must have settled in the oases found by them until by the call of Moses 
they were collected again at Kadesh. 

But we must distinguish between falling away, exclusion, and repentance. A people 
feUen away is not fed with manna and by miracle given drink from the rock. A peo- 
ple under excommunication is not disburdened of the excommunication by a promised ter- 



26 GENERAL INTRODDCTION TO THE THREE MIDDLE BOOKS. 



mination of it. A repentant people is not one falling away. As regards the passage quoted 
from Ezekiel, it speaks first of sins in Egypt (chap. xx. 8), which are not now under conside- 
ration; the more general sins in the desert (ver. 13) do not belong here; not until the fif- 
teenth verse is there an obscure hint of the time of punishment in Kadesh ; and ver. 21 
speaks of a new generation, which was afterwards delivered to the service of Moloch (vers. 
25, 26; comp. chap, xxiii. 37). But this corruption is joined with the worship of lust, and 
hence we can suppose that the mention of it refers to the great sin in Shittim. To the same 
great sin, in all probability, Stephen refers in his speech, Acts vii., where he quotes the pas- 
sage in Amos. That the sins of omission of the sacrifices and meal-oflferings and circumcision 
were general, is explained by the temptations of their trials in tbe desert. The worship of 
Moloch and that of Saturn are allied as the gloomy antithesis of the more cheerful worship 
of Baal or of Jupiter, and yet they are connected with them. The history of the company of 
Korah, which occurs at this time, shows that the covenant of Jehovah with Israel was not 
suspended at this period. 

For the position of Kadesh, see the Lexicons and Travels in this region. 

g 12. KELIGIOUS AND SYMBOLIC MODE OF EEPEESENTATION — ESPECIALLY THE POETICAL 
AND HISTORICAL SIDE OF THE THB.EE BOOKS. 

In general, we refer to what was said in this Comm. Introd. to Oenesis. But we 
must reiterate that the religious mode of representation requires repetitions and insertions 
which are foreign to a scientific exact treatise ; as, for instance, the mention of Aaron, Deut. 
X.; the insertion of Kadesh, Numb, xxxiii. 36, etc. 

More important is the consideration of symbolic expression. We have before (Comm. 
OenesU, page 23) distinguished it plainly from the mythical and the literal. It cannot 
be understood without a perception of its specific character, as it is used to define 
clearly (e. g., the Nile became blood), to generalize (bringing the quails), to hyperbolize 
(Egyptian darkness), but constantly to idealize (words of Balaam's ass), for the vivid repre- 
sentation of the ideal meaning of facts. The mythical conception disregards not only the 
essential constancy of the facts, but also their perennial religious effect ; the literal concep- 
tion, on the other hand, disregards entirely their ideal meaning, as well as the spirit and the 
mode of statement, the theocratic-epic coloring. Both are united in being opposed to 
the peculiar mysterious character of revelation. This is specially true of the miracles of 
the Mosaic period. 

The highly poetic and yet essentially true history of the leading of Israel to Canaan cul- 
minates on its poetical side in its songs (Sack, IHe Lieder in den historischen Buehem des 
Alien Testaments, Barmen, 1864). The first lyrical note in Genesis is heard in God's words 
on the destiny of man (Comm. Oen. i.), then in the song of Lamech and in other portions. 
Again we hear it in Moses's song of redemption (Ex. xv.), and again, after the afflictions of 
the old generation, it awakes with the new generation. In close connection with the original 
poetic works [Book of the Wars of the Lord, Numb. xxi. 14) come the songs of victory and 
festival (Numb. xxi. 14, 15, 17, 18, 27-30) ; the blessings of Moses (Numb. vi. 24-27 ; x. 35, 
36) ; blessings even out of the mouth of Balaam, their enemy. Tbe crown of those lyrics is 
formed at the close of Deuteronomy by the two poems, the Song of Moses and the blessing 
of Moses, the solemn expression of the fundamental thought of the whole law, especially of 
Deuteronomy, blessing and curse. The first poem is well-nigh all shadow, the last is full 
of light. 

The historical side of the three books culminates in the lists of generations, in the direc- 
tions for building the tabernacle, in the list of encampments, in the statutes, and, above all, 
in the decalogue. We must also remark that the history of Moses would be entirely misun- 
derstood if we should regard it as the beginning of the history of the Israelites, or if we should 
sunder it entirely from the history of the patriarchs. Moses and his legislation are only un- 
derstood in connection with Abraham and the Abrahamitic basis of his religion. By this 
measure those new theological opinions are to be judged which would commence this history 
with Moses. 



2 13. MIRACLES OF THE MOSAIC PERIOD. 27 

^18. MIRACLES OF THE MOSAIC PEEIOD. 

Abraham prayed to God under the name of El Shaddai, God Almighty. He learned to 
know God's marvellous power by the birth of Isaac (Rom. iv. 17), and manifested his trust 
in His omnipotence by his readiness to sacrifice his only son (Heb. xi. 17). Thus the foun- 
dation was laid for belief in miracles under the theocracy. 

The miracles of the Mosaic period appear as peculiarly the miracles of Jehovah. He is 
ever present with His miraculous help in the time of need. All changes and events in the 
course of nature He orders for the needs of the theocracy, for the people of God but lately 
born, to whom such signs are a necessity. The prophet as the confidant of God has not only 
the natural presentiment, but also the supernatural, God-given prescience of these great deeds 
of God. Yet, since they are to serve for the education of the faith of the people, he is not 
only to mate them known beforehand, but performs them in symbolical acts as the organ 
of the omnipotence of Jehovah. Hence we may call these miracles double miracles (see 
Life of Christ, Vol. II., Part 1, p. 312). 

The whole series of miracles is begun by a glorious vision. Moses beholds the bush 
burning with fire, and yet not consumed, but glowing in the bright flame. This was Israel, 
his people, and how could he doubt that this vision would be fulfilled in the people of God 
(Exod. iii.)? 

Also the three miracles of attestation which Moses at this time received (Ex. iv.) appear 
to be miracles in virion and served to strengthen the faith of the prophet. The second siga, 
the leprosy and its cure, is not used by Moses afterward, and the third, the change of the wa- 
ter into blood, became one of the series of Egyptian plagues. He only uses the miracle of 
the rod ; doubtless it comprehends a mysterious fact in symbolical expression ; the swallow- 
ing of the rods of the sorcerers being called " destroying their works." The natural basis of the 
Egyptian plagues has been well explained by Hengstenberg. They were all plagues usual 
in Egypt, but were made miracles by their vastness, their close connection and speedy se- 
quence, by their gradation from stroke to stroke, by the prophetic assurance of their predes- 
tination and intentional significance and use, and finally by their lofty symbolic expression. 
In their totality they reveal the fearful rhythm in which, from curse to curse, great punitive 
catastrophes come forth. Symbolic expression is also found in their number, ten. It is the 
number of the historic course of the world. Their sequence corresponds to the course 
of nature. 

1. Water turned into blood. 

2. Innumerable frogs. 

3. Swarms of gnats (mosquitoes). 

4. Dog-flies. 

5. Murrain. 

6. Boils and blains. 

7. Storm and hail. 

8. Locusts. 

9. Darkness for three days (Hamsin). 
10. Death of the first-born (pestilence). 

For particulars see Hengstenberg, Egypt and the Boohs of Moses ; Kurtz, History of 
the Old Covenant, Vol. II., 245-288. 

The contest of theocratic miracle with magic represented by the Egyptian magicians is 
very significant. It is an opposition of symbolic and allegorical significance, continued 
through New Testament history (Acts viii.; Simon Magus; chap, xiii.; Elymas- 2 Tim. iii. 
8 ; Jannes and Jambres), and still through Church history to its last decisive contest, when 
the false prophet shall be destroyed together with his lying wonders (2 Thess. ii.; 
Rev. xiii. 13). 

To the miracles of the Egyptian plagues, which culminate in the overthrow of Pharaoh 
and his host, is opposed the miracle of the passnge of the Red Sea, the typical baptism of the 
typical people of God, by which they were separated from Egypt, a reminiscence of the flood 



28 GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO THE THREE MIDDLE BOOKS. 



and a type of Christian baptism (1 Cor. x. 1, 2; 1 Pet. iii. 20, 21). This miracle also has a 
natural basis, as the Scriptures more than once mention. The Lord caused tbe sea to go 
back by a strong east wind (Ex. xiv. 21). That a natural occurrence forms the basis of this 
miracle is shown by the Egyptians pursuing the Israelites into the sea — for they would 
hardly have ventured into it if there had been an absolutely miraculous drying up of the 
sea; just as the natural explanation of the Egyptian plagues became the snare of Pharaoh's 
unbelief. But on the other side, the Egyptians could hardly have made so great a mistake 
in taking advantage of a natural occurrence : the ebb-tide* was miraculously great, just as 
the sudden turn of the flood-tide was miraculously hastened, and therefore rightly celebrated 
in the Song of Moses (Ex. xv.), and often afterwards (Ps. Ixvi. 6; cvi. 9; cxxxvi. 13-16; 

Zech. X. 11). 

In the investigation of the passage of the Red Sea there is a conflict between those who 
seek to belittle the miracle and those who would enlarge it. Of those who take the first po- 
sition, K. VON Raumer is one of the champions. 

The leading of the people to the Red Sea is accomplished by the angel of the Lord in 
the pillar of cloud and of fire. At the sea the cloud came between the Israelites and the 
Egyptian host, so that they were separated by the cloud before they were separated by the 
sea. For the distinction which the Hebrews made between this cloud and the pillar of cloud 
see Ps. Ixviii. 8-10 ; 1 Cor. x. 2. The pillar of cloud was a mystery, in which were united 
the manifestation of the angel of the Lord and the flame ascending from the sanctuary. Af- 
terwards the ark of the covenant as a symbol led the people, and over it the glory of the Lord 
was revealed in the cloud, and in New Testament times (Isa. iv. 5) it was to cover Zion with 
its brightness. If we grasp these two miracles, the pillar of cloud and of fire and the Red 
Sea, we shall gain some idea of the harmonia prmstabilUa between the kingdom of grace and 
the kingdom of nature, as it emerges at great decisive epochs in iueflable glory. 

The healing of the water at Marah from its bitterness is accounted for in the Scriptures 
by natural means. The Lord showed Moses a tree (see the exegesis) by which the water was 
made sweet. Here grace and nature work together, and here too a general idea, an ethical 
law, is connected with the extraordinary fact; Jehovah will be the Physician of His people 
if they will obey His voice (Ex. xv. 23-26). 

The miracle of healing is followed by the miracle of feeding the people with manna. 
The gift of quails appears to have been introduced into the account of the manna by a gene- 
ralizing attraction (Ex. xvi. 11-13). In Numb. xi. 31 the gift of quails appears as an entirely 
new event : and they were far past Sinai then. The miracle of the manna enclosed a special 
mysterious occurrence, which was made the symbol of the true relation between the labor of 
the week and the rest of the Sabbath. The law also was symbolized, in that the food of hea- 
ven was common to all (Ex. xvi. 18). Concerning the natural basis of the miracle of manna 
see exegesis. 

* [By the plain and repeated words of Go 1 we are prohibited from assuming an extraordinary ebb and flood tide in this 
miracle. The account is that " the Lord caused the sea to go (back) by a strong east wind all that night, and made the 
sea dry land, and the waters were divided. And the children of Israel went into the midst of the sea upon the dry ground ; 
and the waters were a wall unto them on their right hand and on their left." " But the children of Israel walkrd upon 
dry land in the midst of the sna : and the waters were a wall unto them on their right hand and on their left." Ex. xiv. 
21,22,29. J,'p3— here translated "divided"— is also used of "clearing" wood (Gen. xxii. 3; ISam. vi. U; Ps.cxli.7j 
Eccles. X. 9). "the ground clave asunder" (Numb. xvi. 31), of "rending," "ripping up," making a breach in a wall, fte. 
A very close parallel to the use of this word in Ex. xiv. 21, etc., is found in Zech. xiv. 4: "And the mount of Olives shall 
cleave" (Niph. J'p^J— be cleft, divided) "in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a 
great valley, and half of the mountain shall remov^^ toward the norfi, and half of it toward the south." The word is here 
confined to this signification of division, cleaving asunder, by the additional and repeated statement that " the waters were a 
wall unto thera on their right hand and on their left," which utterly excludes the idea of an ebb and flood tide, or that the 
waters were driven out of a shallow arm of the sea by the wind. (Robinson's Raearohea, I. 64-69.) The same representa- 
tion is thrice repeated in Ex. xv. 8: "With the blast of thy nostrils the waters were gathered together" (i.e., piled up); 
• the floods stood upright as an heap, and the depths were congealed in the heart of the sea." See also in Ps. Ixxviii. IS. 
Comp. with this the account in Josh. iii. 13-17, where it is said the waters of the Jordan to the north of the passing host 
■■ stood and rose up upon an heap." It is vain to indulge in theories to explain a miracle. The division of the waters of the 
Jordan, descending an incline of three feet to the mile, laughs at all theories to account for it In order to allow two or 
three millions of people, men, women and children, to pass over (eaatwaid six or eight miles) in a night, there must have 
been a cleft in the sea several miles in width from north to south.— H. 0.| 



I 13. MIEACLES OF THE MOSAIC PERIOD. 29 

At Eephidim, the last station before the encampment at Sinai, the faihire of water for the 
murmuring peuple was the occasion of a miraculous gift of water from a rock in the Horeb 
range of mountains. Paul, the Apostle, calls Christ the Kock from which Israel drank in 
the desert (1 Cor. x. 4), and by this leveals the prophetic meaning of the springs from the 
rooks and the desert. This event at Rephidim stands in a certain opposition to a similar mi- 
racle which took place during the sojourn in Kadesh. At liephidim, Moses was ordered to 
strike the rock ; at Meribah he was ordered, with Aaron, only to speak to the rock, and it 
was accounted as his great sin that he twice smote it The victory also over the Amale- 
kites was miraculous in its character, as it was obtained through the intercession of Moses 
(Exod. xvii.). 

There is also a striking contrast between the occurrences at the reception of the first and 
of the second tables of the law. The reception of the first tables is introduced by the words : 
"And all the people saw the thunderings and lightnings, and the noise of the trumpet and 
the mountain smoking, and when the people saw it, they removed and stood afar oif," Ex. 
XX. 8. But after the reception of the second tables, Moses descended the mountain, and his 
face shone with a briglitness before which Aaron retired afirighted, and Moses was compelled 
to put a veil upon his face that the people might draw near him (Ex. xxxiv. 30). The glory 
of the holy law, so fearful in its majesty, shines out from Moses himself as soon as he heard 
the explanation of the gracious name of Jehovah given by Jehovah on Sinai (Ex. xxxiv. 6) ; 
but even in its human mediation and beauty the law affrighted the unsanctified people as 
well as the externally sanctified priests. 

The pillar of cloud and of fire over the tabernacle consecrated it as the typical house of 
God (Ex. xl. 34). Over against this shining mystery is set the darkness of the death of the 
sons of Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, by fire, because they brought strange fire in their censers 
to the altar (Lev. x.). They died by fire {ver. 6 — Bunsen speaks of an execution) — and it is 
remarkable that these words are addressed to Aaron : " Do not drink wine nor strong drink, 
thou nor thy sons with thee, when ye go into the tabernacle of the congregation, lest ye die." 
Au extraordinary doom became forever afterwards the symbol of the putting away of all 
strange fire; that is, of fanaticism, of extravagance, of mere sensual enthusiasm in the ser- 
vice of the sanctuary, which required the pure flame of a holy inspiration. Miriam's leprosy, 
the punishment of her fanatical rebellion against Moses, stands, in its spiritual significance, 
on a plane with the doom of the sons of Aaron (Numb. xii.). 

The departure of the children of Israel from Sinai is followed by the destruction of some 
of the people by fire from the Lord at Taberah, to punish them for complaining to Jehovali 
and longing for the flesh pots of Egypt. Then follows, in striking contrast to the manna, 
the miraculous gift of flesh to eat, the flight of quails, which settle down over the camp. 
While there was this murmuring among the people, there arose the opposite disposition on 
the part of some near Moses : not only did the seventy elders, chosen by Moses to be his 
helpers, begin to prophesy under the inspiration of the Mosaic spirit, but two other men in 
the midst of the camp prophesied. This opposition of the inspired exaltation of chosen men 
to the rebellious ill-humor of the people is well founded in the psychology of the theocratic 
congregation. The greedy eating of flesh is followed by a new and naturally pecessary judg- 
ment, from which the place itself takes its name, Kibbroth-hattaavah, the graves of lust. 

In this increase of theocratic inspiration, the following events may have their founda- 
tion. First, the legal, fanatical opposition of Aaron and Miriam to the mixed marriage of 
Moses, whose wife is spitefully called a Cushite, but who was probably an Egyptian, a spi- 
ritual disciple of the prophet (Num. xii. 2). Miriam is smitten with leprosy to mark her as 
the one chiefly responsible for the opposition. Nevertheless this new agitation continued, 
and was shown in the despair of the people at the report by the spies of the strength of the 
Canaanites, and then in the presumptuous and disastrous attack by the people in opposition 
to the command of God, which was followed by a second and greater commotion. After the 
well-deserved defeat of the people, Moses drew the reins of government more tightly by a 
series of legal precepts and by a stricter maintenance of the law of the Sabbath. It is again 
in accordance with the psychological oscillation of the life of the people that this is followed 



30 UJSJXEKAL IJNTilUUUUTlON TO THE THREE MIDDLE BOOKS. 



by the insurrection of Korah'a company, which, in the interest of an universal inspiration, 
threaened to put away the authority of Moses and Aaron (ch. xvi.). The revolt and the 
miraculous de.-truction of Korah's company belong to the second sojourn in Kadesh ; and 
connected with these is another punishment of the people and Aaron's staff that blossomed 
(ch. xvi. 17). 

The revolt of Korah's company was three-fold, and brought on one of the most danger- 
ous crises in the history of Israel. The Korahites, as Levites, revolted especially against the 
priestly prerogative of Aaron ; the sons of Eliab, descendants of Reuben, Jacob's first-born, 
were offended at Moses' position as prince ; but the people themselves were so puffed up with 
their fanatical claims that even after the destruction of the company, they murmured again, 
and brought upon themselves a new chastisement. The Korahites seem to have been led 
into temptation by great natural gifts ; at any rate, we find in later times, what was appa- 
rently a remnant of them, the sous of Korah, employed as chief singers in the service of the 
temple. The blossoming staff of Aaron indicated by an obscure, yet symbolic event the con- 
firmation of the Aaronic priesthood, and even by this fact it was with difficulty that the 
excited spirit of the people was pacified (ch. xvii. 12, 13). The most important fact was that 
the staffs of all the princes of Israel paid homage to the staff of Aaron. It is a striking con- 
trast to find the people who before had demanded a hierarchy now submitting to the estab- 
lished hierarchy with impatience and ill-humor. 

The second murmuring about water, the occasion of the second miraculous gift of water, 
so momentous for Moses and Aaron (Num. xx. 12), occurred in the beginning of the second 
sojourn in Kadesh. The narrative in Num. xx. 1 is retrospective, for the want of water in 
the desert of Zin, the northern part of the great desert of Paran (see Bible Diet. Paran and 
Zin) would be found out on their entrance, not after a long sojourn. Their entrance into 
the desert of Zin is particularly recorded, because the name of the desert of Zin, the 
assembling of the whole people, and the long settlement there bring into prominence the 
want of water. The murmuring of the people and the impatience of Moses show that the 
discord which arose at the defeat at Hormah and at the insurrection of Korah's company 
still continued, but subsided in the darkness of the thirty-eight years over which the narra- 
tive draws a veil. 

The history of Balaam and his ass forms a miraculous episode in the narrative of the 
exodus. It is in truth a double psychological miracle ; the miracle of the trance of a sordid 
prophet, who by inspiration is lifted above his covetous intention, and beholds the ethical 
relations of the future of the theocracy ; a fact which is repeated again and again in litera- 
ture, and even in the pulpit ; and the miracle of the influence of spiritual powers on the 
sensorium of animals, in order that they may make symbolic utterances. It is interesting 
to observe how Baumgakten, in the second volume of his commentary (against Hengsten- 
berg), adheres to the letter, as he had done earlier in the six days of creation. 

The whole series of miraculous events, which made the exodus of Israel through the 
desert one great miracle of providence, is grandly closed by the mysterious death of Aaron 
on Mt. Hor and the mysterious death of Moses on Mt. Nebo. In both cases God's summons 
home and the heart of the dying man agree ; freely and gladly he goes home. The mystery 
of Moses' death recalls the passing away of Enoch, the taking up of Elijah, and the last 
words of the dying Christ 

? 14. THE LEGISLATION OP MOSES IN GENERAL. 

We must ever remember that there is a distinction to be made between Moses the law- 
giver and Moses the prophet, for the true prophet or philosopher is never lost in the law- 
giver ; but his higher intelligence must accommodate itself to the culture and the moral 
capability of his people as he finds them. 

Further we must regard the legislation of Moses in general : 1, According to its three 
divisions, which are plainly marked in the outline, Ex. xx.-xxiii., and are represented in 
the three books, of the prophetical, of the sacerdotal, and of the civil law; but each of these 
legislations, if considered by itself, would lose its theocratic impress. 2. According to its 



i 15 THE TYPOLOGY OP THE WRITINGS OP MOSES. 31 

three evolutions : a. the outline, Ex. xx.-xiiii. ; b. the distinct form of the three books ; 
and also the just modification of relations between the first and second tables of the law 
acccording to the Epistle of Barnabas. 3. According to the interpretation of the letter of 
the law by prophetic inspiration in Deuteronomy as an introduction to the New Testament 
law of the Spirit. 

Literature. — Lakge, Mosaisches Licht und Btcht; D. Michaelis, Das Mosaische Becht; 
Bertheau, Die aieben Qruppen mosaischer Gesetze ; general title, Zwr Oeachichte der hrael- 
ilen, Gottngen, 1840; Bluhme, Cullati-o legum Romanorum et Mosaioarum, 1843; Saal- 
BCHUETZ, Das mosaische Recht. Berlin, 1846 ; Riehm, Die Oeselzgebung im Lande Moab, 
Gotha, 1854; George, Die dlterea judischen Feste mit einer Eritik der Qenetzgebung des Pen- 
tateuch, Berlin, 1835; J. Schnell, Das isradiache Recht in seinen Orundzugen, Basel, 1855; 
EoBERT KuEBEL, Dos alttestamentUche Oesetz und seine Vrkunde, Stuttgart, 1807 ; Franz 
Eberhard Kuebel, Die soziale und volkslhiimliche Oesetzgebung det Alten Tentaments, 
Wiesbaden, 1870 ; Mayes, Die Rechte der Israeliten, Athener und Romer, mit Ruckaicht auf 
die neueren Oesetzgebungen, 2 vols., Leipzig, 1866. 

g 15. THE TYPOLOGY OF THE -WRITINGS OF MOSES. 

On the types and symbols of Scripture, see this Commentary on Revelation, Introd., and 
Genesis, Introd. As this subject must be treated when we come to consider the Mosaic ritual 
in Leviticus, we refer to that. For the works on the types, see Danz, p. 971. On the 
brazen serpent, see this Comm., John iii. 14, 15. Hiller's work, Neues System aller Vor- 
bilder Jeau Chriati durch das ganze Alte Testament und die Vorbilder der Kirche des Neuen 
Testaments in Alten Testament, was reissued in a new edition by Albert Knapp, Ludwigs- 
burg, 1857-8. It was written carefully and with a devout spirit, but defends some mistaken 
views, e. g. that the scape-goat signified Christ's new life ; that the blood of the sacrifices was 
burnt, and the significance of the red heifer is overstrained. 



B. SPECIAL INTRODUCTION 

TO THE THREE BOOKS. 



1. EXODUS.— The first query, not only of this book, but of the whole trilogy of legist- 
lation, as indeed of all the historical books of Holy Scripture, is the right determination of 
the connection between the facts and their symbolic meaning. The symbolism of the books 
of legislation by Moses must be distinguished from the general significance of symbolism in 
all religious history. If Moses was the great instructor directing men to Christ, it follows 
that his legislation must also be pre-eminently symbolic; for instruction has two sides — ^le- 
gislative and symbolic. Hence, above all things, we must distinguish between the mere le- 
gal force of the laws of Moses, and their symbolic significance ; and as respects the latter, 
between a wider and a contracted symbolism, the first of which is divided into allegorical, 
symbolical and typical figures. 

EGYPT. 

The history of Egypt has an especial charm, because Egypt was the earliest home of 
culture in the old world, and because of its relation to the origin of the people of Israel, and 
to the history of the kingdom of God. See the article on Egypt in Winer's Bihl. Worter- 



32 SPECIAL INTRODUCTION TO THE THRBK BOOKS. 



buck, and those of Lbpsius on Ancient Egypt, and of W. Hoffmann on Modern Egypt, in 
Herzog's Real-Encyklopddie. In the last article there is a list of the later works of travels 
in Egypt. There is also a full catalogue of the literature of the subject in Bbockhaus' 
smaller Gonversationslexicon, p. 68. The article in Schenkel's Bihellexicon has specially 
treated Egypt's place in Old Testament prophecy. Every comprehensive history of the 
world, in treating the history of antiquity, must especially treat of Egypt. Hegel, in his 
Lectures on the Philosophy of History, has enlarged on the history of Egypt ( Werke, Vol. IX. 
p. 205) ; and on the religion of Egypt under the title "Die Religion des Bdthsels," in his 
Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion ( Werke, Vol. XI. p. 343). It would be a superfluous 
comment if, in a history of occidental philosophy, Egyptian mythology were spoken of as 
dualistic, since no mythology has been found which had not a dualistic basis; and this 
comment would be altogether erroneous if we should regard the worship of the dead and of 
graves as an exotic growth imported into Egypt (Knoetel, Cheops). We have regarded the 
Egyptian mythology as occupying a middle position between the Phoenician mourning for 
the dead and the Grecian apotheosis of men. Bunsen's work, EgypCs Place in History, has 
largely served to spread the knowledge of Egyptology. See also Gfboereb, Die Urgeschiehte 
des Menschengeschlechts, Schaffhausen, 1855. Beugsch, Reiseberichte aus Egyplen, Leipzig, 
1855. Uhlemann, Israelilen und Hyksos, Leipzig, 1856. G. Ebers, Egypten und die 
Bucher Moses', Leipzig, 1868. G. Ebers, Durch Gosen turn Sinai, Leipzig, 1872. 

HISTORY OF ISBAEL. 

This history in the literature of the present day is obscured in a twofold manner. First, 
by separating the religion of Moses from the promises to the patriarchs. But Moses, with- 
out the religion of Abraham, cannot be understood (Rom. iv.; Gal. iii.). If the patriarchs 
are remitted to the region of myths, Moses is made a caricature, a mere national lawgiver, 
and nothing but a lawgiver, like Solon, Lycurgus, and other.i. On this theme, which, with- 
out further notice, we entrust to the tlieology of the future, frivolous correctors of the history 
of Israel's ancient religion may expend their thought at their pleasure. Secondly, this his- 
tory is greatly disparaged by a severely literal interpretation of the narrative in entire disre- 
gard of its historical and symbolic character. This severely literal interpretation is only a 
detriment to orthodoxy, because it serves negative criticism as a pretext for invalidating the 
sacred history. Bishop Colenso came to doubt the historical truth of the books of Moses 
tiy the candid doubt expressed by one of his converts, who was assisting him in translating 
the Bible. His first step was honest and honorable — he would not be a party to deception in 
the exercise of his office. He sought counsel and help from his theological friends in Eng- 
land — and received none. The German theological works which he ordered gave him no 
help. And so he gradually passed from a noble unrest of candor to the tumult of skepticism. 
He passed the line which runs between a discreet continuance within a religious community 
that cannot reduce its treasure of truth to the capacity of a special period or of a single indi- 
vidual, that is, between the continuance and quiet investigation of a pastor, a bishop, and 
the tumble of an impatient spirit, which, after the first break with servility to the letter, finds 
no rest in doubt. Yet, with all this, Bishop Colenso bears a very favorable comparison 
w.th those novices who think they have reached the peak of critical illumination while they 
really fall into the dense darkness of boumiless negation. 

As regards later criticism, we refer to the distinction previously made between originals 
or records and the final compilations which were also under the guidance of the prophetic 
spirit. Joseph and Moses, the mediators between Egyptian culture and theocratic tradition, 
are said to have written little or nothing. It is a similar supposition to the one that the 
Apostle John never before his old age recalled the discourses of Jesus, nor ever used 
records. 

Theological criticism, like classical philology, should above all things free itself from 
the mere idea of book-makiag, from all plagiarism and literary patch-work, and estimate 
the books of Scripture in their totality, as well as make itself familiar with the idea of a 
synthetic inspiration, one of the canons of which is, if the idea of the book is inspired and 



MOSES AND IMMORTALITY. 88 



the book itself appears in divine-human harmony as a literary organism, the whole book is 
inspired. For the literature, see the bibliography, p. 49. 

MOSES. 

As in the life of Christ we must assume that there was no motion of Deity in Him with- 
out a corresponding motion of His ideal humanity, so we must assume with respect to 
Moses, though most persons rend asunder his mysterious personality ; some by making him 
merely the servant of an absolutely supernatural divine revelation of law ; others by making 
him only a human lawgiver of great political sagacity, or of great incompetence. For this 
reason it is the more necessary to assert with respect to Moses the synthesis of the divine-hu- 
man life. In this regard we must ascribe to him a deep sympathy with nature. Who among 
the men of antiquity was more sensitive to the life of nature — ^its signs and omens? Who 
had such clear vision of the harmonia prsestabilita between the course of nature and the 
course of the kingdom of God ? As to the moral law, he was as firm and unyielding as the 
mount of revelation, Sinai itself. That he should not enter Canaan, the object of his hope, 
because in impatience he had struck the rock twice, is not only God's decree concerning 
him, but also an expression of his heroic conscientiousness, the last subtle, tragical motive 
of his lofty, consecrated life, a life which had been full of tragical motives, and whose crowni 
according to the Epistle to the Hebrews, was a resolute self-denial, illumined by a steadfast 
trust in the great reward. It was pre-eminently in this that Moses was a type of the 
coming Christ. 

MOSES AND IMMOETALITY. 

This Moses, who, in the effulgence of the promise, passed from Mt. Nebo to the other 
world, is said to have been ignorant of immortality, and his people are said to have remained 
ignorant of it until in the Babylonian captivity they came in contact with the Persians. 
This is Lessing's view in his Erziehwng des MenmshengescMechts. With respect to this fact, 
"God winked at the times of this ignorance," Acts xvii. 30. The Jews came out of Egypt, 
the land of the worship of the dead, where the doctrine of another world, a fancied immor- 
tality, was taught, and yet they are said to have been ignorant of immortality. What this 
derivation of Moses and his people availed is shown by the fact that even heathenism held a 
defective doctrine of the other world ; and this reappears in the mediaeval teaching and in 
the worship of the dead by the Trappists. It was all-important that Moses should guard 
against Egyptian heathenism, and make the sacredness of laws for this world, the revelation 
of Jehovah, of His blessing and His curse in the present, fundamental articles of faith. Be- 
sides, Moses wrote of the tree of life, of Enoch, of Sheol, of the God of Abraham, Isaac and 
Jacob, of the antithesis of prophecy in Israel to consultation of the dead, and of the resto- 
ration of a repentant people from waste places of the world. In this matter we must distin- 
guish between the metaphysical or ontological idea of immortality and the ethical idea of 
eternal life, and then mark that the ethical idea is the main point for theocratic faith, but it 
always presupposes the metaphysical idea of immortality. In the ethical view the sinner is 
subject to death, the immeasurable sojourn in Sheol, because, in the metaphysical idea, his 
continued existence is immeasurable. If this distinction is not made and maintained, con- 
fusion is sure to arise, as in the work of H. Schultz, Die Voraussetzungen der christlichen 
Lehre von der Unsierblichkeit, 

LATEST ■WORKS ON SINAI. 

See Die neue evangel EHrchenzeiMmg, Dec. 28, 1872, "Die neuesten Forschungen uber die 
Lage des hiblisohen Sinai." Palmee, in his work. The Desert of the Exodus, has decided 
against Serbal (Lepsius, Bartlett, Heezog) and for Sinai. So also the work of the Bri- 
tish Ordnance Survey. The London Athenwum has said that the question is decided. Yet 
Professor Ebers, in his work, Durch Gosen ztim. Sinai, maintains the hypothesis of Serbal. 
Eitter and Ewald maintain that it is not yet decided. Eittee remarks : " Since the fifth 
century there have been two opposite views — the Egyptian, which is for Serbal; and the 
Byzantine, for the present Sinai." 

3 



34 SPECIAL INTRODUCTION TO THE THREE BOOKS. 



THE LAW. 

Since it is certain that the ethical law of the decalogue is identical with the law of the 
conscience (Eom. ii. 14) — and it is also certain that the decalogue logically requires the law 
of worship and sacrifice, as well as the law for the king, for the state, and for war it 
follows that these last two legislations are symbols and types of the imperishable norms of 
man's inner life, of the individual spirit as well as of the spiritual life of mankind. In the 
New Testament the whole law of sacrifice is converted into spiritual ideas, and Christians 
are represented as the spiritual host of their royal leader, Christ, or as the soldiers of God 
who, through warfare with the kingdom of darkness, shall gain the inheritance of glory 
(Eph. vi. 11 f.). 

The law was always two-fold. On the one side it must develope as the law of the Spi- 
rit ; on the other side, as a law of the letter, it could become a law of death — that is, in this 
apparent contrast between its spirit and external form it must reveal itself. The solution 
of this contrast is brought about by catastrophes which, on the worldly side, appear as the 
consummation of tragedy; on the divine side, as the consummation of the priesthood. 

The law as the principle of life is one, the law of love, of personality ; the law as the 
principle of society is two-fold, the law of love of God and love of man, the harmony of wor- 
ship and culture. The law as the statute of the kingdom is three-fold— prophetical, sacer- 
dotal, royal. The law as the statute of the kingdom is given under ten heads, the number 
of the complete course of the world, and from this basis spring its multiplied ramifications, 
the symbolism of all doctrines of faith and life, a tree of knowledge and a tree of life ; rami- 
fications which Jewish theology of the letter has attempted to number exactly. 

Jehovah's law is in exact correspondence, not only with the natural law of morals, but 
also with the moral law of nature ; and it is a one-sided view to regard these legal precepts 
as either only abstract religious statutes, or as mere laws of health and of common weal, with 
a religious purpose. In this respect there has been great confusion, as, for example, in 
Hengstenbeeg's works. 

The development of the legislation was in accordance with the need for it — a fact which 
must not be overlooked. The hierarchical law of worship is required because the people 
were afraid to enter into immediate communion with Jehovah (Ex. xx.). After the people's 
fall into idolatiy, the law of the new tables is illustrated in two ways, by mildness and by 
severity, by the announcement of Jehovah's grace, and by punishment. As the priests were 
called to maintain the warfare of Israel within the people, so the array of God was called to 
carry the law of God into the world as a priesthood ad extra. The unfolding of the spiritual 
character of the law was provided for in Deuteronomy. 

According to John vi.. Acts xv., and Jewish theology, the basis of Mosaic legislation was 
a still more ancient law — 1, the so-called Noachic patriarchal law ; 2, the Abrahamic patri- 
archal law of faith. 

The so-called commands of Noah are a tradition connected with the general principle 
of monotheism, which forbids idolatry, and with the fundamental law of humanity, which 
forbids murder. 

The first law of the Abrahamic covenant is circumcision, which, as a type of regenera- 
tion, signifies the consecration of the family to regeneration (Gen. xvii.), and in Exodus this 
law is renewed by means of a striking fact (Ex. iv. 24). In patriarchal faith it was the sa- 
crament of consecration. It contains the germ of the monotheistic law of marriage. By 
Abraham's great sacrifice, commanded and directed by Jehovah, Gen. xxii., the traditional 
and corrupt ancient religious sacrifices were changed to a hallowed custom, and this takes 
the form of law in the institution of the Passover, the sacred celebration of the covenant with 
the house of Israel. The Passover is not only the central norm of all forms of sacrifice, but 
it is also the basis of legislation ; for on it depend the ethical laws of the worship of God, of 
the hallowing of His name, of the consecration of the house, of festivals, and of religious edu- 
cation, of the consecration of the first-born and of the Levites, and lastly the civil law, by 
the regulation of the festivals and of the principal offices of the theocratic state. 



THE TABERNACLE. 35 



The three phases of religion, its prophetic, sacerdotal, and voluntary or kingly charac- 
ter, appear under peculiar forms in the sphere of law. Prophecy becomes command, resig- 
nation becomes sacrifice, exaltation to royal freedom from the world and in communion with 
God is the entrance into the army of Jehovah. It has been remarked above that these three 
phases are logically dependent upon each other and inseparable. 

The relation of the law to the ideal, the law of the Spirit, is three-fold. First, the law 
bounds life with its plain requirements, and each one who is in accord with it receives its 
blessing, — ^he is a good citizen. But as the law is the representative of the moral ideal, it is 
impossible for sinful men to avoid coming short of its requirements. Before the transgressor 
there are two ways ; if he continues in malicious transgression, the law spews him out, — he 
becomes " cherem,'' accursed ; but if he confesses his transgression, the law accounts his guilt 
as an error, and points him to the way of sacrifices of atonement. By the presentation of his 
sacrifice he expresses in symbol his longing after righteousness. Yet through these very 
sacrifices a consciousness is awakened in candid minds of the insuflSciency oi!. animal sacri- 
fices, of the blood of beasts. On the part of the insincere, the bringing of a sacrifice was a 
mere service of pretence, instead of an earnest prayer. The sincere offerer was directed to 
the future, and in hope of the coming real expiation his sacrifice became typical, just as the 
law itself seta forth this typical character in the great sacrifice of atonement. Thus the son 
of the law becomes a man of the Spirit, a soldier of God for the realization of His Kingdom, 
though only in typical form. The decalogue may be regarded as the sign-manual of Christ 
in outline ; the law of sacrifice as the type of His atonement ; the march of Israel as the 
leading of the people of God under His royal orders. 

Considered as to its essential character, the law is a treasure-house of veiled promises 
of God's grace, since every requirement of God is an expression of what He gave man in 
Paradise, and what He will again give him in accordance with his needs. 

In addition to the literature already given, see the articles in Herzog and in Schen- 
kel's Lexicon. In Winbk's Beal- Worterhuch will be found a very full list of the lite- 
rature. 

THE TABEENACLE. 

The idea that there was no central holy place before the Levitical tabernacle, gives rise 
to certain critical assumptions. But one might as well doubt that there was a tabernacle in 
the wilderness. The idea of the tabernacle arises from the relation of the law to the life of 
Israel, or from the requirement of a three-fold righteousness or holiness. The requirement 
of social or legal holiness, of legal civic virtue, is the requirement of the court. But as civic 
virtue cannot be separated from the religious and moral intent which is its spiritual basis, so 
the court cannot be separated from the sanctuary. The court where sacrifices were brought 
was one with the Holy place and the Most Holy place. The theocratic court was possible 
only in its relation to the sanctuary. The Holy Place by its conformation was imperfect, as 
the place of self-renunciation, of aspiration, of prayers, of moments of enlightenment of the 
soul, hence an oblong structure, which finds its complement in the square of the Most Holy 
Place, the place where God reigned supreme, where were the cherubim, the place of the per- 
fect satisfaction of the divine law or of atonement, and of a vision of God which did not kill but 
made alive, the Shekinah. This gradation recurs in all sanctuaries. In Catholic, Greek, and 
Eoman temples the most holy place is, after the manner of the ancient sanctuary, more or 
less shut off. In the churches of radical Protestants the chancel as the place of the sacra- 
mental assurance of atonement for those who partake of the Supper is made level with the 
floor of the church, which has no court. 

See W. Neumann: Die Stiftshutte in Bild und Wort, 1861. Riggenbach: Die mosa- 
ische Stiftshutte, 1863. He treats of the tabernacle also in the appendix to his pamphlet : 
Die Zeugnisse des Evangelisien Johannes, 1867. J. Poppbe : Der bihlische Bericht uber die 
Stiftshutte, 1862. Wangemann : Die Bedeutung der Stiftshutte, 1866. 

Concerning the form of the tabernacle and the symbolism of the colors, see this Comm. 
on Eev. xiii. Wangemann calls the number five, which is the basis of the measurement 
of the court, the number of unfulfilled longing after perfection. But this longing does not 



36 SPECIAL INTRODUCTION TO THE THREE BOOKS. 



reach perfection in the parallelogram of the sanctuary. We have called five the number 
of free-choice, Rev. xi. On the materials of the tabernacle, see Wangemakn, p. 7 ; also 
on the coverings, p. 8, where the relation of the hidden to the revealed, according to the law 
of theocratic appearance, is to be emphasized. The taste of the world presents the best and 
most beautiful side without ; the sesthetics of the theocracy turns the most beautiful side 
within. For the symbolism of the three places, and of the priestly attire, we refer to 
the exegesis. 

2. LEVITICUS. 

Biblical Allegory, Symbol and Type.— The theory of the figures of Holy Scripture 
belongs in general to the hermeneutics of Scripture from Genesis to Eevelation, but in a special 
sense it belongs to an introduction to Leviticus. To avoid repetitions we refer for the general 
theory to this Comm. Introd. to Matt xiii.; for the special theory to Introd. to Eev. These 
points will be touched upon in the exegesis of the three books. See also my Dogmatik, p. 360 f. 

As the symbolism of Leviticus is largely treated by many authors, we append a list of 
the more important works. 

Spencer: De legibus Hebrseorum ritualibus earumque rationibus, Tubingen, 1732. 
HiLLER, Die Yorbilder der Kvrche des Neuen Testaments (see above). Baehe: Die 
symboKk des mosaischen Kullus, 1876. Baehr: Der salomonische Tempel, 1841. 
Friedrich: Symbolik der mosaischen StifishvMe, 1841. Hengstenberg : Beitrage zur 
Einleitimg ins Alte Testament. The same: Die Opfer der JSeiligen Schrift, 1852. 
LiSCO: Das Oerem/mialgesetz des Alien Testaments. Darslellung desselben und Nachweis 
seiner Erfullung im Neuen Testament, 1842. KasTz: Das mosaische Opfer, 1842. The 
same: Beitrage zur Symbolik des mosaischen Kultus, 1 Bd. {Die Kultus-statte), 1851. 
The same: History of the Old Covenant, Clark, Edinburg. The same: Der alUestament- 
liehe Opferkultits, 1 Theil {Das Kultusgesetz), Mitau, 1862. The same : Beitrage zur Sym- 
bolik des alttestamenllichen Kultus, 1859. Sartorius: Ueber den all- und neutesiamentlichen 
KuUtis, 18f>2. The same: Die Bundeslade, 1857. Kliefoth: Die Gottesdienstordnungen 
in der deuischen Kirche, 1854. Kabch (Cath.) : Die mosaischen Opfer als Grundlage der 
Bitten im Vater- Unser, 1856. Kuepfer : Das Priesterthum des Alten Bundes, 1865. Wan- 
GEMANN: Das Opfer nach der Heiligen Schrift, alien und neuen Testaments, 1866. Tholuck: 
Das alte Testament im neuen Testament, 1868. Bramesfeld: Der alttestameniliche Ooltes- 
dienst, 1864. Hoff : Die mosaischen Opfer nach ihrer sinnbildlichen und vorbildlichen Bedeu- 
tung, 1859. Bachmann : Die Festgesetze des Pentateuch, 1858. Scholtz, Die heiligen Al- 
terthumer des Volkes Israel, 1868. Sommee: Biblische Abhandlungen, 1846. Thiersch: 
Das Verbot der Ehe innerhalb der nahen Verwandtschaft, 1869. 

This part of Biblical theology is greatly in need of clear explanation to free it from the 
confusion which frequently attaches to it. Allegorical figures ought to be carefully distin- 
guished from those which are typical or symbolical. We are to avoid the confusion which 
results from commingling the exegesis of real allegories with an allegorizing of histories that 
are not allegorical. Nor, to satisfy our prejudices, are we arbitrarily to allegorize history 
and precept, or interpret severely according to the letter unmistakable allegorical figures, — a 
mode of exegesis in which Baur of Tiibingen excels. (See this Comm. Introd. to Eev.) 
The distrust aroused by this arbitrary allegorizing has led to a long-continued misunder- 
standing of all really symbolical and typical forms. But even when these forms are in gene- 
ral rightly understood, the types may be permitted to pass away into mere symbols ; that is, 
the classes of typical representations of the future into the classes of symbolical representa- 
tions of similarity, although both sorts of representations should be carefully distinguished. 
As an allegory, the priest was a pre-eminent representative of his people ; as a symbol, he 
was the expression of their longing after righteousness in perfect consecration to God; as a 
type, he was the forerunner of the perfect High Priest who was to come. 

sacrifice or typical worship. 
The antecedent and basis of sacrificial worship, of the typical completion of religious 
consecration, is religion itself or the relation between God and man, who answers the end of 



SACRIFICE OR TYPICAL WORSHIP. 



his being by self-consecration to God. The expressed will of God ia therefore the foundation 
of sacrifices, and He manifests Himself to the offerer by His presence, deciding the place 
and time of sacrifice, and by His ritual of sacrifice and His word, which explains the 
sacrifice. 

The sacrifice needs explanation because in the life of the sinner it has taken the form 
of a symbolic act. God, as the Omnipresent, primarily and universally demands the entire 
consecration of man, the sacrifice of his will, as is proved by the sacrifice of prayer "the 
calves of the lips," and by the daily sacrifice of the powers of life in active service of God 
(Eom. xii. 1). 

Man's religious nature, conscious of the imperfection of this spiritual sacrifice, has set 
up religious sacrifices as a sort of substitution. Therefore, from the beginning they have been 
only conditionally acceptable to Jehovah (Gen. i.) ; they had their influence on the natural 
development of heathenism, and in heathenism sank to the sacrifice of abomination ; for this 
reason, when Jehovah initiated the regeneration of man, He took them as well as man himi- 
self under his care (Gen. xxii.). Hence in His first giving of the law He did not prescribe 
but regulated by a few words a simple sacrificial worship (Ex. xx. 24) ; He accompanied the 
sacrifice with His explanation, and gradually caused the antithesis between the external act 
and the idea of sacrifice to appear (1 Sam. xv. 22 ; Psalm li.) ; afterwards he proclaimed the 
abomination of a mere external sacrifice (Isa. Ixvi.), as he had from the beginning abhorred 
the sacrifice of ,self-will (Isa. i.) ; but finally, with the fulfilment of all prophecy of sacrifice, 
in the obedience and death of Christ, He made an end of all external sacrifices (Heb. 
ix. 10, 14). 

Sacrifice can no more be turned by man into a mere outward act than religion itself. 
If he does not offer to God sacrifices that are well-pleasing, he offers sacrifices of abomina- 
tion, even though they may not bear the name of sacrifices in the Christian economy. The 
theocratic ritual of sacrifice was the legal symbolic course of instruction which was to edu- 
cate men to offer to their God and Redeemer the true sacrifices of the heart as spiritual 
burnt-offerings and sacrifices of thanksgiving. 

The immediate occasion of sacrifice is God's manifestation of Himself by revelation and 
personal presence, which arouses man to sacrifice. Its symbolic locality was indicated by a 
sign from heaven. Gen. xii. 7; xxviii.'12, or was a grove. Gen. xiii. 18, a hill (Moriah), af- 
terwards, when established by law, the sanctuary, the tabernacle, the temple. 

The temple was not merely the place for sacrifice, but primarily the dwelling-place of 
Jehovah, indicated by the laver in the court, by the golden lamp-stand in the Holy Place, by 
the cherubim and the ark of the covenant in the Holy of Holies. But, secondarily, it was the 
place for sacrifice, as was shown by the brazen altar, by the altar of incense in the Holy 
Place, by the mercy-seat in the Holy of Holies. Thirdly, the temple was the place where 
man came most closely in communion with God. In the court every priest, and so relatively 
every Israelite (in the peace-offerings), had his part in the sacrifice; in the Holy Place this 
communion with God was represented in the show-bread ; and in the Holy of Holies He 
was granted the vision of the glory of God (the Shekinah). 

The decisive act in the performance of the sacrifice was, on man's side, his approach to 
God (Jer. xxx. 21), to God's altar with his sacrifice; on God's side, it was the reception of 
the offering by fire ; the divine-human union in both acts was the burden of the temple 
praises and of the priest's blessing. 

As the temple was the holy place of sacrifice, bo the festival days of sacrifice were made 
holy. Yet every week-day, according to the ideal, was a day of festival, over which the the- 
ocratic festivals were exalted as epochs, the higher symbolic units of time, just as all Israel- 
ite houses, from the tents of Abraham and Moses, were houses of God which weie united 
and transfigured in the temple. The Passover was celebrated in houses, and so the principal 
sacrifice, the burnt- offering, was offered daily, and not only on the Sabbath. The season of 
festivals had its three ascents, just as the temple had its three courts ascending one from the 
other. On the basis of the Sabbath appears the Passover in connection with the feast of 
unleavened bread ; then the festival of weeks or Pentecost, and finally the great festival of 



38 SPECIAL INTRODUCTION TO THE THREE BOOKS. 

the seventh month, the feast of tabernacles, founded on the 'great day of repentance, the day 
of atonement. In the Sabbatic year man and nature rested, and the great year of Jubilee 
was a symbol of the restoration of all things. The year of Jubilee was a diminutive Eon. 

THE OEIGIIJ OF SACRIFICE. 

It is no more true that sacrifice was the product of the childlike conceptions of the ori- 
ginal man, as a supposed means of obtaining the favor of God, than that it was intended by 
man as a means of atonement, and contained a confes.iion of the sinner's guilt; nor is a 
magical effect to be ascribed to it, so that it became the source of superstition. Comp. Winer, 
Ueber die verschiedenen Deutungen des Opfers, 

The basis of sacrifice is the use and waste of life in work and pleasure, both of which, 
according to the original destiny of man, should be, but are not in reality, sanctified to God. 
There is this consciousness in man, and external sacrifice, as a prayer and as a vow, ia the 
confession of debt — a debt never paid. 

But as the heathen, by reason of his carnal mind, changed God's symbols into myths 
(Rom. i. 21), so also he changed sacrifice into a pretended meritorious service, and as he had 
acted against nature and his myths, his sacrifices became abominable. On the contrary, 
theocratic sacrifice was exalted until it found its solution in the holy human life of Christ. 
This exaltation was accomplished by a clearer explanation of its spiritual meaning by the 
word of God, whilst heathen sacrifice was covered with gross misinterpretation, and given 
over to the corruption of demons. The first explanation of sacrifice is found in the revela- 
tion and promise which precede sacrifice ; the second, in the principal of all sacrifices, the 
Passover-lamb, the spiritual meaning of which is plainly told (Ex. xii. 26) ; the third, in 
the distinctions and appointments of separate sacrifices in their relation to definite spiritual 
conditions ; the last explanation, in prophecy accompanying the sacrifice. 

As respects the significance of the sacrifices, we distinguish a legal, social and judicial, 
a symbolic, with special purpose of instruction, and a typical, prophetic significance. The 
legal aspect of sacrifice consists in the offerer's maintaining or restoring his legal relation to 
the theocratic people. This maintenance of law as respects the people by sacrifice Pharisa- 
ism charged to the acquiring of merit before God, and many in these days have attributed 
this heathen conception to sacrifice. 

The symbolic significance of sacrifice is the chief point of worship by sacrifice. The 
offerer expresses by the sacrifice his obligation to render in spirit and in truth the same sur- 
render which is represented by the animal to be sacrificed, that is, his sacrifice is a visible 
act representing a higher and invisible act, to wit, his confession, his vow and prayer, as the 
act of faith in hope with which he receives his absolution in hope [Trdpeai^, Rom. iii.). The 
typical significance of sacrifice corresponds to the general character of the Old Testament. 
The type is a description of that which is to come in prefigurative fundamental thought. 
And since the religion of Israel was a religion looking to the future, all its aspects were pre- 
monitions of its future. We distinguish typical persons, typical acts, typical customs and 
mental types. At the centre stand typical institutions, whose inner circle is sacrifice, and 
the ultimate centre the sacrifice of atonement on the great day of atonement. Mental types 
form the transition to oral prophecy, and often surround oral prophecy with significant 
expression as the calyx the bursting flower (Gal. iii. 16). 

THE DESIGN OF SACRIFICE. 

The design of sacrifice was its fulfilment in New Testament times. Similarly the law 
of worship as well as the law of the state was not abolished by being destroyed, but was ele- 
vated, exalted to the region of the Spirit. 

Thus Christ, in the first place, is the High Priest (see Ep. to Hebr.), and the Temple 
(John ii.), yea, the mercy-seat, llaarvpum, in the Holy of Holies, brought out of the Holy 
of Holies, and set before all men, that all may draw near (Rom. iii., see Coram.). Every 
kind of sacrifice is fulfilled in Him; He is the true Passover (John i. 29; 1 Cor. v. 7), the 



THE PURPOSES OF SACRIFICE AND THE VARIOUS KINDS OF SACRIFICES. 39 

great burnt-oflfering for humanity (Eph. v. 2), the altar of incense by His intercession (John 
xvii. ; Heb. V. 7); He is the trespass-offering (Isa. liii.) and the sin-offering (2 Cor. v. 21; 
Bom. viii. 3) ; on one side the curse (Gal. iii. 13), on the other the peace-offering in His Sup- 
per (Matt. xxvi. 26), the sanctified, sacrificial food of believers (John vi.). As He by entrance 
into the Holy of Holies of heaven has become the Eternal High Priest (Heb. ix. 10), so He 
accomplished His life-sacrifice by the eternal efficacy of the eternal Spirit. In Him was per- 
fected the oneness of priest and sacrifice. 

The High Priesthood of Christ imparts a priestly character to believers (1 Pet. ii. 9). 
By union with Christ they are built up a spiritual temple (1 Cor. iii. 16 ; 1 Pet. ii. 5), their 
prayer of faith is an entrance into the Holy of Holies (Rom. v. 2), and they take part in the 
sufferings of Christ in their spiritual suffering in and for the world (Rom. vi. ; Col. i. 24). 
They keep the true Passover (1 Cor. v.), which is founded upon the circumcision of the 
heart, regeneration (John iii.). They consecrate their lives as a whole burnt-offering to God 
in spiritual worship (Rom. xii. 1), and offer the incense of prayer ; they are a holy, separate 
people by their seclusion from the world, a sacrifice for others (Heb. xiii. 13), as opposed to 
the unholy separation of the world &om God. By repentance they partake of the condem- 
nation which Christ endured for them, and find their life in His sin-offering and atonement, 
whilst they pray for deliverance from guilt, not only for themselves, but also for others (the 
Lord's prayer) ; they enjoy their portion of the great sacrifice of peace and thanksgiving, 
and in life and death present themselves as a thank-offering. This life grows more and 
more manifest as life in the eternal priestly spirit, which is proved by obedience and conse- 
cration. 

THE PURPOSE OP SACEiriOE AND THE VAEIODS KINDS OF SACEIPICES. 

The Purpose. 

It must not be forgotten that the sacrifices of the Israelites were not derived from rude 
and untaught men, but that they presuppose circumcision or typical regeneration, and com- 
mence with the celebration of the Passover, that is, of typical redemption. Hence it is just 
as one-sided to behold in each bloody sacrifice an expression of desert of death, on account 
of the blood, which signifies life, and not death, and as sacrificial blood signifies the conse- 
cration of the life to God through death, as it is to deny that each sacrifice, even of thanks- 
giving, presupposes the sinfulness of man as a liability to death, and that therefore each the- 
ocratic sacrifice is of symbolical significance. 

Israel predestinated to be the holy people of the holy God, built upon a holy foundation, 
the covenant with Jehovah, should ever be holy unto Him. This holiness presupposes typi- 
cal purity. Hence this holy life must be surrounded with the discipline of the law of puri- 
fication. This holiness consists on the one side in utter rejection of sin and of that which is 
unholy ; on the other side, in positive consecration to God ; and both these aspects concur 
in every sacrifice (John xvii.). We can distinguish between the negative, exclu.sive sacri- 
fices (trespass-offering, sin-offering and atoning sacrifices), to which belong also the restora- 
tive sacrifices, and the positive consecrating sacrifices (burnt-offerings, peace-offerings and 
food-offerings). But the distinction between the ideas of sin and guilt must precede that 
between the different kinds of sacrifices. Sin is opposition to law regarded as a purely spi- 
ritual state ; guilt is sin conceived in its whole nature, in its consequences, a burdensome 
indebtedness which calls for satisfaction, suffering, expiation or atonement. Sin of to-day is 
guilt to-morrow, and perchance forever. The father's sin becomes the guilt of the family. 
The sin of the natural man falls as guilt on the spiritual man. Sin is ever guilt, and, by 
reason of the social nature of man, it falls not only on the transgressor, but also on his 
neighbors. Guilt also is generally sin ; but in individuals it may be reduced to the minimum 
of sin and indebtedness. In the sphere of love, through sympathy it falls as a burden 
most upon the less guilty and the innocent through the medium of natural and historical 
connection ; hence the touch of a dead body made one unclean. The sinner must suffer, 
and his innocent companion must suffer; but the suffering of the sinner, while he persists in 
Bin, is quantitative, dark, immeasurable, while the suffering of his companion is qualitative. 



40 SPECIAL INTRODUCTION TO THE THKEE BOOKS. 



illumined and efficacious expiation (CEdipus, Antigone), and thus there are innumerable 
subordinate atonements in the history of the world which point to the only true atonement. 
With sharper indication of their relations, we can distinguish three kinds of sin : 1. Sins, 
which not only bring guilt upon the tiansgressor, but also cast a burden of guilt on others; 
2 Guilt which arises from the connection of the sinner with the usages of the world ; 3. 
Trangressions, in which both of the above kinds more or less inhere, yet so that the idea of 
error is pre-eminent (nJJ?*). A certain degree of error and possible exculpation was com- 
mon to all sins committed unwittingly, not in conscious antagonism (with uplifted hand); 
these were objects of theocratic expiation, and did not make the transgressor a curse 

(cherem). 

As regards this curse (cherem), it may be asked, how far it belongs to the category of 
sacrifice as it is the antithesis of all sacrifices? Doubtless just so far as it is made sacred in 
accordance with the decree of God, and not aa an object given over to a miserable destruc- 
tion. Hence this curse (cherem) is not an absolute destruction, but only a conditional de- 
struction in this world. Among the first-born of the Egyptians who were made cherem on 
the night of the Passover, there may have been innocent little children. The Canaanites 
were made cherem because they were an insuperable stumbling-block to Israel. Even on 
the great day of atonement, when all the sins of which the people were unconscious were to 
be put away, there yet remained a hidden remnant of unpardonable sins, an anathema in 
Israel which was sent away with the goat of Azazel to Azazel in the wilderness, not as a 
theocratic sacrifice, but as a curse together with Azazel* under the decree of God (1 Cor. v. 
3-5). Thus the curse in Israel sank out of sight into the depths of its life till it brought 
Christ to the cross in spite of all Levitical expiations. Then by the ^dctory of grace the 
vipeaii became afeaii. 

THE VAKI0U9 KINDS OF SACRIPICES. 

3%e Chief Sacrifices by Fire; the Burnt-Offering and the Lesser Sin-Offerings and Trespass- 
Offerings. Lev. i. and Hi. 

The bumt-ofiering derives its name from the fact that it was wholly burnt ( 'V^), only 
excepting the excrement. So also the real sin-ofiering. Yet this distinction marks a con- 
trast ; the bumt-ofiering, its fat and flesh, was burned on the brazen altar ; while of the sin- 
ofiering of him who had brought guilt on others (Lev. iv. 3) only the fat, which, like the 
blood (and the kidneys and caul), especially belonged to the sanctuary, was burned on the 
altar; but of the sin-offering of a priest, or of the whole congregation, the entire body (the 
skin, flesh, etc., ch. iv. 11) was burned without the camp on the ash-heap in a clean place. 
The flesh of the sin-ofiering of a prince or of a common man was not burned (the priest 
should eat it, ch. vi. 26) ; only the fat was burned. In thank-oflerings the fat, kidneys and 
caul were burned. Of the meal-offerings only a handful was burned, the rest was for the 
priest; but the meal-offering brought by a priest was wholly burned, as was all the incense 
with each meal-offering. The lesser sin-oflerings were treated just as the trespass-offerings 
(ch. V. 6) ; the poor man brought a pigeon or a dove for a burnt-ofiering, and one for a sin- 
offering. In the class of trespass-offerings, in which trespass and sin coincide (ch. v. 15 f.), 
the burning took place just as in the lesser trespass and sin-offerings ; the flesh was the 
priests'. These offerings were also burdened with regulations of restoration and compensa- 
tion. More prominent still is the burning on the day of atonement of the goat which fell to 
Jehovah by lot ; as a sin-offering of the congregation it was wholly burned. The red heifer, 
slaughtered and cut in pieces without the camp was also without the camp wholly burned 
(Num. xix. 3). The extreme contrast to these is found in the burning of the remnants of 
the Passover, which seem to have served in a certain way as an illumination of the Passover- 
night. 

The offerings by fire form a contrast to the offerings of blood, the offerings by death, 
since they indicate the extinction of life by divine interposition. This interposition may be 
that of love and of the Spirit, taking up Elijah in a chariot of fire, or that of condemnalion, 

♦ See note, p, 43. 



PEACE OFFERINGS. 41 



burning up the cities wliich were accursed, the bodies of those stoned to death (Josh. vii. 26) 
and the bones of malefactuis. 

The burning of the red heifer was, by these flames of the curse (eherem), to the Israelites 
a warning that the unclean must be cleansed with the water for purification, which was min- 
gled with the ashes of the red heifer as a sin-offering (Num. xix. 9), 

Either the one fire or the other, says Christ (Mark ix. 43-49). Hence it is the calling 
of the Christian to offer his life as the burnt-offering of love and of the Spirit under God's 
leading, not willfully, but willingly, in accordance with the symbolic representation of sac- 
rifice. 

THE OFFERINGS OF BLOOD, THE GEEAT SIN-OFFEEINGS, TEESPASS-OFFEKINGS AND 
SACEIFI0E8 OF EXPIATION. 

With some commentators the offerings by fire retreat in just the degree in which the 
offerings of blood become prominent; with others the offerings by fire aod those of blood are 
equally prominent. 

Blood is the symbol of life and the soul ; hence the positive statement of the Lord con- 
cerning life and death (Lev. xvii. 11). But the offering of blood expresses the giving up of 
the sinful life to God through the death decreed by God, which is the wages of sin. 

The gradations in the movement of the sacrificial blood towards the mercy-seat in the 
Holy of Holies mark the solemn progress from devoted suffering of death to real atonement. 
The blood of the burnt-offering remained in the court ; it was sprinkled upon the altar. The 
blood of the lesser sin-offering was partly poured upon the brazen altar and partly put 
upon the horns of the same altar. This appears to be the regulation also for the trespass- 
offering. 

The greater sin-offerings, the offerings for the priest who had sinned, or for the whole 
congregation, seem to be the especial offerings of blood. In these only a part of the blood 
is poured out on the brazen altar; the other part was carried into the sanctuary, and not 
only were the horns of the golden altar touched with it, but the priest was to sprinkle of this 
blood seven times towards the curtain before the Holy of Holies. With what reserve and 
timidity is the hopeful longing after the perfected typical atonement expressed in this act 
(ch. iv. 1-21). 

On the great day of atonement the blood of atonement came into the Holy of Holies. 
First, Aaron must atone for himself with the blood of the bullock by significant symbolical 
sprinklings (ch. xvi. 14). Then he must atone for the sanctuary, because it, in a typical 
sense, is answerable for the uncleanness of the children of Israel and for their transgression, 
that is, this sacrifice was to supplement the imperfection of all ritual atonements, and by that 
point prophetically to the true sacrifice. 

PEACE -OFFEEINGS. 

These offerings which are divided into the three classes, of thanksgiving and praiae- 
offerings, of offerings because of vows, and of offerings of prosperity or contentment (ch. vii.), 
have little in common with the offerings by fire or the offerings of blood. The fat on the 
intestines, the two kidneys with their fat, and the caul upon the liver were to be burned. 
The blood was sprinkled on the altar round about. The priest received his portion of the 
fiesh as well as of the meal-offering, of which a part was burned on the altar. The remainder 
was for the offerer and his friends to feast upon. The thank or praise offering was to be 
held as especially sacred. None of it was to be left till the next day. This occasioned the 
calling in of poor guests. Both the other offerings might remain for a feast on the second 
day, but not on the third. All remains of the peace-offerings were to be burned ; they were 
thus distinguished from common feasts. These individual solemn offerings point to the fes- 
tival offerings in a wider sense. Festival-offerings in a wider sense are those in which com- 
mnnion with God is celebrated. The first general festival-offering is the Passover, the offer- 
ing of communion with God through redemption; the second general festival-offering ap? 



42 SPECIAL INTRODUCTION TO THE THREE BOOKS. 



pears at the extraordinary solemnization of the legislation on Sinai (Ex. xxiv. 11), and was 
continued by ordinance in the new meal-offering at Pentecost (Lev. xxiii. 16), and then in 
the weekly offering of the show-bread, which was brought every Sabbath in golden dishes 
according to the number of the tribes of Israel (Ex. xxv. 30 ; Lev. xxiv. 5, 6 ; Num. iv. 7 ; 
1 Sam. xxi. 6). The burnt offerings of usual worship were always attended by their 
meal and drink-offerings (Lev. xxiii.). Besides these meal and drink-offerings of usual wor- 
ship, there were also the special meal and drink-offerings. 

THE CONCRETE FORMS OF OFFERINGS. 

The originally simple or elementary forms of offerings become concrete forms of offerings 
throu"-h the religious idea. In the bloody offerings man brings to Jehovah his possession ; 
in the unbloody, the meal and drink-offerings, he brings the support of life. The best of his 
possessions and the best of his food are the expressions of the devotion of his whole being, 
with all that he possesses and enjoys. Hence each offering is, to a certain extent, an epitome 
of all the other offerings. This universality appears most plainly in that offering, which is 
the foundation of all the rest, the Passover lamb. The great fire-offering, or burnt-offering, 
which forms the centre of all offerings, is supplemented by various kinds of meal-offerings, 
which are again supplemented by oil, salt and incense. But since the meal-offering in great 
part was given to the priest, it became a peace-offering, except the meal-offering of the priest. 
The drink-offering is peculiarly an expression of this totality, for it was not drunk in the 
temple-enclosure, but was poured out on the altar. On the contrary, in the Passover, the 
cup is the centre of the feast. Even in the great sin-offering, the chief parts of which were 
burned without the camp, as a cherem, besides the expiation by sprinkling of the blood, the 
fat of the animal was made a burnt-offering; but of the lesser sin-offerings and trespass-offer- 
ings a part was taken as food for the priest. Besides the concrete acts of sacrifice, the ele- 
mentary forms are also represented ; the meal-offering with the drink-offering in the show- 
bread, the fire-offering in the daily burnt-offering, the peace-offering in the slaughtering of 
animals for food before the tabernacle finally the cherem in theocratic capital punishment. 
Over the offering rose the offering of incense as the symbol of prayer. 

It is plain from the distinct expressions of the Holy Scriptures (Ps. cxli. 2 ; Eev. viii. 
4) that the offering of incense upon the golden altar is a symbolical and typical representa- 
tion of the sacrifice of prayer. The basis of the incense-offering is the incense of the offer- 
ings which rose from the sacrificial fires, "the sweet savor," Eph. v. 2, particularly of the 
burnt-offering. There was no burnt-offering without incense, for no consecration to God is 
complete without a life of prayer, and this life of prayer was the soul.of the offering. Hence 
it is placed in a class by itself, in the incense-offering on the altar of incense (Ex. xxx. 7, 
10). And for this reason also it accompanies the various offerings, the meal-offering and 
drink-offering (Lev. ii. 16), and the offering of show-bread (Lev. xxiv. 7). Finally the offer- 
ing of incense appears most prominently in connection with the offering on the great day of 
atonement. Then the high-priest was to envelop himself in the Holy of Holies in a cloud 
of incense lest he die (Lev. xvi. 13). Thus the offering of incense constantly pointed towards 
the spiritualization of the offering, that is, from the law to prophecy. 

THE ORGANISM OF SACRIFICIAL WORSHIP. 

All the various phases are contained in the Passover-offering. The fact is important, 
that in the offering of the Passover the father of the family acted as priest. The idea of the 
universal priesthood therefore is the foundation of all the offerings, and this proves that the 
office of the priesthood was only a legal and symbolical representation of the whole people. 

The atoning blood, with which the door-posts of the house were smeared, was the tnost 
important part of the Passover-offering. On one side of this was the cherem, the slaying 
of the first-born of the Egyptians ; on the other side was the peace or thank-offering of which 
the family partook in the Passover meal. On the one side were the slaughterings of animals 
for food before the tabernacle and the use of them in the meal at home ; on the other, the 



OFFERINGS EXPRESSIVE OF COMMUNION. 43 



legal cherem of theocratic capital punishment extended in the death bringing curse which, 
with the fall, came upon all men. The most important part of the Passover was concluded 
by the burning of the remains of the feast. 

From this basis are developed the various divisions of the offerings, to be united again 
in the single apex of the great offering of atonement in connection with the feast of taberna- 
cles. By this apex Old Testament offerings point beyond themselves, making a plain dis- 
tinction by means of the goats between pardonable sin and unpardonable sin, which was 
given over to the wilderness and Azazel.* 

Between the basis and the apex of the offerings are found their numerous divisions. "We 
distinguish between initiative, that is, offerings at times of consecration, and those expressive 
of communion, and offerings at times of restoration, with a parallel distinction between ordi- 
nary and extraordinary offerings. The distinction between bloody and unbloody offerings, 
or meal offerings, belongs to the offerings expressive of communion. The meal-offerings and 
drink-offerings may be regarded as the best expression of communion. They are connected 
with the burnt-offerings. One of the chief distinctions is found between the usual offerings 
in the worship of the congregation and the casual offerings. Op the other hand there is a 
correspondence between the prohibition of unclean animals and that of some unbloody 
objects (honey, leaven). 

1. OFFEKINGS AT TIMES OF CONSECKATION. 

1. The covenant-offering consisting of burnt-offerings and thank-offerings (Ex. xxiv. 5) 
performed by young men from the people ; 2. The heave offering, or tax for the building of 
the tabernacle (Ex. xxxv. 5) ; 3. The anointing of the tabernacle, its vessels, and the priests 
(Ex. xl.: Lev. viii.); 4. The offerings at the consecration of the priests, consisting of the 
sin-offering, the burnt-offering, and the offering of the priest for thanksgiving (Lev. viii.), 
and, in connection with these, the offerings of the people as priests (Lev. ix. 3; ch. xv.) ; 5. 
The offerings of the princes, as heads of the state and leaders in war, for the temple- treasury 
(Num. vii. 1 ; the offerings at the consecration of the Levites (Num. viii. 6) ; the offerings 
for the candlestick and the table of show-bread (Lev. xxiv.). 

2. OFFERINGS EXPEES9IVE OF COMMUNION. 

a. Continual Offerings in the Temple by the Congregation. 

1. Daily offerings (the fire never to be put out, Lev. vi. 13). 

2. Sabbath-offerings. 

3. Passover, Daily offerings for seven days. The sheaf of first-fruits, Lev. xxiii. 

4. Pentecost. The wave-loaves. A burnt-offering of seven lambs, two young bullocks, 
one ram, a he-goat for a sin-offering, two he-lambs for a thank-offering. 

5. Day of Atonement, the great Sabbath on the tenth day of the seventh month. Lev. 
xxiii. The atoning offering of this day plainly belongs to the restorative offerings. The 
feast of tabernacles on the fifteenth of the seventh month. Daily offerings for seven days 
from Sabbath to Sabbath. Fruits, branches of palm trees, green boughs. 

By the sabbatic year and year of jubilee the symbolic offerings pass into figurative ethi- 
cal acts (Lev. xxv.). So also the tithes form a transition from the law of worship to the 
civil law, or rather indicate the influence of ecclesiastical law in the state. 

Offerings expressive of communion, closely considered, are those from which the priests 
received their portion as food. Of these the principal was the show-bread ; then the meal- 
offerings and various other offerings. 

• [The ftnthor, togother with many commentators, reEttrds the word azazel, which oconrs only in Lev. xvi. 8, 10, 28 m 
a proper name. Its position of antithesis to " Jehovah " lends some color to this assumption. But with equal exuctness of 
philology, it may be a common noun, meaning " removal," or " utter removal." If we assume it to be a prop r name, 
we enter into difflcalties of interpretation that are insuperable : if we take it as » common noun, the meaning and intep 
pretation are very plain and simple. — H. 0.] 



44 SPECIAL INTRODUCTION TO THE THREE BOOKS. 



b. Individual, Casual and Free-will Offerings expressive of Communion. 

The centre between the preceding and this division is formed by the Passover, supple- 
mented hj the little Passover (Num. ix,), which was at the same time universal and indivi- 
dual. Connected with it in universality is the offering of the Nazarite (Num. vi. 13 f., burnt- 
oflFering, sin-offering, thank-offering). 

In the middle stands the burnt-offering. 

On one side of the burnt-offering stand the peace-offerings, of three kinds. 

a. Offerings in payment of vows. 

b. Thank-offerings. 

c. Offerings of prosperity. 

Beyond these were the slaughtering of animals for food before the tabernacle, which 
bore some similarity to a sacrifice, and marked the food of flesh as a special gift from God. 
On the other side of the burnt-offering stand the sin-offerings and trespass-offerings, of three 
kinds. 

a. Sin-offerings. 

b. Trespass-offerings, related to trespasses that became sin. 

c. Trespass-offerings in the strict sense. 

Beyond these was the curse, the cherem. The transition to the cherem was formed by 
the burnings without the camp, as of the great sin-offerings, and particularly of the red 
heifer from which the water for sprinkling was prepared (Num. xix.). 

3. KESTOSA.TIVE OFFERINGS, EBSTOEING COMMUNION. 

The series of these offerings, which were preceded by purification, begins with the offer- 
ing of women after child-birth (Lev. xii.). This was followed by the offering of the healed^ 
leper and the offering for houses cleansed of leprosy (Lev. xiii. and xiv.). All offerings of 
restoration culminate in the mysterious offering of the great day of atonement (Lev. xvi.). 
To the casual offerings of this kind belong the offering of jealousy and the water causing the 
curse (Num. v. 12 f ) ; the offering of a Nazarite made unclean by contact with a dead body 
(Num. vi. 10) ; the water mingled with the ashes of a red heifer (Num. xix.). The cherem 
serves to distinguish the capital punishment with which those who sinned with uplifted hand 
were threatened, from the offerings for atonement of those who sinned unwittingly, in order 
to restore the purity of the people. Death is threatened against all conscious opposition to 
the law, whether of omission or of commission ; the symbolic, significant putting away from 
the congregation of the living. 

The common offerings, the wave-offering and heave-offering, the tithes for the offerings, 
and the supply of the oil for the light are closely connected with the life of the Israelite con- 
gregation, in which everything becomes an offering, the first-fruits of the field, the first-born 
of the house, the tithes of the harvest, the host for war. The extraordinary offerings exhibit 
the tendency of the offering towards a realization in the ideal offering. The Passover and 
the offerings at times of consecration, the offerings of the Nazarite, the offering of the red 
heifer, and even the offering of jealousy, were designed to exhibit the ideal host of God 
The offering of atonement, of all the offerings in this class, encloses within itself the most 
complete types. 

THE MATEEIAL OF THE OFFERINGS AND THE COEEESPONDENCE OF THE OFFEEING TO 

THE GUILT. 

The chief of these is the Passover-lamb according to the legal conditions (Ex. xii.). The 
bumt-offeriiig was to consist of a male animal without blemish (Lev. i. 2). For spiritual 
worship there was required the manly spirit of positive consecration (Rom. xii. 1). Even 
when the offerer brought a sheep or a goat it must be a male (Lev. i. 10). But the poor, 
instead of these, might bring doves or ynung pigeons. The sin-offering of the anointed 
priest, as well as that of the whole congregation, was a young bullock. The sin-offerin^ of 



THE PORTIONS OF THE OFfEEINGS FOB THE PKIESTS. 46 



a prince must be a male ; when from the flock, it must be a he-goat. On the other hand, 
one of the common people might offer a female, a she-goat; a very important scale of 
responsibility for transgressions. The transgression of the high-priest was equivalent to the 
transgression of the whole congregation, and greater than the transgression of a prince. 

For the simple trespass-offering the least was required, a female of the flock, sheep or 
goat; or, when from the poor, two doves or young pigeons; and, if he was not able to get 
these, he might bring the tenth of an ephah of fine flour. But, for trespass-offerings, which 
were ordained for great transgressions, a ram must be brought, and in addition to the resto- 
ration of that which was unjustly acquired, the fifth part of the same must be given. This 
tax is uniform as respects affairs of the Church, religious laws and private property. In 
peace-offerings it was optional with the offerer to offer an animal of the herd or of the flock, 
male or female, provided that it was entirely without blemish. The meal-offerings consisted 
of fine flour, uncooked, or baked, or roasted, with the accompanying oil and frankincense 
and salt. Honey and leaven were prohibited. 

At the consecration of Aaron and his sons, at the beginning of the eight days of conse- 
cration, a bullock was offered as a sin-offering and a ram as a burnt-offering ; in addition to 
these, a ram of consecration (Lev. viii. 22) and " out of the basket of unleavened bread that 
was before the Lord" "one unleavened cake, one cake of oiled bread and one wafer;" and 
at the end of the eight days there was offered a young calf as a sin-offering and a ram as a 
burnt-offering. The congregation of Israel also offered a he-goat as a sin-offering, and a calf 
and a lamb of a year old as a burnt offering. And, as expressive of the estimation of the 
priesthood by the congregation, they offered a bullock and a ram as a thank-offering. Even 
on the great day of atonement the high-priest must first atone for himself with a young bul- 
lock as a sin-offering and a ram as a burnt-offering. But the congregation, as a confession 
of their subordinate and less responsible spiritual position, offered two he-goats as a sin- 
offering, and a ram as a burnt-offering. 

THE KITUAL OF THE OFFERINGS. 

Por the ritual of the Passover, see this Comm., Matt. xxvi. 17-30. For the ritual of the 
offerings generally, we refer to works on archaeology and our exegesis. The duties of the 
offerer were : 1. The right choice of the animal ; 2. To bring it to the priest in the court of 
the tabernacle ; 3. To lay his hand upon the head of the animal as the expression of his 
making the animal the typical substitute of his own condition and intention ; 4. To slay the 
animal; 5. To take off the skin. The duties of the oflSciating priest were : 1. The reception 
of the blood and the sprinkling of it ; 2. The lighting of the fire on the altar ; 3. The burn- 
ing of the animal, and with this, 4. Cleansing the altar and keeping the ashes clean. Spe- 
cially to be marked are : 1. The gradations of the burning ; 2. The gradations of the sprin- 
kling of the blood ; 3. The gradations of the solemnity of the feast ; 4. The gradations of 
the cherem. 

THE POBTIONS OF THE OFFERINGS FOR THE PRIESTS. 

The greater part of the meal-offerings was given to the priest; but his own meal-offering 
he must entirely burn up Lev. vi. 23. The flesh of the sin-offerings (except the great sin- 
offering of a priest or of the whole congregation, Lev. vi. 20) was given to the priest who 
performed the sacrifice ; only the holy could eat it in a holy place Lev. vi. 27. and the 
same was true of the trespass-offering, Lev. vii. 7 ; comp. the directions concerning the meal- 
offering, ver. 9. Of the burnt-offering the priest received the skin, Lev. vii. 8. Of the meal- 
offerings connected with the peace-offerings the priest received his portion. Lev. vii. 14. Of 
the thank-offering he received the breast and the right shoulder. Lev. vii. 31, 33. These 
portions of the offerings could support only those priests who officiated in the temple, not 
their families, or the priests who were not officiating. Their support they received under 
the ordinance respecting payments in kind, particularly the tithes paid by the people. 



46 SPECIAL INIRODUCTION TO THE THREE BOOKS. 



THE STRICTNESS OF THE KITUAL OF THE CFFERIUaS AS THE EXPEESSION OF THE 
DISTINCTNESS AND IMPORTANCE OF THE DOCTRINE OP THE OFFERINGS. 

As respects the Passover, it is to be remarked, that the law threatened death to those 
who should in the seven days of unleavened bread eat bread that waa leavened, and thus 
typically obliterate the dividing line between light and darkness. The significance of the 
unleavened bread is the separation of the life of the Israelites from the worldly, heathen, 
Egyptian life. Leaven is also excluded from the meal-offerings, not because in itself it rep- 
resents the unclean and the evil (see this Comm., Matt, xiii.), for at Pentecost two leavened 
loaves were offered upon the altar. Lev. xxiii. 17, but because in the holy food all participa- 
tion in the common worldly life even of Israel should be avoided. Thus too honey is strin- 
gently prohibited from the meal-offering, probably as an emblem of Paradise, which was 
typified by Canaan, the land flowing with milk and honey ; and so it was an expression of 
the fact, that in Paradise offerings should cease, Lev. ii. 11. The assertion that leaven and 
honey were prohibited, because of their quality of fermentation, is at variance with the per- 
mission of wine. The portion of the meal-offerings accruing to the priests were to be eaten 
only by them in the temple-enclosure ; for it represented communion with the Lord. There 
was also a decided prohibition against eating of the thank-offering on the third day after it 
was offered. Lev. vii. 18. Also no unclean person should eat of the flesh of the offering, nor 
should one eat of the flesh of an offering which had become unclean ; it must be burned with 
fire. A sacred feast of two days might easily become secularized by the third day. The 
Passover-lamb must be eaten on the first day. There was also a stringent provision that 
those about to be consecrated as priests should during the consecration remain seven days 
and nights before the door of the tabernacle. Lev. viii. 35. The sons of Aaron, Nadab and 
Abihu, were smitten with death because they brought strange fire on their censers before the 
Lord. The service in the sanctuary excluded all self-moved and purely human excitation • 
and for this reason the sons of Aaron were to drink neither wine nor any strong drink during 
service in the sanctuary on pain of death. There was also a stringent provision that the high- 
priest when he went into the Holy of Holies should surround himself with a cloud of incense 
lest he die. The atonement was perfected only in the atmosphere of prayer. Lev. xvi. Even 
over the common slaughtering of animals for daily food there was the threat of death. 
Unthankful enjoyment of the gifts of God was punished with death, Lev. xvii. 4 • and so 
with the eating of blood, Lev. xvii. 10, 11. Besides, not only must the offerer be typically 
pure, and offer only that which was typically pure, but there was the constantly repeated 
requirement that the animal must be without blemish and in exact accordance with the 
requirements of gender and age. 

Eating blood was forbidden because it bore the life, the life of the flesh, Lev. xvii. 10. 
The fat also ofbeasts fit for sacrifice waa appointed for sacrifice; it belonged to the Lord, 
Lev. iii. 17; vii. 23, 26; xvii. 6. As respects the offering for atonement particularly, we 
must refer to the exegesis. The special point to be marked is the distinction between this 
offering as the culmination of all purifications and of the series of festivals. 

The typical contrast between clean and unclean, on which all the laws of purifications 
rest, is of great significance. See the treatise of Sommer in the synopsis of the literature. 
Uncleanness was the ground for all exclusions from the holy congregation, and delivering 
over to the unholy world without. Cleanness was the warrant of adhesion to the holy con- 
gregation. The particular means of purification waa lustration, the theocratic type which 
developed into the prophetic idea of sprinkling with clean water, into John's baptism and 
finally into Christian baptism. ' 

The heathen having been previously circumcised might by lustration become a mem- 
ber of the theocratic congregation, and gradually, under the influence of this fact the court 
of the Israelites was enlarged for a court of the Gentiles.* ' 



* [If by •■ lustration •■ the author me.na sprinkling, that wo^ ordainsd only in certain specifled cases for those already 
wlthm the congregation, >. e„ at the cleaning of the leper. Lev. xiv.; at the consecration of the Levitee, Numb vili 7 Md 
at the cleansing of the Israelites made unclean by touching a dead body, Numb, six.— H. O.J 



THE STRICTNESS OF THE RITUAL OF THE OFFERINGS, ETC 47 

Corresponding to the classification of clean and unclean men was that of clean and 
unclean animals. The conceptions of the Pharisees concerning washing with unclean hands 
as well as the antiquated ideas of Peter, Acts x., show us how the idea of cleanness, as well 
as the idea of the law itself, might become materialized. It is not unimportant that the first 
form of uncleanness, the uncleanness of a woman in childbirth, appears as a fruit of the 
excess of natural life. With this excess of life correspond diseases. Among unclean ani- 
mals are found, on the one side, those most full of life ; on the other side, those which creep'. 
Cleanness by cleansing in water is only negative holiness ; it became positive only through 
sacrifice. For holiness has two sides : separation from the unholy world and consecration to 
the service and fellowship of the holy God. On the laws of purification see Joachim Lange, 
Mosaisohes Licht und Recht, p. 673 f. That all the holy observances are connected with that 
requiring purity of blood, and consequently of the relations of the sexes, is undeniably of 
great significance. Concerning the forbidden degrees of intermarriage we must refer to the 
exegesis and the works on this subject, especially to those of Spoendli and Thiersch. We 
must also mention the noble codex of theocratic duties of humanity. Lev. xix. It is only in 
the light of these laws of humanity that the punitive laws. Lev. xx., are rightly seen. They 
are in the service of ideal humanity not less than the others. The theocratic sanctity of the 
priest, Lev. xxi., is quite another picture of life, like the sanctity of the priest after Gregory 
VII. and during the Middle Ages. 

We must refer to the Exegesis and an abundant literature respecting the ordinances of 
the beautiful festivals of Israel, and respecting the special emphasis of the sanctity of the 
light in Jehovah's sanctuary and the prophetic and typical Jubilee of the year of Jubilee. 
The antithesis of the proclamation of the blessing and the curse assures us, that here we are 
dealing with realities which must continue though the religious interpretation of them should 
entirely cease. The law's estimate of the vow points to the sphere of freedom, in which 
everything is God's own, committed to the conscientious keeping of man. 

NUMBERS. 

The most important points in the first section of the book of Numbers are the following: 
1. The typical significance of the Israelite army; 2. The significance of the service of the 
Levites with the army and in the tabernacle ; 3. Rules for preserving the camp holy ; 4. The 
offering of jealousy and the water which brought the curse, or the hindrances of married life 
in the holy war ; 5. The vow of the Nazarite, or the significance of the self-denying warriors 
in the holy war; 6. The free-will ofierings of the princes (chief men and rich men) ; 7. The 
care of the sanctuary; 8. Worship in the wilderness and God's guidance of the host, ch. ix.; 
9 The signals of war and of peace, the trumpets. 

After the commencement of the march we are brought to see the sinfulness of God's 
host, their transgressions and punishments in their typical significance ; especially the home- 
sickness for Egypt ; the seventy elders to encourage the people as a blessing in this distress. 
Against this blessing stands in contrast their calamity in eating the quails. Mixed marriage 
on its bright side, ch. xii. Concerning the spies, the abode in Kadesh, the rebellion of Korah 
and his company, the significance of the mediation of Aaron and of his staff that blossomed, 
of the rights of the priests and Levites, the ashes of the red heifer, and the failure of Moses 
at the water of strife, we must refer to the Exegesis. 

For our views with respect to the second departure from Kadesh, which we trust will 
serve to correct some errors, we must refer to the exegetical sections on the King of Arad, 
the passage of the brooks of Arnon, the over-estimated prophecies of Balaam, the great dan- 
ger of Israel's addiction to a worship of lust, and especially the revision of the views con- 
cerning the stations of the march, ch. xxxiii. 

The second census of the people illustrates the necessity and value of theocratic statistics. 
The daughters of Zelophehad form a station in the history of the development of the rights 
of women — rights which had been greatly marred by sin. The ordering of the festivals in 
the book of Numbers shows us that the solemn festivals are also social festivals, and that 
they are of great significance in the life of the people and in the state The subordination 
of the authority of woman in respect to the family, to domestic ofierings, to external afiairs. 



48 



SPECIAL INTRODUCTION TO THE THREE BOOKS. 



is of special significance for our times when woman has well-nigh freed herself. Concerning 
the war for vengeance on the Midianites, we must also refer to the Exegesis. The treatment 
of the tribes of Keuben, Gad, and the half tribe of Manaaseh was a master-piece of theocratic 
policy, aa well as a strong testimony to the great blessing of the nation's unity. The Old 
Testament limits and enclosure of the law by the boundaries of Cajiaan is also a testimony 
against the claims of the absolute supremacy of the law. Concerning the legal signifi- 
cance of the free cities, see^the Exegesis. The close of this book which treats of the 
state significantly protects the rights of the tribes, and illustrates a doctrine of signal impor- 
tance for churches, states and nationalities in strong contrast with the notion of old and new 
Babel that the uniformity of the world is the condition and soul of the unity of the world. 
The plan of encampment will be seen by the following sketch : 



WJSST. 



EPHEAIM, 40,600. 
MANASSBH, 36,200. BENJAMIN, 36,400. 






OS 



o 





QBBSON. 




ta 




s 


a 




H 


i 


TABi:RirACI.E. 


^ 


M 






•sisaiad 





w 






a 
> 

w 



ZBBTJLON, T6,000. ISSAOHAK, 64,400. 

.JUDAH, 74,000. 



JEAST. 



This, despite severe criticism, proves itself by certain marks to be a very ancient record. 
Benjamin is separated from Judah, and is under the leading of Ephraim. Nothing is said 
of a division of the tribe of Manasseh, and its position is far from that of Reuben and Gad. 
Ephraim appears as one of the smaller tribes. 

The abundant care for the poor in Israel has been treated at length by Zellek, Super- 
intendent of the School for the Poor in Beuggen, in the Monatshlatt von Beuggen, August, 
1845, No. 8. On Kadesh see Tuch on Gen. xiv. in Zeitschrifi der deutschen morgenlandischen 



THEOLOGICAL LITERATURE OP THE THREE BOOKS. 49 

Oesellschafi, 1847, p. 179 f. Also see the articles on Kadesh in Heezog's Enaychpeedie and 
Schenkel's Bibellexicon. The most important works on the Book of Numbers are quoted 
as occasioa requires; G. D. Kkummachek; Menken, Die eherne Sohlange; Hengsten- 
BEEG, Balaam; Eiehm, et al. See also Danz, Universalworterbuch, p. 699. Winek, I., 
p. 202. 

theological liteeatttee of the theee books. 

See this Comm., Indexes of the Literature in Introduction to Gen. and to Matt. ; 
Heideggee, Enchiridion, p. 15 ; Walch, Bihlioth. iv. 437 ; Winer, 134 ff., 202 ; Appendix, 
p. 27-31 ; Danz, p. 745 ff.; Suppl. p. 81; Haetwig's Tabellen, p. 29; Hagenbach, pp 186, 
199 ; Works by J. J. Hess, Kuinoel, G. L. Baube, De Wette, Jost, Leo, Beetheau, 
E-WALD, Lengeeke and others. Later, Bunsen's Bibelwerh, DiECHSEL's Bibelwerk, Bees- 
LAU, Duelfee. Comprehensive treatises on the three books are found in histories of Old 
Testament religion, of the kingdom of God and in compendiums of biblical theology. We 
must also include in this list the writings of JosEPHUS, Philo, Oeigen, Eusebius, Jeeomb 
and others which refer to this subject. 

Lexicons. — Schbnkel's Bibellexicon. 

Biblical Theology. — Betjno Bauee, Religion des AUen Testaments: Vatke, Baue, 
Schultz, von dee Goltz; Ewald, Die Lehre der Bibel von Gott, Vol. I.; Die Lehre vom 
Worte Ooites, Vol. II. ; Die Olaubenslehre, erste haelfte, Leipzig, 1871 ; Diestel, Geschichte 
des Alien Testaments in der Ghristlichen Eirche, Jena, 1869 ; Zahn, Ein Gang dureh die 
Heilige Geschichte, Gotha, 1868 ; Baue, Geschichte der alttestamentlichen Weissagung, 1 Theil, 
1861; ZlEGLEE, Bisforische EntwicMimg der gottlichen Offenbarvmg ; DeWette, Die biblisehe 
Geschichte als Geschichte der Offenbarwng Gottes, Berlin, 1846. 

Consult the works of earlier writers, as Aeetius, Beenz, Geotius, Osiandee, Dathe, 
Vater, Haetmann. Mve Books of Moses, Berleburger Bibel, new ed., Stuttgart, 1856 ; 
Clbeicos on Pentateuch, Amsterdam, 1693 ; Joachim Lange, Mosaisches lAcht und JRecht ; 
Hengstenbbeg, Ohristology of the Old Testament, Egypt and the Books of Moses, Balaam, Die 
Opfer der ITeiligen Schrift, Die Geschichte des Reiches Gottes ; Bleek, Introduction to the Old 
Testament; Baumgaeten, Kommenlar zum Alten Testamient, 2 Theil e; Kuetz, History of 
the Old Covenant, 3 vols.; Knobbl, Kommentare zu Exodus, Leviticus und Humeri; Keil 
and Dblitzsch, Biblical Oommeniary, Pentateuch, T. & T. Clark, Edinburgh. 

Works by Jev7s. — Salvadoe, Histoire des Institutions de Moyse et du peuple hebreux, 3 
vols., Paris, 1828; Philippson, Die Israelitische Bibel, Der Pentateuch, Leipzig, 1858; 
ZUNZ, Uebersefzung des Alten Testaments ; R. S. Hiesch, Der Pentateuch ubersetzt und erlau/- 
tert, Frankfurt, a. m., 1867-9; Haezheimee, Die 24 Bucher d^r Bibel, Pentateuch, Leipzig; 
Mandelbaum, Die Bibel neu ubersetzt und erkldrt, Mnleitung in dem Pentateuch, Berlin, 
1864. 

Historical Works. — AenAXTD, Jje Pentateuch mosaique, d^fendu contre les attaques de la 
crUique negative, Paris, 1865 ; Fxteest, Geschichte der biblischen Literatur, 2 Bande, Leipzig, 
1867 ; H. Weight, The Pentateuch with * * TranslaUon, specimen part. Gen. i.-iv., London, 
1869 ; Beaem, Israel's Wanderung von Gosen bis zum Sinai, Elberfeld, 1859 ; Colbnso, The 
Pentateuch, 1863 (a sample of traditional, abstractly literal interpretation). In opposition to 
COLENSO, The Historic Character of the Pentateuch Vindicated, Lond.,1863; The Mosaic Ori- 
gin of the Pentateuch, by a Layman, London, 1864 ; GeAP, Die geschichtlichen Bucher des 
Alten Testaments, Leipzig, 1866; HiTZiG, Geschichte des Volkes Israel, Ijeipzig, 1869; Ebees, 
EgypUn und die Bucher Moses; writings of Beugsch, Lipsius and Gtttsohmid, Beitrdgezwr 
Geschichte des AUen Orients zur Wurdigung von Bunsen's Egyplen, 1857 ; J. Beaitn, Histo- 
rische Landschaflen, Stuttgart, 1867 ; K. VON Eaumee, Der Zug der Israeliten aus Egypten 
nach Kanaan, Langensalza, 1860 ; Voeltee, Das heilige Land und das Lan-I der israelitschen 
Wanderung; Holtzmann und Weber, Geschichte des Volkes Israel und der Entstehung des 
Christenthums, Leipzig, 1867 ; Noeldeke, Die alttestamentliche Literatur in einer Reihe von 
Aufsdtzen, Leipzig, 1868; Bunsen, God in History; BuscH, Ur geschichte des Orients, 2 
Banrle, Ijeipzig; Stier, Heilsgeschichte des Alten Testaments, Halle, 1872; Laboede, Com- 
4 



50 SPECIAL INTRODUCTION TO THE THREE BOOKS. 

mentaire giograpUque sur VExode et lea Hombres, Paris, 1841; Faiebaibn, The Typology of 
Scripture, Edinburgh, 1854 ; Mills, Sacred Symhology, or an Inquiry into the Principles of 
the Interpretation of the Prophetic Symbols, Edinburgh, 1853 ; Beke, Origines Ublicae, Lon- 
don, 1854. 

Special Treatises. — Eanke, Untersuchungen ; 'S'ett'E.Ij'ES., Studien uber die ^chtheitdes 
Pentateuchs, MUnster, 1867 ; Kohn, Samaritanische Studien, Breslau, 1866 ; Tbip, Tkeopha- 
nien in den Oeschichts biichern des Alten Testaments, Leiden, 1858 ; TuCH, Sinaitische Inschrif- 
ten, Leipzig, 1846 ; Appia, JEssai biographique sur Moyse, Strasburg, 1853 ; Chapptjis, De 
Vandea Testament, considtri dan ses Rapports avec le Ghristianisme, Lausanne, 1858 ; Salo- 
mon, Moses der Mann Ooties, 1835 ; Siegel, Moses ; Boettcher, Exegetische ^hrenlese zum 
Alten Testament, Leipzig, 1864; Friederioh, Zur Bibel; Haetmann, Historisch Kritische 
Forschungen. Berlin, 1831; Huellmann, Staats!verfa,ssung der Israeliten; Unqee, Chronolo- 
gie des Manetho, Berlin, 1866; treatises of a popular character by Kiechlofee, Statjdt, 
Steglich, Postel and others ; special articles in Herzog's Encyclopxdie and in the Jahr- 
bucher fur deutsche Theologie from 1858-1872, and in the Studien und Kritiken, 1872. 

On Hebrew art, see the Archaeologies by Keil and others. On Hebrew poetry Lowth, 
Herder, Saalschuetz, Sack, Taylor. 

On the relation of the Old Testament to Assyria, Scheader, Die Kdlinschriften und 
das Alte Testament, Giessen, 1872. 



EXODUS. 



THE SECOND BOOK OF MOSES. 

(niOB' rhii); 'E^odo<:: Exodus.) 



THE PB0PHETIC0-ME8SIANIC THEOCRACY— OR THE GENESIS, REDEMPTION 
AND SANCTIFICATION OP THE COVENANT PEOPLE. 



FIRST DIVISION: MOSES AND PHARAOH. 

THE TTPIOAILT BIONIFIOAHT REDEMPTION OF ISEAEl OUT OF HIS SERVITUDE IN EGYPT AS PRELI- 
MINART CONDITION OF AND PREPARATION FOE THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE TYPICAL KINGDOM 
OF GOD (the theocracy) BY MEANS OF THE MOSAIC LEGISLATION — OR THE THEOOEATIO 
FOUNDATION FOR THE LEGISLATION OF ALL THE THREE BOOKS. 

Chapters I.— XVIII. 



FIRST SECTION. 

The Qenesis of the Covenant People of Israel, of their Servitude, and of the Pore- 
tokens of their Redemption as one people. An analogue of the Development of 
Mankind as a unit, of their Corruption and the Preparation for their Salvation. 
The calling of Moaes and his twofold Mission to bis people and to Pharaoh. 

Chaps. I.— VII. 7. 

A.— GROWTH AND SERVITUDE OP THE ISRAELITES IN EGYPT— AND 
PHARAOH'S PURPOSE TO DESTROY THEM. 

Chap. I. 1-22.* 

1 Now these are the names of the children of Israel which [who] came into 

2 Egypt; every man and his household came with Jacob: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, 
3, 4 and Judah ; Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin ; Dan, and Naphtali, Gad and 

5 Asher. And all the souls that came out of the loins of Jacob were seventy souls ; 

6 for [and] Joseph was in Egypt already. And Joseph died, and all his brethren, 

7 and all that generation. And the children of Israel were fruitful, and increased 
abundantly, and multiplied, and waxed exceeding mighty, and the land was filled 

8 with them. Now [And] there arose a new king over Egypt which [who] knew not 

9 Joseph. And he said unto his people, Behold, the people of the children of Israel 
10 are more and mightier than we. Come on [Come], let us deal wisely [pru- 
dently'] with them, lest they multiply, and it come to pass that, when there falleth 

TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL. 

* [Ver. 10. riD3nn3. Lange, Oesonins, Arnbelm, and Pbilippson, translate this uberUsUn, "outwit." But the Hithp. 
■form occurs, besides here, only in Eccl. Tii. 18, and there has the signification proper to the Hithpael, viz., to deem one's- 

• [The Authorized Version is followed in the translation from the Hebrew, except that " Jehovah " is everywhere sub- 
stituted for " the Lord." In other cases, where a change in the translation is thought to be desirable, the proposed emen- 
dation is inserted in brackets. — Tb] 



EXODUS. 



out any war [when a war occurreth], they join also [they also join themselves] unto 
our enemies, and fight against us, and so get them up [and go up] out of the 

11 land. Therefore they did set [And they appointed] over them taskmasters, to 
afflict them with their burdens ; and they built treasure-cities [store-cities] for Pha- 

12 raoh, Pithom and Eaemses. But the more [lit., And as] they afflicted them the 
more [lit., so] they multiplied and grew [spread]. And they were grieved because 

13 of [horrified in view of] the children of Israel. And the Egyptians made the chil- 

14 dren of Israel to serve with rigor. And they made their lives bitter with hard 
bondage [service] in mortar and in brick, and in all manner of service in the field; 
all'' their service wherein they made them serve was [which they laid on them]^ 

15 with rigor. And the king of Egypt spake to the Hebrew mid wives (of' 
which [whom] the name of one was Shiphrah, and the name of the other Puah), 

16 And he said. When ye do the office of a midwife to [When ye deliver] the He- 
brew women, and see them, [then look] upon the stools ; if it he a son, then ye 

17 shaJl kill him ; but, if it 6e a daughter, then she shall live. But the midwives 
feared God, and did not as the king of Egypt commanded, but [and] saved the 

18 men-children alive. And the king of Egypt called for the midwives, and said unto 

19 them. Why have ye done this thing, and have saved the men-children alive ? And 
the midwives said unto Pharaoh,' Because the Hebrew women are not as the Egyp 
tian, for they are lively [vigorous], and are delivered ere the midwives come in 

20 unto' them [before the midwife cometh in unto them, they are delivered]. There- 
fore [And] God dealt well with the midwives, and the people multiplied, and waxed 

21 [grew] very mighty. And it came to pass, because the midwives feared Grod, that 

22 he made them houses [households]. And Pharaoh charged all his people, saying, 
Every son that is born ye shall cast into the river, and . every daughter ye shall 
save alive. 



self wise, to act the part of a wise man. Here, therefore, It is better to render it in nearly the same way. — njt^'lpri, a 
plnral verb with a singular subject. Knobel, following the Samaritan version (UXTpH), translates wird \ms Ireffen, ''shall 
befall us." But there is no need of this asBumption of a corrupt text. See Ewald, Ausf. Gram.^ g 191 c. — Tr.J. 

^ [Ver. 14. Lange, with many others, takes HX here as a preposition, meaning " together with," "besides." and sup- 
plies " other " before ** service." Grammatically this is perhaps easier than to take it (as we have done^ as the sign of the 
Ace. But it requires us to supply the word on which the whole force of the clause depends. — Ta.]. 

8 [Ver. 19. Lange translates, nnaccoontably, nj?'13~ 7X as being equivalent to a genitive: die. Hebammen des Pharaoh, 
" Pharaoh's midwives." — Tit.]. 



EXEQETICAi AND CEITICAL. 

Vers. 1-'. Fulfillment of the promise, Gen. 
xlvi. 3. Also fulfillment of the prediction of suf- 
fering for the descendants of Abraham, Gen. 
XV. 13. 

Vers. 2-4. The names of the children are 
given according to the rank of the mothers. So 
Gen. XXXV. 23-'26. 

Ver, 5. The small number of seventy souls 
(vid. Gen. xlvi. 27) who entered Egypt, illustrates 
the wonderful increase. At the exodus 600,000 
men, besides children, etc. Vid. oh. xii. 87. On 
the terms denoting increase, IX'IE'] ?1£) 13T_ 
see Gen. i. 28 ; viii. 17. 

Ver. 8. A neiv king. — Dp'1 has a special 
significanoe. He rose up, as a man opposed to 
the previous policy. The LXX. translate ly^^ 
by Jrcpof. Josephus and others inferred the rise 
of a new dynasty. — Who knew not Joseph, 
«'. «., cared nothing for his services and the re- 
sults of them, the high regard in which his peo- 
ple had been held. 

Vera. 9, 10. " They are greater and stronger 
than we," says despotic fear, " Come, let us be 



more prudent (more cunning) than they," is the 
language of despotic craftiness and malice. Des- 
potic policy adds, that in case of a war the peo- 
ple might join the enemy. A danger to the 
country might indeed grow out of the fact that 
the Israelites did not become Egyptianized. The 
power of Israelitish traditions is shown espe- 
cially in the circumstance that even the descend- 
ants of Joseph, though they had an Egyptian 
mother, certainly became Jews. Perhajis it was 
dislike of Egyptian manners which led the sons 
of Ephraim early to migrate towards Palestine, 
1 Ohron. vii. 22. An honorable policy would, 
however, have provided means to help the Jews 
to secure a foreign dwelling-place. 

Ver. 11. Taskmasters. — The organs of op- 
pression and enslavement. " That foreigners 
were employed in these labors, is illustrated by 
a sepulchral monument, discovered in the ruins 
of Thebes, and copied in the Egyptological works 
of Rosellini and Wilkinson, which repnesentg 
laborers, who are not Egyptians, as employed in 
making brick, and by them two Egyptians Vfith 
rods, as overseers ; even though these laborers 
may not be designed to represent Israelites, as 
their Jewish features would indicate " (KpiI). 
See also Keil's reference to Aristotle and Livy, 



CHAP. II. 1-25. 



3 



(p. 422)* on the despotic method of enfeebling a 
people physically and mentally by enforced labor. 
Store-Cities. — For the harvests. See Eeil (p. 
422) on Pithom (Gr. Tl&rovfioe, Egypt. Thou, 
Thoum), situated on the canal which connects 
the Nile with the Arabian gulf. Baemses, the 
game as Heroopolis. 

Ver. 12. Horror is the appropriate designa- 
tion of the feeling with which bad men see the 
opposite of their plans wonderfully brought 
about. Hengstenberg: Sie katten Ekel vor ihnm. 
"They were disgusted at them." But this was 
the case before. On |'<p see the lexicons. 

Vers. 13, 14. Aggravation of the servitude. 
Two principal forms of service. Brickmaking 
for other buildings, and field labor. The bricks 
were hardened in the hot Egyptian sun ; the field 
labor consisted especially in the hard work of 
irrigating the soil. 

Vers. 15-18. Second measure. Resort to bru- 
tal violence, but still concealed under demoniacal 
artifice. Probably there was an organized order 
of midwlTes, and the two midwives mentioned 
were at their head. — He said unto them. — • 
And again : he said. He tried to persuade 
them, and at last the devilish command came 
out — probably secret instructions like those of 
Herod, to kill the children in Bethlehem. — Over 
the bathing-tub. [So Lange. — Tk.]. Knobel 
and Eeil assume a figurative designation of the 
vagina in the phrase D'ysn, referring to Jer. 
xviii. 3. Since the child is generally born head 
first, there is only a moment from the time when 
the sex can be recognized to the use of the bath- 
ing-tub. On the various interpretations, oomp. 
the lexicons and the Studien und Kriiiken, 1834, 
S. Sl^ff.,-]- etc. A heathenish way, all over the 

• rAristotle, Polit. v. 9; livy,HiHt. i. 56, 59. The referenosa 
to Keil conform to the translation published by the Clarks, 
Kdinbnrgh. But the translationB, when given here, are made 
directly from the original, and from a later edition than that 
&om which the Edinburgh translation was made. — Tr.I. 

t [An article by Prof. Rettig. There is, however, still an- 
other article on the same subject in thn same volume of this 
periodical, p. 641 sqq., by Kedalob. The principal views on 
this vexed phrase are these : (1) That D"'jilX, being the same 

word as is used (and elsewhere only used) in Jer. xviii. 3, of 
a potter's wheel, must denote the same thi ag ; or, rather, the 
leat on which the potter sita, this being adapted to the use 



world, of killing the males and forcing the wo- 
men and girls to accommodate themselves to the 
mode of life of the murderers. 

Ver. 19. " With this answer they could deceive 
the king, since the Arab women bear children 
with extraordinary ease and rapidity. See 
Burckhardt, yotea on the Bedouins and Wahabia, 
I., p. 96; Tischendorf, Reise I., p. 108," (Keil). 

Vers. 20, 21. God built them houses. — He 
blessed them with abundant prosperity. Ac- 
cording to Keil, the expression is figurative: 
because they labored for the upbuilding of the 
families of Israel, their families also were built 
up by God. Their lie, which Augustine excuses 
on the ground that their fear of God outweighed 
the sinfulness of the falsehood, seems, like simi 
lar things in the life of Abraham, to be the wild 
utterance of a state of extreme moral exigency, 
and is here palliated by a real fact, the ease of 
parturition. 

Ver. 22. Now at last open brutality follows the 
failure of the scheme intervening between arti- 
fice and violence. On similar occurrences in 
profane history, see Keil.J: Probably also this 
command was paralyzed, and the deliverance of 
Moses by the daughter of Pharaoh might well 
have had the effect of nullifying the king's com- 
mand; for even the worst of the heathen were 
often terrified by unexpected divine manifesta- 
tions. 

of a parturient woman. (2) That it means bathing-tub, the 
dual form being accountedfor by the supposition that a cover 
belonged to it. (3^ That it is derived from t£)K, in the sense 

of ium, and refers to the pudenda of the parturient, from 
which the child is, as it were, turned forth, like the vessel 
frora the potter's wheel. (4) That the word, being radically 
the same aa pK, and being in the dual, may be used for the 

uaiadi of the male child. (5) That D'J3K, from [3X, may 

mean Wide, eexet, (6) That being derived from p^, in the 

sense of to separate (aud so a dime is that which is eeparated 
from a rock), it means the two distmctUms (so Meier. Sttidien 
und Kritiken, 1842, p. 1050). It is obvious to remarl£ that, in 
order to determine the sex of the child, the thing tobe looked 
at is not the bathing-tub, or the stool, or any part of the mo- 
ther. This consideration is almost, if not quite, conclusive 
against the first three interpretations. But it is perhaps use- 
less to hope for a complete solution of the moaning of the 
phrase. — Ta.]. 

X fProbably a slip of the pen for Knobel. See his com- 
mentary on Exodus, p. 9, in the KurggefoMtea exegetischm 
Mandbuch sam alten Testament, — Ta.]. 



B.— THE BIRTH AND MIRACULOTTS PRESERVATION OF MOSES. HIS ELEVATION AND 
FIDELITY TO THE ISRAELITES. HIS TYPICAL ACT OF DELIVERANCE AND AP- 
PARENTLY FINAL DISAPPEARANCE. GOD'S CONTINUED PURPOSE TO RELEASE 
ISRAEL. 

Chap. II. 1-25. 

1 And there went a man of the house of Levi, and took to wife a [the] daughter of 

2 Levi.' And the woman conceived and bare a son ; and when she [and she] saw 
him, that he was a goodly child \_wbs goodly, and] she hid him three months. 



TEXTUAI/ AND GRAMMATICAL. 

1 [Ver. 1. nX, disregarded by the most of the commentators, is noticed by Glaire, who remarks that it " may imply that 

this daughter, named Jochebed (vi. 20) was the only one of the family of Levi still living, or the only one of that house who 
was then marriageable." According to vi. 20, and Num. xxvi. 69, Jochebed was Levi's own daughter ; she may have been 



EXODUS. 



3 And when she could not longer hide him, she took for h^rn an ark of bulrushes, and 
daubed it with slime [bitumen] and with pitch, and put the chUd therein ; and she 

4 laid it in the flags [sedge] by the river's brink. And his sister stood afer off, to 

5 wit [in order to learn] what would be done to him. And the daughter of Pharaoh 
came down to wash herself [bathe] at the river ; and her maidens walked along by 
the river's side ; and when she [and she] saw the ark among the flags [sedge, 

6 and] she sent her maid to fetch it [maid, and she fetched it]. And when she had 
opened it she [And she opened it, and] saw the child, and behold, the babe [a boy] 
wept [weeping]. And she had compassion on him, and said. This is one of the He- 

7 brews' children. Then said his sister [And his sister said] to Pharaoh s daughter. 
Shall I go and call to thee a nurse of the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the 

8 child for thee? And Pharaoh's daughter said unto her. Go. And the maid went 

9 and called the child's mother. And Pharaoh's daughter said unto her, Take this 
child away, and nurse it for me, and I will give thee thy wages. And the woman 

10 took the child and nursed it. And the child grew, and she brought him unto Pha- 
raoh's daughter, and he became her son. And she called his name Moses : and she 

11 said. Because I drew him out of the water. And it came to pass in those days when 
Moses was grown [that Moses grew up], that [and] he went out unto his brethren, 
and looked on their burdens ; and he spied [saw] an Egyptian smiting an [a] He- 

12 brew, one of his brethren. And he looked [turned] this way and that way, and 
when he [and he] saw that there was no man [man, and] he slew the Egyptian 

13 and hid [buried] him in the sand. And when he [And he] went out the second 
day [day, and] behold, two men of the Hebrews [two Hebrew men] strove together 
[were quarreling] ; and he said to him that did the wrong [to the guilty one], 

14 Wherefore smitest thou thy fellow? And he said. Who made thee a prince and a 
judge over us ? Intendest thou to kill me, as thou killedst the Egyptian ? And 

15 Moses feared, and said. Surely this [the] thing is known. Now when [And] Pha- 
raoh heard this thing, [thing, and] he sought to slay Moses. But [And] Moses 
fled from the face of Pharaoh, and dwelt in the land of Midian ; and he sat down 

16 [dwelt^] by a [the] well. Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters ; and they 

17 came and drew water, and filled the troughs to water their father's flock. And the 
shepherds came and drove them away ; but Moses stood up and helped them, and 

18 watered their flock. And when they came to Reuel their father, he said. How is it 

19 that ye are [Wherefore have ye] come so soon to-day? And they said, An Egyp- 
tian delivered us out of the hand of the shepherds, and also drew water enough' 

20 for [drew water for] us, and watered the flock. And he said unto his daughters. And 
where is he ?* why is it that ye have [why then have ye] left the man ? call him, that 

21 he may eat bread. And Moses was content [consented*] to dwell with the man; 

an only daughter. Still it is possible that nx, though almost always used only before a definile object, is here used as in 

xxi. 28. "If an ox gore a man (!JJ''X-nX) or a woman (DtyX-nX)." Comp. EwAlD's Eritisclie Grammatilc, J 318, Note 

O.-TR.]. ■ ■■ T • v 

s [Vtr. 16. Whether the second DE^'l means "and he sat down," or "and he dwelt,'* is not (aaily determined. It 

seems unnatural that the word should have two meanings in the two consecutive sentences, although undoubtedly it is 
elsewhere freely used in both senses. If, moreover, the writer meant to say that Moses, while dwelling in Midian, once 
happened to be sitting by the well, and so became acquainted with Reuel's daughters, he would probably not have used the 
Future with the Vav c .nsecutive, but rather the Perfect, or the Participle. Comp. Ewald, Au^uhrl. Gr^ § 341 a.— Tk.]. 

8 [Ver. 19. n7l n7^~DJll. Lange translates : Auch hcU er anJiaJiend geschiipft, " Also he kept drawing," ae if the Inf. 

Abs. followed, instead of preceding Tnl- There is no reason for assigning to the Inf. Abs. here any other than its common 

use, vfo., to emphasize the meaning of the finite verb. Nor does the rendering of the A. T., " drew water enough " quite 
reproduce its force. The daughters of Rene! evidently thought it would have been a remarkable occurrence if Moses had 
only defended them from the shepherds. But more than this : " he even drew for us." — Ta.]. 

* [Ver. 20. i»Nl. Kalisch renders, " Where then is he !" Correctly enough, so far aa the sense is concerned ; but un- 
necessarily deviating from the more literal rendering In the A. V., which exactly expresses the force of the original.— Tk.1. 

» [Ver. 21. 7NTT. Glaire insists that in all the passages where 7X'' occurs, even where it lias the meaning " to be 
foolish," the radical meaning Is "to venture." Most lexicograhpers assume a separate root for the signification which it 
hasiuNiph., "to be foolish." Meier ( IFiirzeiwSrteriuKft), however, reduces all the significations to that of "opening" or 
"being open," from the root SiN = bSn. But better, with Mrst, to assume two roots, and make the radical signification 

of this one tn he "to resolve, determine." This covers nil cases, e. ff. Gen. xvili. 27, "I have resolved " i f undertaken 
JndK. i. 27, " The Cananiiitpe determine'! to dwell." In cases like the one before us, and 2 Kings v 23 ■ judt xix 6 tha 
resolution, being the result (If persua^jlon, is a con«o>t—TB.]. ' *' • "i ™" 



CHAP. 11. 1-25. 



22 and he gave Moses Zipporah his daughter. And she bare him a [bare a] son, and 
he called his name Gershom, for he said, I have been a stranger [A sojourner have 

23 I been] in a strange land. And it came to pass in process of time [lit. in those 
many days], that the king of Egypt died ; and the children of Israel sighed by rea- 
son of the bondage [service], and thw cried ; and their cry' came up to God by rea- 

24 son of the bondage [service]. And God heard their groaning, and God remembered 

25 his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. And God looked upon 
the children of Israel, and God had respect unto them [lit. knew them^J. 

• Ver.23. DflJ^IE? "cry for help "—a different root from that of ths verb IpJ^rV— Te.]. 

T [Ver. 25. Lange translates : TJnd Gott mh an die Kinder IsraeU, und ah der GoUheit war's zhm bawuaat (er durchachauttt 
Ik una Om SUualum). "And God looked on the children of Israel, and it was known by Him as the Godhead (He saw 

through them and their situation)." This translation seems to be suggested by the emphatic repetition of D^n*7K. But 

better to find the emphatic word in _J?^^1 " God haew (them),'' t. e., had a tender regard for them — a frequent use of IfT 

Comp. Ps. cxliv. 3. Or, simply, "God knew," leaving the object indefinite, aa in the Hebrew. — Tr.] 



EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL. 

Ver. 1. And there went. — ^/D, according 
to Keil, serves to give a pictorial description. 
Inasmuch as the woman had already borne Mi- 
riam and Aaron, it vrould mislead us to take the 
word in this sense. The expression properly 
means that he had gone ; he had, in these dan- 
gerous times which, to be sure, at Aaron's birth 
had not yet reached the climax (he was three 
years o'der than Moses) taken the step of enter- 
ing the married state. — The descent of these pa- 
rents from the tribe of Levi is remarked. Ener- 
getic boldness had distinguished it even in the 
ancestor (Gen. xlix. 5 ; Ex. xxxii. 26 ; Deut. 
zxxiii. 8). Although originally not without fa- 
naticism, this boldness yet indicated the quali- 
ties needed for the future priesthood. 

Ver. 2. She recognized it as a good omen, that 
the child was so fair (3113 airmof LXX. ; vid., 
Heb. xi. 23), Josepbus traces this intuition of 
faith, which harmonized with the maternal feel- 
ing of complacency and desire to preserve bis 
life, to a special revelation. But this was here 
not needed. 

Ver. 3. The means of preservation chosen by 
the parents is especially attributed to the daugh- 
ter of Levi. It is all the more daring, since in 
the use of it she had, or seemed to have, from the 
outset, the daughter of the child-murderer in 
mind. The phrase T\2!^ designates the box as a 
miniatwe ark, a ship of deliverance. On the pa- 
per-reed, vid. Winer, Real-worterbuch, II., p. 411. 
The hox, cemented and made wafer-tight by 
means of asphalt and pitch, was made fast by the 
same reed out of which it had b»en constructed. 
This extraordinarily useful kind of reed seems 
by excessive use to have become extirpated. 

Ver. 4. And his sister. — Miriam (xv. 20). 
The sagacious child, certainly older than Aaron, 
early showed that she was qualified to become a 
prophetess (xv. 20) of such distinction that she 
could afterwards be puffed up by it. 

Ver. 5. "The daughter of Pharaoh Is called 
Qtpfiov&tQ (Josephus et al.) or Uep/ii;. . . . The 
bathing of the king's daughter in (he open stream 
is contrary indeed to the custom of the modern 
Mohammedan Orient, where this is done only by 
v/omen of low rank in retired places (Lane, Man- 
ners and C'lstoms, p. 336, 5th ed.), but accords 



with the customs of ancient Egypt (comp. the 
copy of a bathing-scene of a noble Egyptian wo- 
man, with four female attendants, in Wilkinson, 
Ancient Egyptians, Vol. III., Plate 417), and be- 
sides is perhaps connected with the notion held 
by the ancient Egyptians concerning the sacred- 
nessofthe Nile, to which even divine honors 
were paid (vid. Henqstenberq, Egypt and the 
Books of Moses, p. 113), and with the fructifying, 
life-preserving power of its waters." (Keil). 

Ver. 6. The compassion of Pharaoh's daughter 
towards the beautiful child led her to adopt him ; 
and when she did so, making him, therefore, 
prospectively an Egyptian, she did not need, we 
may suppose, to educate him " behind the king's 
back" [as Keil thinks. — Tk.]. We might rather 
assume that this event more or less neutralized 
the cruel edict of the king. 

Ver. 9. Nor is it to be assumed that the daugh- 
ter of Pharaoh had no suspicion of the Hebrew 
nationality of the mother. How often, in cases 
of such national hostilities, the feelings of indi- 
vidual women are those of general humanity in 
contradistinction to those of the great mass of 
fanatical women. 

Ver. 10. She brought him unto Pha- 
raoh's daughter. — The boy in the meantime 
had drunk in not only his mother's milk, but 
also the Hebrew spirit, and had been intrusted 
with the secret of his descent and deliverance. 
Legally and formally he became her sou, 
whilst he inwardly had become the son of an- 
other mother ; and though she gave him the 
Egyptian name, " Mousheh," i. e., saved from the 
water (Josephus II., 9, 6), yet it was at once 
changed in the mind of Divine Providence into 
the name " Mosheh ;" the one taken out became 
the one taking out. (Kurtz). For other expla- 
nations of the name, vid. Gesenius, Knobel, Keil. 
Thus the Egyptian princess herself had to bring 
up the deliverer and avenger of Israel, and, by 
instructing him in all the wisdom of Egypt, pre- 
pare him both negatively and positively for his 
vocation. 

Ver. 11. When Moses was grown. — Had 
become a man. According to Acts vii. 23, and 
therefore according to Jewish tradition, he was 
then forty years old. He had remained true to his 
destination (Heb. xi. 24), but had also learned, 
like William of Orange, the Silent, to restrain 
himself, until finally a special occasion caused 



6 



EXODUS. 



the flame hidden in him to burst forth. An Egyp- 
tian smote one of his brethren. — This phrase 
BUggests the ebullient emotion with which he 
now decided upon his future career. 

Ver. 12. That Moses looked this way and that 
way before committing the deed, marks, on the 
one hand, the mature man who knew how to 
control his heated feeling, but, on the other 
hand, the man not yet mature in faith ; since by 
this act, which was neither simple murder nor 
iimple self-defence, and which was not sustained 
by a pure peace of conscience, he anticipated 
Divine Providence. It cannot be attributed to 
" a carnal thirst for achievement " [Kurtz] ; but 
as little can it be called a pure act of faith ; al- 
though the illegal deed, in which he was even 
strengthened by the consciousness of being an 
Egyptian prince (as David in bis sin and fall 
might have been misled by feeling himself to be 
an oriental despot) was a display of his faith, in 
view of which Stephen (Acts vii.) could justly 
rebuke the Hnbelief of the Jews. Vid. more in 
Keil, p. 431. 

Ver. 14. The Jew who thus spoke was a repre- 
sentative of the unbelieving spirit of which Ste- 
phen speaks in Acts vii. 

Yer. 16. The Midianites had made a settle- 
ment not only beyond the Elanitio Gulf near 
Moab, but also, a nomadic branch of them, on 
the peninsula of Sinai. These seem to have re- 
mained more faithful to Shemitio traditions than 
the trading Midianites on the other side, who 



joined in the voluptuous worship of Boal. 
"Reuel" means: Friend of God. He does not 
seem, by virtue of his priesthood, to have had 
princely authority. 

Ver. 16. By the well. — A case similar to that 
in which Jacob helped Rachel at the well, Gen. 
xzix. 

Ver. 18. On the relation of the three names, 
Reuel, Jethro (iii. 1) and Hobab (Num. x. 29) 
vid. the commentaries and Winer. The assump- 
tion that tnn, used of Hobab, means brother-in- 
law, but useJ of Jethro ("preference," like 
Reuel's name of dignity "friend of God") means 
father-in-law, seems to be the most plausible. 
Jethro in years and experience is above Moses ; 
but Hobab becomes a guide of the Hebrew cara- 
van through the wilderness, and his descendants 
remain among the Israelites. Vid. also Judg, 
iv. 11 and the commentary on it. 

Ver. 22. Oershom. — Always a sojourner. So 
he lived at the court of Pharaoh, so with the 
priest in Midian. Zipporah hardly understood 
him (vid. iv. 24). As sojourner he passed through 
the wilderness, and stood almost among his own 
people. Yet the view of Canaan from Nebo be- 
came a pledge to him of entrance to a higher 
fatherland. 

Ver. 23. Also the successor of the child-mur- 
dering king continued the oppression. But God 
heard the cry of the children of Israel. He re- 
membered his covenant, and looked into it, and 
saw through the case as Ood. 



C— THE CALL OF MOSES. HIS REFUSAL AND OBEDIENCE. HIS ASSOCIATION WITH 
AARON AND THEIR FIRST MISSION TO THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. 

Chaptees III., IV. 

1 Now Moses kept [was pasturing] the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest 
of Midian ; and he led the flock to the back side of [behind] the desert, and came 

2 to the mountain of God, even to Horeb. And the angel of Jehovah appeared unto 
him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a [the] bush ; and he looked, and behold, 

3 the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed. And Moses said, I 
will now turn aside [Let me turn aside] and see this great sight, why the bush is 

4 not burnt. And when Jehovah saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto 
him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses I And he said, Here am 

5 I. And he said. Draw not nigh hither ; put off thy shoes from off [from] thy feet, 

6 for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground. Moreover [And] he said, I 
am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of 

7 Jacob. _ And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon God. And Jeho- 
vah said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which [who] are in Egypt, 
and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters ; for I know their sorrows; 

8 And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to 
bring them up out of that land unto a good land, and a large, unto a land flowing 

TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL. 
1 [Ver. T. ''33D may be rendered more literally "from before," tbe people being represented aa followed up in tUelr 
work by the taakmasteiB.— Ta.]. 



CHAP. III. 1— IV. 31. 



with milk and honey, unto the place of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the 

9 Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites. Now therefore 

behold, the cry of the children of Israel is come unto me, and I have also seen the 

10 oppression wherewith the Egyptians oppress them. Come now therefore and I will 
send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth [and bring thou forth] my 

11 people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt, And Moses said unto God, Who am 
I, that I should go unto Pharaoh, and that I should bring forth the children of 

12 Israel out of Egypt ? And he said, Certainly I will be with thee, and this shall 
be a [the] token unto thee that I have sent thee : When thou hast brought [bring- 

13 est] forth the people out of Egypt, ye shall serve God upon this mountain. And 
Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall 
say unto them. The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you ; and they shall say 

14 to me. What is his name ? What shall I say unto them ? And God said unto 
Moses, I AM THAT I AM. And he said. Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, 

15 I AM hath sent me unto you. And God said moreover unto Moses, Thus shalt thou 
say unto the children of Israel, Jehovah, God [the God] of your fathers, the God 
of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you : this 
is my name forever, and this is my memorial unto all generations [lit. to genera- 

16 tion of generation]. Go and gather the elders of Israel together, and say unto 
them, Jehovah, God [the God] of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and 
of Jacob hath appeared unto me, saying, I have surely visited [looked upon] you, 

17 and seen that [and that] which is done to you in Egypt. And I have said, I will 
bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt, unto the land of the Canaanites, and the 
Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, 

18 unto a land flowing with milk and honey. And they shall [will] hearken to thy 
voice ; and thou shalt come, thou and the elders of Israel, unto the king of Egypt, 
and ye shall say unto him, Jehovah, God [the God] of the Hebrews, hath met'' with 
us, and now let us go, we beseech thee, three days' journey into the wilderness, that 

19 we may sacrifice to Jehovah our God. And I am sure [know] that the king of 

20 Egypt will not let you go, no [even] not' by a mighty hand. And IwUl stretch 
out my hand, and smite Egypt with all my wonders which I will do in the midst 

21 thereof; and after that he will let you go. And I will give this people favor in 
the sight of the Egyptians ; and it shall come to pass that, when ye go, ye shall not 

22 go empty. But [And] every woman shall borrow [ask] of her neighbor _ and of 
her that sojoumeth in her house jewels [articles] of silver and jewels [articles] of 
gold and raiment [garments] ; and ye shall put them upon your sons and upon your 
daughters ; and ye shall spoU the Egyptians. 

Chap. IV. 1 And Moses answered and said. But, behold, they will not believe me, 
nor hearken unto my voice ; for they will say, Jehovah hath not appeared unto 

2 thee. And Jehovah said unto him. What is that [this] in thine [thy] hand ? And he 

3 said, A rod. And he said. Cast it on the ground. And he cast it on the ground, 

4 and it became a serpent ; and Moses fled from before it. And Jehovah said unto 
Moses, Put forth thy hand, and take it by the tail. And he put forth his hand, 

5 and caught it, and it became a rod in his hand : That they may believe that Je- 
hovah, God [the God] of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and 

6 the God of Jacob, hath appeared unto thee. And Jehovah said furthermore unto 
him. Put now thine [thy] hand into thy bosom. And he put his hand into his bo- 

7 som'; and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous as snow. And he said. 
Put thine [thy] hand into thy bosom again. And he put his hand into his bosom 
again, and plucked [took] it out of his bosom, and behold, it was turned again as 

« [Ver. 18. mp3 is taken by EosemnaUer, after Borne of the older versions, as = NT;pJi voaUw super rwa. But, aa 
Winer remarks, ito mmm irOolerabUis ImUologia ineH in verbis Dn3;;n 'TlSX;" The LXX.' translate 7rpoo-/ce'«Ar)Tai ij^M, 
—which makes better sense, but is grammatically still more inadmissible, as ill [33 is thus made = X1J5-— Tk-]- 

a [Ter. 19. «h) is rendered by the LXX., Vulg., Luther, and others, "unless."' But this is incorrect. The more obvi- 
oos translation may indeed seem to be inconsistent with the statement in the next verse, " after that he will let you go." 
But the difficulty is not serious. We need only to supply in thought " at first " in this verse,— Ta.]. 



EXODUS. 



8 Hs other flesh. And it shall come to pass, if they will not believe thee, neither 
[nor] hearken to the voice of the first sign, that they will believe the voice of the 

9 latter sign. And it shall come to pass, if they will not believe also [even] these 
two signs, neither [nor] hearken unto thy voice, that thou shalt take of the water 
of the river, and pour it upon the dry land; and the water which thou takest out 

10 of the river shall become blood upon the dry land. And Moses said unto Jehovah, 
O my Lord, [O Lord], I am not eloquent [lit. a man of words], neither heretofore, 
nor since thou hast spoken unto thy servant ; but [for] I am slow of speech [mouth] 

11 andof a slow [slow of] tongue. And Jehovah said unto him, Who hath made 
man's mouth? or who maketh the [maketh] dumb, or deaf, or the seeing [or see- 

12 ing], or the blind ? [or blind ?] Have [Do] not I, Jehovah ? Now therefore go, and 

13 1 will be with thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt say. And he said, O my 

14 Lord [O Lord], send, I pray thee, by the hand of him whom thou wilt send. And 
the anger of Jehovah was kindled against Moses, and he said. Is not Aaron, the Le- 
vite, thy brother ? I know [Do I not know Aaron, thy brother, the Levite,] that he 
can speak well ?* And also, behold, he cometh forth to meet thee, and when he seeth 

15 thee, he will be glad in his heart. And thou shalt speak unto him, and put words 
[the words] in his mouth; and I will be with thy mouth, and with his mouth, and 

16 will teach you what ye shall do. And he shall be thy spokesman [shall speak for 
thee] unto the people, and he [it] shall be, even Ithaf] he shall be to thee instead of 

17 [for] a mouth, and thou shalt be to him instead of [for a] God. And thou shalt 

18 taiie this rod in thine [thy] hand, wherewith thou shalt do signs [the signs]. And 
Moses went, and returned to Jethro [Jether] his father-in-law, and said unto him. 
Let me go, I pray thee,^ and return unto my brethren which [who] are in Egypt, 
and see whether they be [are] yet alive. And Jethro said to Moses, Go in peace. 

19 And Jehovah said unto Moses in Midian, Go, return into Egypt ; for all the men 

20 are dead which [who] sought thy life. And Moses took his wife, and his sons, and 
set them [made them ride] upon an [the] ass, and he returned to the land of Egypt. 

21 And Moses took the rod of God in his hand. And Jehovah said unto Moses, When 
thou goest to return into Egypt, see that thou do all those wonders before Pharaoh 
which I have put in thy hand [consider all the wonders which I have put in thy 
hand, and do thera before Pharaoh] ; but I will harden his heart that he shall [and 

22 he will] not let the people go. And thou shalt say unto Pharaoh, Thus saith 

23 Jehovah, Israel is my son, even my first-born. And I say [said]' unto 
thee. Let my son go that he may serve me ; and if thou refuse [and thou didst 

24 refuse]' to let him go : behold, I will slay thy son, even thy first-born. Audit came 

25 to pass by the way in the inn, that Jehovah met him, and sought to kill him. Then 
[And] Zipporah took a sharp stone, and cut ofi'the foreskin of her son, and cast it 
at his feet, and said, Surely a bloody husband [a bridegroom of blood] 

* [Chap. IV. Ver. 14. We have ventured to follow the Vulg., Luther, Cranmer, the Geneva Version, De Wette, Gla''re, 
and K.Hlisch, in tbia rendering ; for, tliongh grammatically the reading of the A. V. i.s more natural, yet it is difBcnIt to aae 
the force of the question, " la not Aaron thy brochor ?' FUrst, Arnhoim, and Murphy, t-'V to «void the difQcoIty by rea- 
dcriog, '• l8 there not Aaron, thy brother, the Levite?" etc. This, however, ia putting in what is not in the original. Kush, 
following Bashi, trausla'es, "la not Aaron thy brother, the Levite?" and nnderstaude the question to in'imate that, in 
consequence of Moses' reluctance to obey the divine commission, the pricsthooil, which otherwise would have been con- 
ferred on him, will be given to Aaron. As nothing iasai'l about the prie8thood,it is hard to see how the phrase "the Le- 
vite," at this time, before any priesthood had been established, could have been understood in this way. Kuobel, trans- 
lating in the same way, nnderst«nds it as pointing forward to the doty of the priests to give public instruction. But the 
same objection lies against this, as agaiLst the previous explanation ; Moses was a l>evite as much as Aaron was. Lanire, 
translating also th > s.ime way, understands the meaning to be : Aaron is a more genuine Levite than Moses. But in tbia 
cai,e the deiinite article is quite out of place ; and even without it such a thought would be very obscur.'ly expressed. Keil, 

follovring Baumgarten, finds the significance of the question In the etymological meaning of 'iS, rfa., to join, associate 

one's-selfto. This certainly has the advantage of snggeating a reason for the use of the phrase "the Levite," which on 
othr theories seems to be superfluous. But the definite article is out of place on this hypothesis also. Besides, as the 
special point here is Aaron's ability to toZft, the notion of asanciatifm is not just the one needed to bd suggested by the term, 
to say nothing of the subtlety of the made of conveying either conception.— Tr.J. 

6 [Ver. 18. NJ~nD7N 1^ not to be understood as a request, as the A. V. seems to imply, especially by the phrase, "I 
pray thee," which corresponds to NJ. Wo have exactly the same form in ill. 3, where Mosos said SJ-TTIpN, " I will turn 
aside," or, " Let me turn aside."— Ta.]. v •. t 

" [Ver. 23. lpj<l aud tKnril_ are most naturally to be rendered as preterites. It is very doubtful whether JNDni 
can be taken as protasii to the following clause. The translation of the A. V. and of others, seems to have been prompted 
by the idea that this is the oponin.' message fo Pharaoh. But the threat to kill the first-born was in reality the last one 
made. The declaration, ver. 21, covers all the first part of the efl'orts of Mosea to secure the doliveranco of the people In 
spite of all tbe plagues and signs, Pharaoh "will not let the people go." Theref ire (ve . 22) Moses is to make his final an- 
pearanCF', and threnten the death of the first-born because of Pharaoh's past refusal to obey. — Tr.]. 



CHAP. in. 1— IV. 31. 



26 art thou to me. So [And] he [i. e., Jehovah] let him go [desisted from him] ; then she 

27 said, A bloody husband [A bridegroom of blood] thou art, because of the circumcision. 
And Jehovah said to Aaron, Go into [to] the wilderness to meet Moses. And he went, 

28 and met him in the mount of God, and kissed him. And Moses told Aaron all 
the words of Jehovah who had sent him [with which he had charged him]', and all 

29 the signs which he had commanded him. And Moses and Aaron went, and gath- 

30 ered together all the elders of the children of Israel. And Aaron spake all the 
words which Jehovah had spoken unto Moses, and did the signs in the sight of the 

31 people. And the people believed, and when they heard' that Jehovah had visited 
the children of Israel, and that he had looked upon their affliction, then they 
bowed their heads [bowed down], and worshipped. 

7 [Ver. 28. n 7l^ ^^7 take a double accuBafive, as e, g. in 2 Sam. xl. 22 ; 1 Kings xiv. 6. As Ealiach obserres, "the 

" T 

nBual translation, wha had sevt hivt, ia languid in the extreme." — Tr.]. 

' [Ver. 31. Knobel, following the reading ixint of Wi^ LXX., would change ?J?Dt5''1 into ^nDty'V There seems to 
be strong reason for the change. The people, according to the present text, seem to believe, before hearing. Moreover, 
we have, as Enobel points out, another almost unmistakable instance of the same error. The narrative in 2 Kings xx. 13 
is identical with that in Isa. xxxix. 2, with the exception that the first passage has _J?Diy''1 whofe the second has nDt2'''1. 
The LXX. has here, too e^api} in Ijoth cases. In reference to 2 Kings xx. 13, Keil says that " J^TDU?"! seems to be an error 
of transcription for nOiC'^l." though he says of Knobel's conjecture concerning the verse before us, that it is " without 
ground." If we adopt the amended reading, we translate, " and they rejoiced because Jehovah had visited," e*o.^TE.]. 



EXEQETICAIi AND CRITICAL. 

Ver. 1. "Jethro's residence therefore was 
separated from Horeb by a wilderness, and is to 
be sought not north-east, but south-east of it. 
For only by this assumption can we easily 
account for the two-fold fact that (1) Moses, in 
his return from Midian to Egypt, again touches 
Horeb, where Aaron, coming from Egypt, meets 
him (iv. 27), and that (2) the Israelites, ia their 
journey through the wilderness, nowhere come 
upon Midianites, and in leaving Sinai the ways 
of Israel and of the Midianite Hobab separate " 
(Keil). Horeb here is used in the wider sense, 
embracing the whole range, including Sinai, so 
that the two names are often identical, although 
Horeb, strictly so called, lay further north.-— 
Mountain of Ood. — According to Knobel, it 
was a sacred place even before the call of Moses; 
according to Keil, not till afterwards, and ia 
here named according to its later importance. 
But there must have been something which led 
the shepherd Moses to drive his flock so far as 
to this mountain, and afterwards to select Sinai 
as the place from which to give the law. The 
more general ground for the special regard in 
which this majestic mountain-range is held is 
without doubt the reverence felt for the moun- 
tains of God in general. The word ^31Sn 
might be taken as=po«tore, and the passage 
understood to mean that Moses, in profound 
meditation, forgetting himself as shepherd, drove 
the flock far out beyond the ordinary pasture- 
ground. Yet Bosenmiiller observes: "On this 
highest region of the peninsula are to be found 
the most fruitful valleys, in which also fruit 
trees grow. Water in aljundance is found in 
this district, and therefore it is the refuge of all 
the Bedouins, when the lower regions are dried 
up." Tradition fixes upon the Monastery of 
Sinai as the place of the thorn-bush and the 
calling of Moses. 

Ver. 2. The Angel of Jehovah. — Accord- 



ing to ver. 4, it is Jehovah Himself, or even God 
Himself, Elohim.* — The Bush. — Representing 
the poor Israelites in their low estate in contrast 
with the people that resemble lofty trees, Judg. 
ix. 16. According to Kurtz, the flame of fire ia 
a symbol of the holiness of God ; according to 
Keil, who observes that God's holiness is denoted 
by light (e. g. Isa. x. 17), the fire is rather, in 
its capacity of burning and consuming, a sym- 
bol of purifying affliction and annihilating pun- 
ishment, or of the chastening and punitive jus- 
tice of God. But this is certainly not the signi- 
fication of the sacrificial fire on the altar of 
burnt-offering, the "holy" fire, or of the fiery 
chariot of Elijah, or of the tongues of fire over 
the heads of the apostles on the day of Pente- 
cost. Fire, as an emblem of the divine life, of 
the life which through death destroys death, of 
God's jealous love and authority, has two oppo- 
site sides: it is a fire of the jealous love which 
visits, brings home, purifies, and rejuvenates, as 
well as a fire of consuming wrath and judgment. 
This double signification of fire manifests itself 
especially also in the northern mythology. 



• [See a full discussion on the Angel of Jehovah in th» 
Commentary on Genesis, p. 386 sqq., where the view is main- 
tained that this Angel is Christ liimself. This is perhaps 
the current opinion among Protestants. But the arguments 
for it, plausible as they are, are insufficient to establidh it. 
The one fetfil objection to it is that the New Testament no- 
where endorses it. When we consider how the New Testa- 
ment writers seem almost to go to an extreme in finding 
traces of Christ in the Old Testament writings and history, 
it Is marvellous (if the theory in question la correct^ that 
this striking feature of the sell-manifestation of God m the 
Angel of Jehovah ►hould not once l;a»e been used in this 
way. Hengstenberg Indeed quotes John xii. 41, where Isaiah 
is said to have seen Christ. But the reference is to Isa. vi. 
1, where not the Angel of Jehovah, but Jehovah himself, is 
said to have been seen. But, what is still mora significant, 
when Stephen (Acts vii. 30) refers to this very appearance 
of the angel in the bush, ho not only d lea not insinuate that 
the angel was Christ, but calls him simply "an angel of the 
liOrd." Moreover, just afterwards be quotes Deut. xviii. 16 
as Moses' prophecy of Christ, showing that he was diauosel 
to find Christ in the Mosaic history. Other objections to the 
identification of the Angel of Jehovah with ("hrist might be 
urged ; but they are superfluous, so long as this one remains 
unanswered. — TR.] 



10 



EXODUS. 



That light has the priority over fire, Keil justly 
obaervea. While then the fire here may sym- 
bolize the Egyptian affliction in which Israel is 
burning, yet the presence of Jehovah in the fire 
signifies not something contrasted with it, mean- 
ing that he controls the fire, so that it purifies, 
without consuming, the Israelites; but rather 
the fire represents Jehovah himself in His 
government, and so the oppression of the Egypt- 
ians is lifted up into the light of the divine 
government. This holds also prophetically of 
all the future afflictions of the theocracy and of 
the Christian Church itself. The Church of God 
ig to appear at the end of the world as the last 
burning thorn-bush which yet is not consumed. 

" The N3p_ Sk is rhD» W« (Deut. iv. 24) in the 
midst of Israel (Dent.' vi. 16)." Keil. 

Vers. 3-5. Turn asiae.— Comp. Gen. xix. 2. 
— Moses, Moses. — Comp. Gen. xxii. 11. An 
expression of the most earnest warning and of 
the deepest sense of the sacredness and danger 
of the moment. The address involves a two-fold 
element. First, Moses must not approach any 
nearer to Jehovah ; and, secondly, he must 
regard the place itself on which he is standing 
as holy ground, on which he must not stand in 
his dusty shoes. The putting off of the shoes must 
in general have the same character as the wash- 
ing of the feet, and is therefore not only a gene- 
ral expression of reverence for the sacred place 
and for the presence of God, like the taking off 
of the hat with us, but also a reminder of the 
moral dust which through one's walk in life 
clings to the shoes or feet, i. c. of the venial sins 
on account of which one must humble himself 
in the sacred moment. On the custom of taking 
off the shoes in the East upon entering pagodas, 
mosques, etc., see Keil, p. 439. 

Ver. 6. Of thy father. — The singular doubt- 
less comprehends the three patriarchs as first 
existing in Abraham,* Moses, in his religion 
of the second revelation, everywhere refers to 
the first revelation, which begins with Abraham ; 
and thus the name of Jehovah first acquires its 
new specific meaning. The revelation of the 
law presupposes the revelation of promise 
(Rom. iv. ; Gal. iii.). — And Moses covered 
his face. — In addition to the two commands : 
draw not nigh, put off thy shoes, comes this act, 
HI a voluntary expression of the heart. Tid. 1 
Kings xix. 13. "Sinful man cannot endure the 
sight of the holy God" (Keil). Also the eye of 
sense is overcome by the splendor of the mani- 
festation which is inwardly seen, somewhat as 
by the splendor of the sun. Vid. Rev. i. 

Ver. 8. lam come dovrn. — Comp. Gen. xi. 
5. A good land, i. e. a fruitful. A large land, 
i. 6. not hemmed in like the Nile Valley. Flow- 
ing, i. e. overflowing with milk and honey ; rich, 
therefore, in flowers and flowery pastures. On 
the fruitfulness of Canaan, comp. the geographi- 
cal works. — Into the place. — More particular 
description of the laud. Vid. Gen. x. 19 ; 
XV. 18. 

Ver. 11. And Moses said unto God. — Re 
who once would, when as yet he ought not, now 
will no longer, when he ought. Both faults, the 



* [More naturally, Modes' own fither, or his aoceBtore in 
general. So Keil, knoljtl, Murphy, Jialiflch.— Ta.] 



rashness and the subsequent slowness, corres- 
pond to each other. Moses has indeed " learned 
humility in the school of Midian" [Keil]; but 
this humility cannot be conceived an without a 
mixture of dejection, since humility^ of itself 
does not stand in the way of a bold faith, but ia 
rather the source of it. After being forty years 
an unknown shepherd, he has, as he thinks, 
given up, with his rancor, also his hope. More- 
over, he feels, no doubt, otherwise than formerly 
about the momentous deed which seems to have 
done his people no good, and himself only mis- 
chief, and which in Egypt is probably not for- 
gotten. As in the Egyptian bondage, the old 
guilt of Joseph's brethren manifested itself even 
up to the third and fourth generation, so a sha- 
dow of that former rashness seems to manifest 
itself in the embarrassment of his spirit. 

Ver. 12. The promise that God will go with 
him and give success to his mission ia to be 
sealed by his delivering the Israelites, bringing 
them to Sinai, and there engaging with them in 
divine service, i. e., as the expression in its full- 
ness probably means, entering formally into the 
relation of worshipper of Jehovah. The central 
point of this worship consisted, it is true, after- 
wards in the sacrificial offerings, particularly 
the burnt offering, which sealed the covenant. 
This first and greatest sign involves all that fol- 
low, and is designed for Moses himself; with it 
God gives his pledge of the successful issue of 
the whole. It must not be overlooked that this 
great promise stands in close relation to the 
great hope which is reviving in his soul. 

Ver. 18. It ia very significant, that Moses, 
first of all, desires, in behalf of his mission, and, 
we may say, in behalf of his whole future reli- 
gious system, to know definitely the name of 
God. The name, God, even in the form of El 
Shaddai, was too general for the new relation 
into which the Israelites were to enter, as a 
people alongside of the other nations which all 
had their own deities. Though he was the only 
God, yet it was necessary for him to have a 
name of specific aiguificance for Israel ; and 
though the name Jehovah was already known 
by them, still it had not yet its unique signifi- 
cance, as the paternal name of God first ac- 
quired its meaning in the New Testament, and 
the word "justification," at the Reformation. 
Moaea, therefore, implies that he can liberate 
the people only in the name of God; that he 
must bring to them the religion of their fathers 
in a new phase. DE/ expresses not solely "the 
objective manifestation of the divine essence" 
[Keil], but rather the human apprehension of 
it. The objective manifestation cannot in itself 
be desecrated, as the name of God can be. 

Ver. 14. Can it be that H^DX liyN TTHX 
means only "I am He who I am?" that it de- 
signates only the absoluteness of God, or God 
as the Eternal One? We suppose that the two 
TTTlN's do not denote an identical form of exist- 
ence, but the same existence in two different 
future times. From future to future I will be 
the same — the same in visiting and delivering 
the people of God, the faithful covenant-God, 
and, as such, radically different from the con- 
stant variation in the representations of God 



CHAP. III. 1— rv. 31. 



11 



among the heathen. TbU his consciousness is 
the immediate form of his name ; transposed to 
the third person, it is Jehovah. Hence also the 
expression : " the God of Abraham, the God of 
Isaac, and the God of Jacob," is equivalent in 
meaning. When the repetition of this name in 
ch'. vi. is taken for another account of the same 
fact, it is overlooked that in that case the point 
waste get an assurance that the name "Jeho- 
vah " would surpass that of " Almighty God" — 
an assurance of which Moses, momentarily dis- 
couraged, was just then in need.* 

Ver. 15. My name forever. — Forward into 
all the future, and backward into all the past 

Vers. 16-18. Moses is to execute his commis- 
Bion to Pharaoh not only in the name of Jehovah, 
but also in connection with the elders of Israel, 
in the name of the people. The expression 
"elders" denotes, it is true, primarily the 
heads of tribes and families, but also a simple, 
patriarchal, legal organization based upon that 
system. — Now let us go three days' journey. 

The phrase XJ-PUyJ is diplomatically exactly 
suited to the situation. Strictly, they have a 
perfect right to go ; but it is conditioned on 
Pharaoh's consent. Knobel says : " The dele- 
gates, therefore, were to practice deception on 
the king." This is a rather clumsy judgment 



* [Comp. Introductioa to Genesis, p. Ill sqq. From so 
bald a term aa " He is " or " He will be " (tlie exact tranala- 
tion of nin', Of ratlier of DliT), one can hardly be ex- 
pected to gather the precise notion intended to be conveyed. 
We donbt, however, whether, if we are to confine the con- 
ception to any one of those which are suggested b^ the sen- 
tence ; " 1 am He who I am,*' we should be right in under- 
sb?inding, with Lange, immutability as the one. This 
requires the second verb to refer to a different time ftom the 
first, for which there is no warrant in the Hebrew. Quite 
as little ground is there for singling out the notion of eternity 
BB the distinctive one belonging to the name. Self-exieteiice 
might seem more directly suggested by the phrase ; but 
even this is not expressed unequivocally. Certainly those 

are wrong who translate niiT uniformly "the Eternal." 

T : 
The word has bpcome strictly a proper name. We might as 
well (and even with more correctness) always read " the 
Bupplanter" instead ot "Jacob," and "the ewe" instead of 
" Rachel." — There can be little doubt, we think, that Von 
Hofmann (Schriftbeweis I., p. 86) has fiimisbed the clue to 
the true explanation. The comparison of other passages in 
which there is the same seemingly pleonastic repetition of a 
verb as in our verse ought to serve as a puide. Especially 
Ex. xxxiii. 19 : "I will be gracious to whom I will be gra- 
cious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy." 
It is true that Ijange attf mpts to interpret this expression 
in accordance with his interpretation of the phrase now 
before us ; but he stands in opposition to the other cominen- 
tators and to the obvious sense of the passage, which evi- 
dently expresses the sovereignty of God in the exercise of his 
compassion. Comp. Ex. iv. 13; 2 Kings viii. 1, and perhaps 
Ezek. xii. 25. By this pleonastic expression, and then by 
the emphatic single term, " He is," is denoted existence Kar' 
ef ox^f ; or rather, since the verb n^H is not used to denote 

TT 

existence in the abstract, so much as to serve as a copula 
between subject and predicate, the phrase is an elliptical 
one, and signifies that Ood is sovereign and absolute in the 
possession and manifestation of his attributes. Self-exist- 
ence, eternity and immutability are implied, but not directly 
affirmed. Fersowdiiy is perhaps still more clearly involved 
as one of the elements. As contrasted with Elohim (whose 
radical meaning is probably powef, and does nut necessarily 
involve personality), it contains in Itself (whether we take 
the form riTIN or nin')> "» being a verbal form inclu- 
ding a pronominal element, an expression of personality : 
I am — Sf. is. Jehovah is the living God, the God who 
reveals Himself to His people, and holds a personal relation 
to them. — 1£.] 



of the psychological process. If Pharaoh grant ed 
the request, he would be seen to be in a benevo- 
lent mood, and they might gradually ask for 
more. If he denied it, it would be well for them 
not at once, by an open proposal of emancipa- 
tion, to have exposed themselves to ruin, and 
introduced the contest with his hardness of 
heart, which the guiding thought of Jehovah 
already foresaw. Moses knew better how to 
deal with a despot. Accordingly he soon in- 
creases his demand, till he demands emancipa- 
tion, vi. 10; vii. 16; viii. 25; ix. 1, 13; x. 3. 
From the outset it must, moreover, have greatly 
impressed the king, that the people should wish 
to go out to engage in an act of divine service; 
still more, that they should, in making their 
offering, desire to avoid offending the Egyptians, 
viii. 26. But gradually Jehovah, as the legiti- 
mate king of the people of Israel, comes out in. 
opposition to the usurper of His rights, ix. 1 sq. 
Moses, to be sure, even during the hardeniug 
process, does not let his whole purpose distinctly 
appear ; but he nevertheless gives intimationa 
of it, when, after Pharaoh concedes to them the 
privilege of making an offering in the country, 
he stipulates for a three days' journey, and, in 
an obscure additional remark, hints that he 
then will still wait for Jehovah to give further 
directions. 

Ver. 19. Even not by a mighty hand. — 
Although God really frees Israel by a mighty 
hand. Pharaoh does not, even after the ten 
plagues, permanently submit to Jehovah; there- 
fore he perishes in the Bed Sea. 

Ver. 20. Announcement of the miracles by 
which Jehovah will glorify Himself. 

Ver. 21. Announcement of the terror of the 
Egyptians, in which they will give to the Israel- 
ites, upon a modest request for a loan, the most 
costly vessels (Keil : "jewels"). Theannounce- 
ment becomes a command in xi. 2 sq. On the 
ancient misunderstanding of this fact, vid. Keil, 
p. 445 sq., and the references to Hengstenberg, 
Kurtz, Beinke ; also Commentary on Genesis, p. 
29. " Egypt had robbed Israel by the unwar- 
ranted and unjust exactions imposed upon him ; 
now Israel carries off the prey of Egypt. A pre- 
lude of the victory which the people of God will 
always gain in the contest with the powers of the 
world. Comp. Zeoh. xiv. 14" (Keil).* 

Chap. iv. 1. Four hundred years of natural 
development had succeeded the era of patriarchal 



* [The various explanations of this transaction are given 
by Hengstenberg, i>i8seftatimii on the PelitaJeuch, p. 419 sqq. 
Briefly they are the following : (1) That God, being the st>- 
vereign disposer of all thinge, had a right thus to traof-fer the 
property of the Egyptians to the Israelites. (2) Ttiat the Is- 
raelites received no more than their just due in taking these 
articles, in view of the oppressive treatment they bad under- 
gone. I'd) That, though the Israelites in form asked for a 
loau, it was understood by the Egyptians as a gift, thern being 
no expectation that the Israelites would return. ^4) That the 
Israelites borrowed with the intention of returninf;, being 
ignorant of the Divine plan of removing them from the coun- 
try so suddenly that a restoration of the borrowed articles to 
their proper owners would be impossible. — These explana- 
tions, uneatis&ctory as they are, are as good as the case would 
admit, were the terms "borrow" and "lend," derived from 
the LXX. and reproduced in almost all the translations, the 
equivalents of the Hebrew words. But the simple fact is that 
the Israelites are said to have asked for the things, and the 
Eeyptians to have given them. The circumstances (xii. 33 
sqq.) also under which the Israelites went away makes it 
seem every way probable that the Egyptians never expected 
a restoration of the things bestowed on the Israelites. — Tr.]. 



12 



EXODUS. 



revelations, and the people were no longer ac- 
customed to prophetic voices. The more ground 
therefore did Moses seem to have for his anxiety 
lest the people vrould not believe him. Jehovah, 
moreover, does not blame him for his doubts, but 
gives him three marks of authentication^ The 
symbolical nature of these miraculous signs is 
noticed also by Keil. 

Vers. 2-5. The casting down of the shepherd's 
rod may signify the giving up of his previous 
pastoral occupation. As a seemingly impotent 
shepherd's rod he becomes a serpent, he excites 
all the hostile craft and power of the Egyptians. 
Pharaoh especially appears in the whole process 
also as a serpent-like liar. But as to the ser- 
pent, it is enough to understand by it the dark, 
hostile power of the Egyptians which now at first 
frightened him. It is true, the enemy of the 
woman's seed, the old serpent, constitutes the 
background of the Egyptian hostility ; but here 
the symbol of the Egyptian snake kind is suffi- 
cient. When Moses, however, seizes the serpent 
by the tail, by its weaponless natural part, as is 
illustrated in the Egyptian plagues, it becomes a 
rod again, and now a divine rod of the shepherd 
of the peoplo. 

Vers. 6-8. The white leprosy is here meant. 
Comp. Lev. xiii. 3. " As to the significance of 
this sign, it is quite arbitrary, with Theodoret 
and others, down to Kurtz, to understand the 
hand to represent the people of Israel ; and still 
more arbitrary, with Kurtz, to make the bosom 
represent first Egypt, and then Canaan, as the 
hiding-place of Israel. If the shepherd's rod 
symbolizes Moses' vocation, it is the hand which 
bears the rod, and governs. In his bosom the 
nttendant carries the babe," etc. (Keil). The 
leprosy has been explained, now as signifying 
the miserable condition of the Jews, now as the 
contagious influence upon them of Egyptian im- 
purity. Through the sympathy of his bosom 
with the leprosy of his people Moses' hand itself 
becomes in his bosom leprous ; but through the 
same sympathy his hand becomes clean again. 
The actions of his sympathy cause him to ap- 
pear as an accomplice in the guilt of Israel; and 
he really is not free from guilt ; but the same 
actions have a sort of propitiatory power, which 
also inures to the benefit of the people. Jeho- 
hovah raises the voice of this second, sacerdotal 
sign above the voice of the first. 

Ver. 9. As the first miraculous sign symbo- 
lized a predominantly prophetic action, the se- 
cond a sacerdotal, so the third a kingly kind. It 
gives him the power to turn into blood the water 
of the Nile, which is for Egypt a source of life, 
a sort of deity ; i. e., out of the very life-force 
to evoke the doom of death. Let us not forget 
that a whole succession of Egyptian plagues pro- 
ceeds from the first one, the corruption of the 
Nile water. 

As these miraculous signs are throughout sym- 
bolical, so, in their first application, they are 
probably conditioned by a state of ecstasy. Yet the 
first miracle is also literally performed before 
Pharaoh, and in its natural basis is allied with 
the Egyptian serpent charming. Vid. Hengst. 
[Egypt and the Books of Moses, p. 100 sqq.]. 

The third sign, however, is expanded in the 
result into the transformation of the water of the 



Nile into blood. This, too, has its connection 
with Egypt ; therefore there must doubtless have 
been some mysterious fact involved in the second 
sign, inasmuch moreover as the text reports that 
Moses did the signs before the people, and thus 
authenticated his mission before them (iv. 30, 
31), although indeed in iv. 17 the signs seem to 
be reduced to signs done with the staff. 

Vers. 10-12. There were wanted no more 
signs, but, as Moses' modesty led him to feel, 
more oratorical ability. How could Moses have 
exercised his slow tongue in his long isolation in 
the desert, associating with few men, and those 
who could but little understand him ? This dif- 
ficulty Jehovah also regards. He will impart to 
him the divine eloquence, which from that time 
through the history of the whole kingdom of God 
remains different from that of the natural man. 
He ordained for him his peculiar organs, and 
the organic defect of a heavy tongue, as all or- 
gans and organic defects in general, and will 
know how to make of his tongue his divine or- 
gan, as the history of the kingdom of God has so 
richly proved. 

Vers. 13, 14. It cannot be said (with Keil) 
that now the secret depth of his heart becomes 
open, in the sense that he will not undertake the 
mission. If this were the case, Jehovah would 
no longer deal with him. But the last sigh of 
his ill-humor, of his despondency, finds vent in 
these words, which are indeed sinful enough to 
excite the anger of Jehovah, and so also to make 
him feel as if death were about to overtake him. 
We are reminded here of similar utterances of 
Isaiah (ch. vi.), of Jeremiah, (oh. i.), of the de- 
tention of Calvin in Geneva by the adjurations 
of Farel, and similar scenes. The anger of Je- 
hovah is not of a sort which leads him to break 
with Moses : and in the further expression of it 
it appears that the hesitation on account of the 
slow tongue is still not yet overcome. — Is not 
Aaron thy brother ? — "The Levite" means 
probably a genuine Levite, a model of a Levite, 
more than Moses.* With the cautious genius a 
more lively talent was to be associated. Also he 
seems, in reference to the affairs of the Israel- 
ites, to be more prompt than Moses ; for he is 
already on the way to look for Moses (doubtless 
in consequence of divine instigation). Vid. ver. 
27, where the sense is pluperfect. Moses, then, 
has two things to encourage him : he is to have 
a spokesman, and the spokesman is already 
coming in the form of his own brother. For a 
similar mysterious connection of spirits, vid, 
Acts X. 

Vers. 15, 16. The fixing of the relation be- 
tween Moses and God, and between Moses and 
Aaron, must have entirely quieted the doubter. 
The relation between Moses and Aaron is to be 
analogous to that between God and his prophet. 
This assignment does not favor the notion of a 
literal verbal inspiration, but all the more de- 
cidedly that of a real one. It accords with the 
spirit of Judaistic caution, when the Targums 

tone down D'ilSx'? into S^S "for a master 
or teacher. "!• 

* [Oq this point comp. nnder " Textual and Grammatical." 

— Te.I- 

t [Ihe A. V. also softens the expr^ sslon by using the phrase 



CHAP. III. 1— IV. 81. 



13 



Ver. 17. And this atafi. — Out of the rnstio 
shepherd's staff was to be made a divine shep- 
herd's staff, the symbolic organ of the divine 
signs. This ordinance, too, must have elevated 
his soul. Here there was to be no occasion to 
say, " gentle staff, would I had ne'er exchanged 
thee for the sword I" 

Ver. 18. This request for a leave of absence is 
truthful, but does not express the whole truth. 
This Jethro could not have borne. His brethren 
are the Israelites, and his investigating whether 
they are yet alive has a higher significance. 

Ver. 19. AH the men are dead. — This dis- 
closure is introduced with eminent fitness. 
Among the motives which made Moses willing to 
undertake the mission, this assurance should not 
be one. He had first to form his resolution at 
the risk of finding them still living. Moreover, 
he has on account of these men at least expressed 
no hesitation. 

Vers. 20-26. What is here related belongs to 
Moses' journey from Jethro's residence to the 
Mount Horeb, i. c, from the south-eastern part 
of the desert. 

Ver. 20. His sons. — Only the one, Gershom, 
has been named, and that because his name 
served to express Moses' feeling of expatriation 
in Midian. The other, Eliezer, is named after- 
wards (xviii. 3, 4). But his name is introduced 
here by the Vulgate (according to some MS3., 
by the LXX.), and by Luther. Moses went on 
foot by the side of those riding on asses, but 
bears the staff of God in his hand. " Poor as 
his outward appearance is, yet he has in his band 
the staff before which Pharaoh's pride and all his 
power must bow " [Keil]. 

Ver. 21. On the way from Midian to Horeb, 
towards Egypt, Jehovah repeats and expands the 
first commission, as it was in accordance with 
Moses' disposition to become absorbed in medi- 
tations on his vocation. All the '«7onders. — 

D'naan-Sa. The repara, or the terrible signs 
vthich are committed to him constitute a whole ; 
and accordingly he is to unfold the whole series 
in order (on miracles vid. the Comm. on Matt., p. 
153). And why ? Because this is made neces- 
sary in order to meet the successive displays of 
obduracy with which Pharaoh is to resist these 
terrific signs. But, that he may not on this ac- 
count become discouraged in his work, he is told 
thus early that God himself will harden the 
heart of Pharaoh with his judgments, for the 
purpose of bringing about the final glorious issue 
( Vid. the Comm. on Bom., ch. ix.). The three 
terms expressive of hardening, ptn, to make firm 

(ver. 21), riiyp, to make hard (vii. 8), and 133, 

to make heavy or blunt (x. 1), denote a gradual 
progress. The first term occurs, it is true, as 
the designation of the fundamental notion, when 
the hardening has an entirely new beginning, 
and a new scope (xiv. 4; xiv. 17). It is rightly 

** instead ofi" whereas the Tlebrew would more exactly be 
rendered, " He shall be a mouth to thee, and tliou shall be a 
God to him." We have here languasn similar lo, and illus- 
trated by, that in vii. 1, " See, I have madu thee a God to Pha- 
raoh; and Aaron thy brother shall bu thy prophet." As the 
prophet (irpoifi^Ti)! one who speaks /or another) is the spokes- 
man (mouth) of God, so Aaron is to receive and communicate 
messages from Hoses. — TE.j. 



brought forward as a significant circumstance by 
Hengstenberg, Keil, and others, that the harden- 
ing of Pharaoh's heart is ten times ascribed to 
God, and ten times to himself. Pharaoh's self- 
determination has the priority throughout. The 
hardening influence of God presupposes the self- 
obduration of the sinner. But God hardens him 
who thus hardens himself, by furthering the pro- 
cess of self-obduration through the same influ- 
ences which would awaken a pious spirit. This 
he does as an act not mei^ely of permission, but 
of judicial sovereignty. Vid. Keil, p. 458 sqq. 

Ver. 23. Israel is my son, my first-born. 
Comp. Deut. xiv. 1, 2 ; Hos. xl. 1. The doctrine 
of the Son of God here first appears in its typi- 
cal germinal form. Keil makes the choosing of 
Israel begin with Abraham, and excludes from it 
the fact of creation,* as well as the spiritual 
generation, so that there remains only an elec- 
tion of unconditional adoption and of subsequent 
education, or ethical creation. But tbe applica- 
tion of these abstractions to the Christology of 
the N. T. would perhaps be difficult. Vid. Com. 
on Bom. viii. The expression, first-born son, sug- 
gests the future adoption of other nations. I 
■will slay thy son. — This threat looks forward 
to the close of the Egyptian plagues. 

Ver. 24. Seemingly sudden turn of affairs. 
Yet it is occasioned by a previous moral incon- 
sistency, which now for the first time is brought 
close to the prophet's conscience. He who is on 
his way to liberate the people of the circumci- 
sion, has in Midian even neglected to circumcise 
his second son Eliezer. The wrath of God comes 
upon him in an attack of mortal weakness, in a 
distressing deathly feeling (Ps. xc). Proioably 
Zipporah had opposed the circumcision of Eli- 
ezer; hence she now interposes to save her hus- 
band. She circumcises the child with a stone- 
knife (more sacred than a metallic knife, on 
account of tradition) ; but she is still unable to 
conceal her ill-humor, and lays the foreskin at 
his feet with the words: "A bridegroom of blood 
art thou to me."f 

Ver. 26. Zipporah seems to be surly about 
the whole train of circumcisions. Probably 
Moses is thereby led to send her with the chil- 
dren back to her father to remain during the re- 
mainder of his undertaking. For not until hij 
return to the peninsula of Sinai does his father- 
in-law bring his family to him. 

Ver. 27. On the one hand, Moses is freed from 
a hindrance, which is only obscurely hinted at, 
by the return of Zipporah ; on the other hand, a 
great comfort awaits him in the coming of his 
brother Aaron to meet him. 

* fliange's language is : "Eeil lUssI di', ErwtLWimg IsraeU 
mil Abraham anfangea, und sehlieafil von ihr auB auf dv' Tliat^ 
aache dp.r Sclioj^fung" etc. In translating we have ignored the 
preposition " ok/," which, if recognized, would require the 
sentence to read: " Keil . . . infers from it [the fhoosiiig of 
Israel] the fact of creation," ete. But this would certainly bo 
a misrepresentation of Keil, even if it would convny anv cleat 
sense in itself. We conclude that "auf" is inserted by a 
typographical error.— Ta.]. 

f [The text and the commentary bo'h leave it somewhat 
doubtful whether these words are addressed to Moses or thd 
child; but there can be little douit that Moses is the one. 
The meaning is that Moses had been well-nigh lost to hir 
by disease. She regains him by circumcising th« son ; Imt 
the bloody eifect excites her displeasure, and by fhn sav- 
ing, "A bridegroom ot blood art thou to me," she means that 
she has, as it were, regained him as a husband by tlie blo..J 
of her child.— Tr. J. 



14 EXODTTS. 



"Ver. 29. They went. — This ia the journey 
from Horeb to Egypt. 

Vers. 30, 31. The elders of the people, after 
hearing Aaron's message, and seeing his signs, 



believingly accept the fact of Jehovah's oomiris. 
sion, and bow adoringly before His messengers. 
Thereby the people organized themselTes. They 
accepted the vocation of being the people of Je- 
hovah. 



D— MOSES AND AAEON BEFORE PHARAOH. THE SEEMINGLY MISCHIEVOUS EF- 
' FECT OP THEIR DIVINE MESSAGE, AND THE DISCOURAGEMENT OF THE PEOPLE 
AND THE MESSENGERS THEMSELVES. GOD REVERSES THIS EFFECT BY SO- 
LEMNLY PROMISING DELIVERANCE, REVEALING HIS NAME JEHOVAH, SUM- 
MONING THE HEADS OF THE TRIBES TO UNITE WITH MOSES AND AARON, 
RAISING MOSES' FAITH ABOVE PHARAOH'S DEFIANCE, AND DECLARING THE 
GLORIOUS OBJECT AND ISSUE OP PHARAOH'S OBDURACY. 

Chapters V. 1— VII. 7. 

1 And afterward Moses and Aaron went in [came] and told [said unto] Pharaoh, 
Thus saith Jehovah, God [the God] of Israel, Let my people go, that they may hold a 

2 feast imto me in the wilderness. And Pharaoh said, Who is Jehovah, that I should 
obey his voice to let Israel go ? I know not Jehovah, neither will I [and moreover 

3 I will not] let Israel go. And they said. The God of the Hebrews hath met with 
[met] us : let us go, we pray thee, three days' journey into the desert, and sacrifice 
unto Jehovah our God, lest he fall upon us with the pestilence, or with the sword. 

4 And the king of Egypt said unto them. Wherefore do ye, Moses and Aaron, let 

5 [release] the people from their works ? get you unto your burdens [tasks]. And 
Pharaoh said, Behold, the people of the land now are many, and ye make them 

6 rest from their burdens [tasks]. And Pharaoh commanded the same day the 

7 taskmasters of the people, and their officers [overseers], saying, Ye shall no more 
give the people straw to make brick, as heretofore ; let them go and gather straw 

8 for themselves. And the tale of the bricks which they did make [have been 
making] heretofore, ye shall lay upon them ; ye shall not diminish aiigkt thereof: 
for they be [are] idle ; therefore they cry, saying. Let us go and sacrifice to our 

9 God. Let there more work be laid upon the men [let the work be heavy for' the 
men], that they may labor therein [be busied with it] ;° and let them not regard 

10 vain [lying] words. And the taskmasters of the people went out, and their officers 
[overseers], and they spake unto the people, saying, Thus saith Pharaoh, I will 

11 not give you straw. Go ye, get you straw where ye can find it ; yet [for] not aught 

12 of your work shall be diminished. So [And] the people were scattered abroad 

13 throughout all the land of Egypt to gather stubble instead of [for] straw. And 
the taskmasters hasted [urged] them, saying, Fulfil your works, your daily tasks, 

14 as when there was straw. And the officers [overseers] of the children of Israel, 
which [whom] Pharaoh had set over them, were beaten, and demanded [were 
asked]. Wherefore have ye not fulfilled your task in making brick both yesterday 

15 and to-day as heretofore? Then [And] the officers [overseers] of the children of 

16 Israel came and cried unto Pharaoh, saying. Wherefore dealest thou thus with thy 
servants ? There is no straw given unto thy servants, and they say unto us. Make 
brick ;* and, behold, thy servants are beaten ; but the fault is in thine own people 

TEXTUAL AND QEAMMATICAI,. 

1 [Ver. 3. This expression is the same as the one in ill. 18 (on which see the note), except that here we have NIpJ, 

Instead of H^^pJ* But the interchange of these forms is so fV-equent that it is most natural to understand the two words 

tI: ■ 
as equivalent in sense. — Tr.] 

s [Ver. 9. Literally "upon," the worlt being represented as a burden imposed upon the Israelites. Tr.J 

2 [Ver. 9, Literally, " do in it," i. e. have enough to do in the work given, — Tr.J 

* [Ver. 10. If we retain the order of the words as thf^y stand in the original, we got a much more forcible translation 
of the first part of this verse: "Straw, none is given to thy servants; and * Brick,' they say to us, 'matLe ye.' " This bringa 
out lorcibly the antithesis between " straw " and " brick.' —TB.] 



CHAP. V. 1— Vn. 7. 15 



17 [thy people are in fault]. But he said, Ye are idle, ye are idle [Idle are ye, idle] ; 

18 therefore ye say, Let us go and do sacrifice [and sacrifice] to Jehovah. Go there- 
fore now [And now go], and work ; for [and] there shall no straw be given you ; 

19 yet shall ye [and ye shall] deliver the tale of bricks. And the officers [overseers] 
of the children of Israel did see that they were in [saw themselves in] evil case 
[trouble], after it was said, Ye shall not minish [diminish] aught from your bricks 

20 of [bricks,] your daily task. And they met Moses and Aaron, who stood in the 

21 way [who were standing to meet them], as they came forth from Pharaoh : And 
they said unto them, Jehovah look upon you, and judge ; because ye have made 
our savor to be abhorred in the eyes of Pharaoh, and in the eyes of his servants, 

22 to put a sword in their hand to slay us. And Moses returned unto Jehovah, and 
said, Lord, wherefore hast thou so evil entreated [thou done evil to] this people ? 
why is it that thou hast [why hast thou] sent me ? For since I came to Pharaoh 
to speak in thy name, he hath done evil to this people ; neither hast thou delivered 
thy people at all. 

Chap. VI. 1 Then [And] Jehovah said unto Moses, Now shalt thou see what I will 
do to Pharaoh ; for with [through]' a strong hand shall he let them go, and with 

2 [through] a strong hand shall he drive them out of his land. And God spake 

3 unto Moses, and said unto him, I am Jehovah. And I appeared unto Abraham, 
unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name of [as]' God Almighty, but by' my name 

4 Jehovah was I not known to them. And I have also [I also] established my cove- 
nant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land of their pilgrimage 

5 [sojourn], wherein they were strangers [sojourners]. And I have also heard the 
groaning of the children of Israel, whom the Egyptians keep in bondage ; and I 

6 have remembered my covenant. Wherefore say unto the children of Israel, I am 
Jehovah, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and 
I will rid [deliver] you out of their bondage, and I will redeem you with a stretched- 

7 out arm and with great judgments. And I will lake you to me for a people, and 
I will be to you a God ; and ye shall know that I am Jehovah your God, which 

8 [who] bringeth you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. And I will 
bring you in unto the land concerning the which [the land which] I did swear to 
give it [to give] to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob ; and I will give it you for 

9 an heritage [a possession] : I am Jehovah. And Moses spake so unto the children 
of Israel : but they hearkened not unto Moses for anguish [vexation] of spirit and 

10, 11 for cruel bondage. And Jehovah spake unto Moses, saying. Go in, speak unto 

12 Pharaoh, king of Egypt, that he let the children of Israel go out of his land. And 
Moses spake before Jehovah, saying, Behold, the children of Israel have not hear- 
kened unto me; how then [and how] shall Pharaoh hear me, who am of uncircum- 

13 cised lips [uncircumcised of lips] ? And Jehovah spake unto Moses and unto 
Aaron, and gave them a charge unto the children of Israel and unto Pharaoh kine; 

14 of Egypt, to bring the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt. These be [are} 
the heads of their fathers' houses (their ancestral houses) : The sons of Reuben, the 
firstborn of Israel ; Hanoch, and Pallu, Hezron, and Carmi; these be [are'] the 

15 families of Reuben. And the sons of Simeon ; Jemuel, and Jamin, and Thad, and 
Jachin, and Zohar, and Shaul, the son of a [the] Canaanitish woman ; these are 

16 the families of Simeon. And these are the names of the sons of Levi according to 
their generations [genealogies] ; Gershon, and Kohath, and Merari : and the years 

17 of the life of Levi were an [a] hundred thirty and seven years. The sons of Ger- 

18 shon : Libni, and Shimi, according to their families. And the sons of Kohath : 
Amram, and Izhar, and Hebron, and Uzziel ; and the years of the life of Kohath 

19 were an [a] hundred thirty and three years. And the sons of Merari : Mahali, 
and Mushi : These are the families of Levi according to their generations [genealo- 

20 gies]. And Amram took him Jochebed his father's sister to wife ; and she bare 

' [Chap. VI. Ver. 1. I. e. by virtue, or in consequenoe, of Jehovah's strong hanci, not Pharaoh's, aa one might imagine. 
— Tr.] 

• (V.T. 3. Literally, "lappeared ... in Gori Almighty "—a case of 2 estmtial, meaning "in the capacity of. Vio 
Ewald. Am/. Gr. J 299, b ; Ges. Heb. Or. i 154, 3 a (7).— Te.] 

f [Ver. 3. Tlie original has no preposition. Literally: "My name Jehovah, I was not known.'' — Ta.] 

5 



15 



EXODUS. 



him Aaron and Moses : and the years of the life of Arnram were an [a] hundred 

21 and thirty and seven years. And the sons of Izhar : Korah, and Nephez, and 

22 Zichri. And the sons of Uzziel: Mishael, and Elzaphan, and Zithri [Sithri]. 

23 And Aaron took him Elisheba, daughter of Amminadab, sister of Naashon, to 

24 wife ; and she bare him Nadab, and Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar. And the sons 
of Korah : Assir, and Elkanah, and Abiasaph : these are the families of the Kor- 

25 hites. And Eleazar, Aaron's son, took him one of the daughters of Putiel to wife ; 
and she bare him Phinehas : these are the heads of the fathers of the Levites 

26 according to their families. These are that Aaron and Moses, to whom Jehovah 
said, Bring out the children of Israel from the land of Egypt according to their 

27 armies [hosts]. These are they which [who] spake unto Pharaoh, king of Egypt, 
to bring out the children of Israel from Egypt : these are that Moses and Aaron. 

28 And it came to pass on the day when Jehovah spake unto Moses in the land of 

29 Egypt, That Jehovah spake unto Moses, saying, I am Jehovah : speak thou unto 

30 Pharaoh, king of Egypt, all that I say unto thee. And Moses said before Jehovah, 
Behold I am of uncircumcised lips [uncircumcised of lips], and how shall [will] 
Pharaoh hearken unto me ? 

Chap. VII. 1 And Jehovah said unto Moses, See, I have made thee a god [God] to 

2 Pharaoh ; and Aaron thy brother shall be thy prophet. Thou shalt speak all that 
I command thee ; and Aaron thy brother shall speak unto Pharaoh that he send 

3 the children of Israel out of his land. And I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and 

4 multiply my signs and my wonders in the land of Egypt. But Pharaoh shall 
[will] not hearken unto you, that I may [and I will] lay my hand upon Egypt, 
and bring forth mine armies, and my people [my hosts, my people], the children 

5 of Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great judgments. And the Egyptians shall 
know that I am Jehovah, when I stretch forth mine [my] hand upon Egypt, and 

6 bring out the children of Israel from among them. And Moses and Aaron did as 

7 [did so ; as] Jehovah commanded them, so did they. And Moses was fourscore 
years old, and Aaron fourscore and three years old, when they spake unto Pha- 
raoh. 



EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL. 

Ver. 1. Afterward Moses and Aaron 
went. — Their message is quite in accordance 
with the philosophical notions of the ancients, 
and especially with the Israelitish faith. Having 
accepted the message from Horeb, Israel became 
.Tehovah's people, Jehovah Israel's God; and as 
Israel's God, He through His ambassadors meets 
Pharaoh, and demands that the people be re- 
leased, in order to render Him service in a reli- 
gious festival. The message accords with the 
situation. Jehovah, the God of Israel, may 
seem to Pharaoh chiefly the national deity of 
Israel; but there is an intimation in the words 
that He is also the Lord of Pharaoh, of Egypt, 
and of its worship. Under the petition for a 
furlough lurks the command to set free ; under 
the recognition of the power of Pharaoh over 
the people, the declaration that Israel is Jeho- 
vah's free people ; under the duty of celebrating 
a feast of Jehovah in the wilderness, the thought 
of separating from Egypt and of celebrating the 
Exodus. The words seemed like a petition 
which had an echo like a thunder tone. Per- 
haps the instinct of the tyrant detected some- 
thing of this thunder-tone. But even if not, the 
modest petition was enough to enrage him. 

Ver. 2. Who is Jehovah ? — As the heathen 
had the notion that the gods governed territo- 
rially, the Jews seemed to fall under the domi- 
nion of the Egyptian gods. They had no land, 
had moreover in Pharaoh's eyes no right to be 



called a nation ; therefore, even if they had a 
deity, it must have been, in his opinion, an 
anonymous one. This seemed to him to be 
proved by the new name, Jehovah (which there- 
fore could not have been of Egyptian origin). 
But even disregard of a known foreign deity 
was impiety ; still more, disregard of the un- 
known God who, as such, was the very object 
towards which all his higher aspirations and 
conscientious compunctions pointed.* Thus his 
obduracy began with an act of impiety, which 
was at the same time inhumanity, inasmuch as 
he denied to the people freedom of worship. 
He was the prototype of all religious tyrants. 
Vei>. 3. He is glorified by us. — [This ia 

Lange's translation of ^y/J^ K'\py].f The cor- 



* [Thl8 is putting a rather fine point on Pbarnoh'a wick- 
edness. A bad man cann<^t, as bucm, bo required to hava 
aspirations towards anv hitli^rto unknown god of whom he 
may chance to hear, and to have such aspirations just 6e- 
cattse he has never before heard of him. It is enough to say 
that, (IS a polytheist, he ought to have respected the religion 
of the Hebrews.— Tr.] 

t [See under " Textual and Grammatical." It is tnie that 
iT^ p J would he the usual form for the meaning " has met;" 

but on the other hand it is certain that Nip sometimes is 

— mpi and the analogy ofiii. 18 points almost unmistakably 

to such a use. Moreover, even if this were not the case, it is 
hard to see how the Hebixw can be rendered : " He is glori- 
fied by us." For NTpJ does not mean "is glorified," and 

^ybj? does not mean " by ns." If the verb is to be taken 

in its ordinary sense, the whole expression would read: 
•He is called upon ns," i. e. we bnar his name, though evei 
this would b - only imperfectly expressed. — Ts ] 



CHAP. V. 1— vn. 7. 



17 



rectiou: "He hath met us" (mp), weakens 
the force of a siguitioaiit word. They appeal to 
the fact that Jehovah from of old has been their 
fathers' God ; and also in their calling them- 
selves Hebrews is disclosed the recollection of 
ancient dignities and the love of freedom grow- 
ing out of it. — Three days' journey. — Keil 
says: "In Egypt offerings may be made to the 
gods of Egypt, but not to the God of the He- 
brews." but see viii. 26. In the "three days' 
journey " also is expressed the hope of freedom. 
— With the pestilence. — A reference to the 
power of Jehovah, as able to inflict pestilence 
and war, and to His jealousy, as able so severely 
to punish the neglect of the worship due Him. 
2Iat without truth, but also not without subtile- 
neas, did they say, "lest He fall upon us;" in 
the background was the thought: "lest He fall 
upon thee." Clericus remarks that, according 
to the belief of the heathen, the gods punish the 
neglect of their worship. 

Yer. 4. Wherefore, Moses and Aaron. — 
He thus declares their allegation about a mes- 
sage from Jehovah to be fictitious. He conceives 
himself to have to do only with two serfs. — 
Release the people. — And so introduce an- 
archy and barbarism. The same objection has 
been made against propositioos to introduce 
freedom of evangelical religion. — Get you to 
your burdens. — To all the other traits of the 
tyrant this trait of ignorance must also be added. 
As he thinks that Moses and Aaron belong 
among the serfs, so he also thinks that servile 
labor is the proper employment of the people. 

Yer. 6. The people of the land (peasants). 
The simple notion of countrymen can, according 
to the parallel passages, Jer. lii. 25 and Ezek. 
vii. 27, denote neither bondmen nor Egyptian 
countrymen as a caste. Although both ideas are 
alluded to in the expression, a people of pea- 
sants, who as such must be kept at work, espe- 
cially as there are becoming too many of tbem. 
The perfect sense, " Te have made them rest," 
is to be ascribed to the fancy of the tyrant. 

Yer. 6. The same day. — Restlessness of the 
persecuting spirit. The D;?a D'fe'jj, or the 
" drivers over them," are the Egyptian over- 
seers who were appointed over them ; the 
D'IBt!', or the scribes belonging to them, were 
taken from the Jewish people, officers subordinate 
to the others, in themselves leaders of the people. 

Yer. 7. " The bricks in the old monuments 
of Egypt, also in many pyramids, are not burnt, 
but only dried in the sun, as Herodotus (II 
136) mentions of a pyramid " (Keil). The bricks 
were made firm by means of the chopped straw, 
generally gathered from the stubble of the har- 
vested fields, which was mixed with the clay. 
This too is confirmed by ancient monuments. 
Hengstenberg, Egypt, etc., p. 80 sq. — Hereto- 
fore. — Heb. : "yesterday and the day before 
yesterday." The usual Hebrew method of de- 
signating past time. 

Yer. 9. Regard lying words.— IpEJ n3^ — 
Thus he calls the words of Moses concerning 
Jehovah's revelation. 

Yer. 10. Even the Jewish scribes yield with- 
out opposition. They have become slavish tools 
of the foreign heathen despotism. 



Yer. 16. Thy people is in fault {or sin- 
neth). — According to Knobel, the phrase "thy 
people " refers to Israel ; according to Keil, to 
the Egyptians. The latter view is preferable; 
it is an indirect complaint concerning the con- 
duct of the king himself, against whom they do 
not dare to make direct reproaches. " nXDFI 

is a rare feminine form for nSDn fsee on Gen. 

T : T ^ 
xxxiii. 11) and D£ is construed as feminine, as 

in Judg. xviii. 7; Jer. viii. 5" (Keil).* 

Yer. tl. Ye have made our savor to be 
abhorred (Heb. to stink) in the eyes. — The 

strong figurativeness of the expression is seen 
in the incongruity between odor and eyes. The 
meaning is : ye have brought us into ill-repute. 

Yer. 22. Augustine's interpretation : Hsdc non 
contumacix verba sunt, vtl indignationis sed inquui- 
tionis et orationis, is not a sufficient explanation 
of the mood in which Moses speaks. It is the 
mark of the genuineness of the personal relation 
between the believers and Jehovah, that they 
may give expression even to their vexation in 
view of Jehovah's unsearchable dealings. Ex- 
pressions of this sort run through the book of 
Job, the Psalms, and the Prophets, and over 
into the New Testament, and prove that the ideal 
religion is not that in which souls stand related 
to God as selfless creatures to an absolute des- 
tiny. 

Chap. YI. 1-3. Knobel finds here a new ac- 
count of the call of Moses, and that, by the Elo- 
hist. A correct understanding of the connec- 
tion destroys this hypothesis. Moses is in need 
of new encouragement. Therefore Jehovah, first, 
repeats His promise, by vigorous measures to 
compel Pharaoh to release Israel, in a stronger 
form (comp. iii. 19; iv. 21); and then follows 
the declaration that this result is pledged in the 
name Jehovah, that the name Jehovah, in its 
significance as the source of promise, surpasses 
even the name God Almighty. If the fathers, in 
the experience of His miraculous help, have be- 
come acquainted with Him as God Almighty, 
they are now to get a true knowledge of Him as 
the God of helpful covenant faithfulness. This 
is the reason why he recurs to the name Jeho- 
hovah. Comp. Keil, p. 467. f 



* [The opinion of Knobel, here rejected, is held also by 
Glair-i, Arnheim, FUrst and othera. The meaning, according 
to this, id: "Thy people (i. e, the Israelites) are treated as if 
guilty." The LXX. understood nNIDH ^s «< ^erb in the 
second person, and r-'n ered afiiK^trei? rov ^adr aov, " thou 
doest wrong to thy people.*' Still other explanations have 
been r sorted to ; but the one given by Lange is the most 
natural, and is quite satisfactory. — Ta.J 

f [Notice shouH be taken of the fact that from ver. 3 it 
has been inferred by many that the name Jehovah had 
actually (or, at least, in the opinion of the writer of this paB- 
sage) never been known or used before this time; conse- 
quently that wherever the name occurs in Genesis or Ex. i.- 
T,, it is a proof fhat the passage containing it was written 
after the time here iodlcated. This is hn important element 
in the theories concerning the authorship of the Pentateuch. 
Certainly if we press the literal meaning of the last clause 
of ver. 3, it wuuld seem to follow th-it the name Jehovah 
(Tahveh) was now for the first- time made known. But, to 
say nothing of the fact that the name Jehovah is not only 
familiarly used by the author of the book of Genesis, but is 
also put into the mouths of the earliest T'atrinrchs (all which 
might be regarded as a proleptic use of the word, or a careless 
anachronism), it is perhtipa sufflcient to reply, that such an 
inference from the papsage liefore us betrays a very superfi- 
cial view of the siynifirance of the word " natue," as used in 
the Bible, and especially in the Hebrew Scriptures. The 
natne of a person was co ceived as repreaen io^ his character^ 



18 



EXODUS. 



Ver. 4. Tid. tbe promises, Gen. xvii. 7, 8 ; 
xxvi. 3 ; XXXV. 11. 1'2. 

Ver. 6. I am Jehovah. With this name He 
begins and ends (ver. 8) His promise. With the 
name Jehovah, then. He pledges Himself to the 
threefold promise: (1) To deliver the people 
from bondage ; (2) to adopt them as His people ; 
(3) to lead them to Canaan, their future posses- 
sion. With a stretched-out arm. A stronger 

expression than nj:3m T. Comp. Deut. iv. 34 ; 

T. 15 ; vii. 19. 

Ver, 9. For vexation of spirit. Gesenma : 
Impatience. Keil: Shortness of breath, i. e., 
anguish, distress. 

Vers. 10, 11. While Moaes' courage quite gives 
vpay, Jehovah intensifies the language descrip- 
tive of his mission. 

Ver. 12. On the other hand, Moses intensifies 
the expression with which he made (iv. 10) his 
want of eloquence an excuse for declining the 
commission. — Of uncircumcised lips. Since 
circumcision was symbolic of renewal or regene- 
ration, this expression involved a new phase of 
thought. If he was of uncircumcised or unclean 
lips (lua. vi. 5), then even Aaron's eloquence 
could not help him. because in that case Moses 
could not transmit in its purity the pure word 
of God. In his strict conscientiousness he sin- 
cerely assumes that there must be a moral hin- 
derance in his manner of speaking itself. 

Ver. 13. This time Jehovah answers with an 
express command to Moses and Aaron together, 
and to the children of Israel and Pharaoh toge- 
ther. This comprehensive command alone can 
beat down Moses' last feeling of hesitation. 

Vers. 14-27. But as a sign that the mission of 
Moses is now determined, that Moses and Aaron, 
therefore, are constituted these prominent men 
of God, their genealogy is now inserted, the form 
of which shows that it is to be regarded as an 
extract from a genealogy of the twelve tribes, 
since the genealogy begins with Eeuben, but does 
not go beyond Levi. 

Ver. 14. ni^N-iTa. "Father-houses, not fa- 
ther-house" [Keil]. The compound form has 
becnme a simple word. See Keil, p. 469. The 
father-houses are the ramifications of the tribes. 
The tribes bramch offfirat into families, or clans, 
or heads of the father-houses ; these again branch 
ofiF into the father-houses themselves. The Am- 
ram of ver. 20 is to be distinguished from the 
Amram of ver. 18. Seethe proof of this in Tiele, 
Ohronologie des A. T; Keil, p. 469.* The text, 



his personality. When .Tacoh's name was changed, it was 
sai'i : " Thy name shall be c;Llled no more Jacob, but Israel ;" 
anflth^' re;i3on given tor the chanjre is that lie has now 
entered into a new relatiou with God. Yet, notwithstanding 
ttie new appellation, the na-ne Jaco'i continued to be n=:e'l, 
and even more frequently than Israel. In the case before 
us, then, the statement respe'.ting the names amounts sim- 
ply to this, that God had not been luidersttnd in the character 
lepresented by the name Jehovah. Tlie use of the phrase 
"my name" instead of "(ftc name,"' itself points to tiie pre- 
vious use of the name. — Tr.] 

* [The proof, as given by Tiele, is this: "According to 
Num. iii. 27 sq., the Kohatbitea were divided (at the time of 



to be sure, does not clearly indicate the distinc- 
tion. " The enumeration of only four genera- 
tions— Levi, Kohath, Amram, Moses— points un- 
mistakably to Gen. XT. 16 " (Keil). 

Ver. 20. His father's sister — Tliat was be- 
fore the giving of the law in Lev. xviii. 12. The 
LXX. and Vulg. understand the word Xrm of 
the daughter of Ihe father's brother. According 
(o ch. vii. 7, Aaron was three years older than 
Moses; that Miriam was older than either is 
seen from the history. 

Ver. 23. Aaron's wife was from the tribe of 
Judah. Vid. Num. ii. 3. 

Ver. 25. HtaS ''t^NI. Abbreviation of 'tyST 

T " T " T 

nUX jTO ["heads of the father-houses"]. 

Ver. 26. These axe that Aaron and 
Moses. — Thus the reason is given for inserting 
this piece of genealogy in this place. 

Ver. 28. Resumption of the narrative inter- 
rupted at ver. 12. What is there said is here 
and afterward repeated more fully. In the 
land of Egypt. — This addition is not a sign of 
another account, but only gives emphasis to the 
fact that Jehovah represented Himself in the ver / 
midst of Egypt as the Lord of the country, and 
gave Mces, for the furtherance of his aim, a 
sort of divine dominion, namely, a theocratic 
dominion over Pharaoh. 

Chap. VII. 1. What Moses at first was to be 
for Aaron as the inspiring Spirit of God, that he 
is now to be for Aarou as representative of God 
in His almighty miraculous sway. So far Aaron's 
position also is raised. It must not be overlooked 
that, with this word of divine revelation, Moses' 
growing feeling of lofty confidence and assunince 
of victory corresponds ; it was developed in 
Egypt itself, and from out of his feeling of in- 
ability. " For Aaron Moses is God as the re- 
vealer, for Pharaoh as the executor, of the divine 
will" (Keil). 

Ver. 2. That he send. — Keil's translation, 
"and so he will let go," does not accord with 
the following verse. 

Ver. 4. My hosts. — Israel becomes a host 
of Jehovah. Vid. xiii. 18, and the book of Num- 
bers. This is the first definite germ of the later 
name, God, or Jehovah, of hosts; although the 
name in that form chiefly refers to heavenly 
hosts; these under another name have been 
mentioned in Gen. xxxii. 2. 



Moses) into the fonr branches : Amramites, Izharites, He- 
hronitps, and Uzzielites ; tuese together constituted 8,6un 
men and boys (women and girls not being reckoned). Of 
these the Amramites would include about one fourth, or 
2,150. Moses himself, according to Ex, xviii. 3, 4, had only 
tw. I sons. If, therefore, Amram, the son of Kohath, the an- 
cestor of the Amramites, were identical with Amram. the 
father of Moses, then Moses must have had 2,147 brothers 
and brothers' sons (the brothers' daughters, the sisters aud 
sisters' children not being reckoned). But this being quite 
an impossible supposition, it must he conceded that it is de- 
monstrated that Amram the son of Kohath is not Moses' f*. 
th-r, but that I'Ptweon the former and his descendant of the 
same name an indefinitely long list of eenerations haa fallen 
out."— Tk.]. 



CHAP. VII. 8-25. 19 



SECOND SECTION. 

The miracles of Mosea, or the result of the nine Egyptian Plagues, preliminary to 
the last. Pharaoh's alternate repentance and obduracy. 

Chaps. VII. 8— X. 29. 

A.— MOSES' MIKACULOUS EOD AND THE EGYPTIAN MAGICIANS. THE FIRST PLAGUE 
INFLICTED WITH THE ROD: CHANGE OF THE WATER INTO BLOOD. 

Chaptee VII. 8-25. 

8, 9 And Jehovah spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying. When Pharaoh shall 
speak unto you, saying, Shew a miracle for you [yourselves] : then thou shalt say 
uuto Aaron, Take thy rod, and cast it before Pharaoh, and it shall become [let it 

10 become] a serpent. And Moses and Aaron went in unto Pharaoh, and they did so 
as Jehoff'ah had commanded: and Aaron cast down his rod before Pharaoh, and 

11 before his servants, and it became a serpent. Then [And] Pharaoh also called the 
wise men and the sorcerers : now [and] the magicians of Egypt, they also did in 

12 like manner with their enchantments [secret arts]. For [And] they cast down 
every man his rod, and they became serpents ; but Aaron's rod swallowed up their 

13 rods. And he hardened Pharaoh's heart [Pharaoh's heart was hardened]', that 

14 [and] he hearkened not unto them, as Jehovah had said. And Jehovah said unto 

15 Moses, Pharaoh's heart is hardened [hard]^ he refuseth to let the people go. Get 
thee unto Pharaoh in the morning ; lo, he goeth out unto the water ; and thou shalt 
stand by the river's brink against he come [to meet him]; and the rod which was 

16 turned to a serpent shalt thou take in thine [thy] hand. And thou shalt say unto 
him, Jehovah, God [the God] of the Hebrews hath sent me unto thee, saying, Let 
my people go, that they may serve me in the wilderness: and, behold, hitherto 

17 thou wouldest not hear [hast not heard, i. e., obeyed]. Thus saith Jehovah, In this 
thou shalt know that I am Jehovah : behold, I will smite with the rod that is in 
mine [my] hand upon the waters which are in the river, and they shall be turned 

18 to blood. And the fish that is in the river shall die, and the river shall stink ; and 

19 the Egyptians shall loathe to drink of [drink] the water of [from] the river. Aud 
Jehovah spake [said] unto Moses, Say unto Aaron, Take thy rod, and stretch out 
thine [thy] hand upon the waters of Egypt, upon their streams, upon their 
rivers [canals],' upon their ponds, and upon all their pools of water, that they may 
become blood ; and that there may [and there shall] be blood throughout all the 

20 land of Egypt, both in vessek of -wood, and in vessels of stane. And Moses and 
Aaron did so, as Jehovah commanded ; and he lifted up the rod, and smote the 
waters that were in the river, in the sight of Pharaoh, and in the sight of his ser- 

21 vants ; and all the waters that were in the river were turned to blood. And the 
fish that was in the river died ; and the river stank ; and the Egyptians could not 
drink of [drink] the water of [from] the river ; and there was blood throughout 

22 all the land of Egypt. And the magicians of Egypt did so with their enchant- 
ments [secret arts] : and Pharaoh's heart was hardened, neither did he [and he did 

23 not] hearken unto them; as Jehovah had said. And Pharaoh turned and went 

TEXTUAL AND GEAMMATICAL. 

> [Ver. 13. The same form here, pTp', as in ^er. 22, where the A. V. correctly renders it intransitively. Literally, 

" was firm, or strong," i. «., unyielding, nnimpresBible.— Th.J. j ,.■ t m „„ „..h ™.„»„f 

» [Verl 14. The Hebrew has here I different word, 133. Literally, ' heavy "-the same word which Moses used reapeotr 

'°^ s'[Ve° W°'Dnni«^!piiral of the word which is used almost exclusively of the Nile. Here probably it signifies th« 

artiflclal canals leading from the Nile —Tn.]. ^, ^ ^ _ii, nv.i 

* [Ver. 23. Or, according to the English idiom : " nor did he lay even this to heart. — TB.J. 



20 



EXODUS. 



into his house, neither did he [and he did not] set his heart to this also [even t( 

24 this].* And all the Egyptians digged round about the river for water to drink 

25 for they could not drink of the water of the rive^. And seven days were fulfilled, 
after that Jehovah had smitten the river. 



EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL. 

On the whole series of Egyptian plagues, see 
the Introduction. But we reckon not nine 
plagues (with Keil), but ten, as a complete num- 
ber symbolizing the history of the visitation. 
Moses' miraculous rod forms the prologue to it ; 
the destruction of Pharaoh and his host in the 
Red Sea, the epilogue. 

1. Moses' miraculous rod in contest with the 
divining rods of the Egyptian wise men, vers. 8-] 3. 

Vers. 8, 9. Shew a miracle for yourselves. 
— It is a general assumption, shared also by the 
Egyptians, that an ambassador of God must at- 
test his mission by styns, miraculous signs. Ta e 
thy rod. — Aaron's rod is Mosea' rod, whii h, 
however, passes over into his hand, as Mosjs' 
word into his mouth. — A serpent. The He- 
brew is ['SO. LXX. Sp&Kuv. According to Keil 
the expression is selected with reference to the 
Egyptian snake-charmers. He says, " Comp. 
Bochart, Hieroz. III., p. 162 sqq., ed. Rosenmiil- 
ler; and Hengstenberg, Egypt and the Books, etc., 
p. 100 sqq. Probably the Israelites in Egypt 
designated by t'^J^i which occurs in Deut. xxxii. 
33; Ps. xci. 13, in parallelism with |n3, the snake 
with which the Egyptian serpent-charmers chiefly 
carry on their business, the Hayeh of the Arabs." 
Of the so-called Psylli it is only known that they 
are able to put serpents into a rigid state, and in 
this sense to transform them into sticks. This 
then is the natural fact in relation and opposi- 
tion to which the sign, by which Moses attested 
his mission, stands. The relation between the 
mysterious miracle of Moses and the symbolical 
development of it is rather difficult to define. 

Ver. 11. " These sorcerers (D'SMD), whom 
the Apostle Paul, according to the Jewish legend, 
names Jannes and Jambres (2 Tim. iii. 8), were 
not common jugglers, but D'pjn, wise men, . . . 
and D'SP'in Ispoypa/i/iaTel;, belonging to the 
caste of priests. Gen. xli. 8" (Keil). 

Vers. 12, 18. Verse 13 does not stand in di- 
rect relation to the close of ver. 12. The hard- 
ening of Pharaoh cannot well relate to the fact 
that Aaron's rod swallowed up the rods of the 
sorcerers, although this is probably to be under- 
stood metaphorically, but to the fact that the 
Egyptian sorcerers do the same thing as Aaron 
does. The essential difference between the acts 
of God and the demoniacal false miracles is not 
obvious to the world and the worldly tyrants. 

2. The transformation of the water of the Nile 
into blood, vers. 14-25. 

Ver. 16. Lo, he goeth out unto the wa- 
ter. To worship the Nile. 

Ver. 17. " The transformation of the water 



into blood is, according to Joel iii. 4 [ii. 31], 
according to which the moon is changed into 
blood, to be conceived as a blood-red coloring by 
which it acquired the appearance of blood (2 
Kings iii. 21), not as a chemical transformation 
into real blood. According to the reports of 
many travellers, the Nile water, when lowest, 
changes its color, becomes greenish and almost 
unJrinkable, whereas, when rising, it becomes 
red, of an ochre hue, and then begins to be more 
wholesome. The causes of this change have not 
yet been properly investigated" (Keil). Two 
causes are alleged: the red earth in Sennaar, or, 
according to Ehrenberg, microscopic infusoria. 
Even the Rhine furnishes a feeble analogue. The 
heightening of the natural event into a miracu- 
lous one lies in the prediction of its sudden oc- 
currence and in its magnitude, so that the red 
Nile water instead of becoming more wholesome 
assumes deadly or injurious properties. 

Ver. 19. That blood should come into all the 
ramifications of the water, even to the stone and 
wooden vessels, is evidently the result of the pre- 
vious reddening of the Nile. Kurtz exaggerates 
the miracle by inverting the order of the red- 
dening of the water. His notion is refuted by 
Keil, p. 479.* 

Ver. 22. How could the Egyptian sorcerers do 
the like, when the water had already been all 
changed to blood ? Kurtz says, they took well- 
water. But see Keil in reply.-j- According to 
the scriptural representation of such miracles of 
darkness, they knew how, by means of lying 
tricks, to produce the appearance of having made 
the water. In this case it was not difficult, if 
they also used incantations, and Ibe reddening 
of the water subsequently increased. 

Ver. 26. Seven days were fulfilled. The 
duration of the plague. The beginning of the 
plague is by many placed in J une or July, ' ' accord- 
ing to which view all the plagues up to the killing 
of the first-born, which occurred in the night of 
the 14th of Abib, ». e., about the middle of April, 
must have occurred in the course of about nine 
months. Yet this assumption is very insecure, 
and only so much is tolerably certain, that the 
seventh plague (of the hail) took place in Feb- 
ruary (see on ix. 31 sq.) " (Keil). Clearly, how- 
ever, the natural basis of the miraculous plagues 
is a chain of causes and effects. 



* [The point made by Keil is fhnt, according to Kurtz's 
theory, the vessola of wood and of stone ou?ht to hare been 
mentioned immediately after the " pools of water."— Te.]. 
.<• ' i;^*" "'^P'^ ™"'° ''y *■*■' (""^ avery pertinentone) is thut 
if the Egyptians already had well wnter there would bave 
been no need of their digging wells (ver. 24) in order to o'- 
tain dnnkable water. Keil understands that the phnises in 
ver. 19 are not to be interpreted so strictly as to imply that 
absolutely all water, even what had already i een taken from 
the JSile before the miracie, was turned intb l,lood. Mnrpliy 
and Kalisch prefer to assume that the magicians dug wells, 
and practiced their arts on the water drawn from them.— Tb.], 



CHAP. VIII. 1-15. 



21 



B.— THE FROGS. 

Chaps. VII. 26— VIII. 11 [in the English Bible, Chap. VIII. 1-15]. 

26 [1] And Jehovah spake [said] unto Moses, Go unto Pharaoh, and say unto him, 

27 [2] Thus saith Jehovah, Let my people go, that they may serve me. And if thou 

28 L3] refuse to let them go, behold, I will smite all thy borders' with frogs. And the 

river shall bring forth frogs abundantly [swarm with frogs], which [and they] 
shall go up and come into thy house, and into thy bedchamber, and upon thy 
bed, and into ^he houses of thy servants, aud upon thy people and into thine 

29 [4] ovens, and into thy kneading-troughs : And the frogs shall come up both on 

thee, and upon thy people, and upon all thy servants.^ 
Chap. VIII. 1 [5]. And Jehovah spake [said] unto Mi ses. Say unto Aaron, Stretch 
forth thine [thy] hand with thy rod ovtr the streams, and over the livers [ca- 
nals], and over the ponds, and cause frogs [the frogs] to come up upon the land 

2 [6] of Egypt. And Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt, and 

3 [7] the frogs came up, and covered the land of Egypt. And the magicians did .so 

with their enchantments [secret arts], and brought up frogs [the frogs] upon 

4 [8] the land of Egypt. Then [And] Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron, and 

said, Intreat Jehovah, that he may take away the frogs from me and from my 
people; and I will let the people go, that they may do sacrifice [may sacrifice] 

5 [9] unto Jehovah. And Moses said unto Pharaoh, Glory [Have thou honor] 

over me :' when [against what time] shall I intreat for thee, and for thy ser- 
vants, and for thy people to destroy the frogs from thee and thy houses, that 

6 [10] they may remain in the river only? And he said, To-morrow [Against to- 

morrow]. And he said, Be it according to thy word ; that thou raayest know 

7 [11] that there is none like unto Jehovah our God. And the frogs shall depart 

from thee, and from thy houses, aud from thy servants, and from thy people ; 

8 [12] they shall remain in the river only. And Moses and Aaron went out trom 

Pharaoh, and Moses cried unto Jehovah because of the frogs which he had 

9 [13] brought against Pharaoh. And Jehovah did according to the word of Moses : 

and the frogs died out of the houses, out of the villages [courts], and out of 

10 [14] the fields. And they gathered them together upon heaps [piled them up m 

11 [16] heaps] : and the land stank. But when Pharaoh saw that there was respite,* 

he hardened* his heart, and hearkened not unto them, as Jehovah had said. 



TEXTUAL AND GEAMMATICAL. 

1 rVII. 27 (VIII. 2). 'jUi here, aa often, has a wider meaning tliau border ; it is equivalent to onr " territory."— la.]. 

2 [VII. 29 (VIII. 4). This' sounds more plennastio than the original, where the order of the words ia reversed : " Upon 
thee, and upon thy people . . . shall the frogs com« up."— Te.]. , ^. . , ,. ,,, tth, <■ 

i rVIII. 6 (9). ^^(^i■^^ is variously rendered. Uesenius and JUrst assume a root aistmot from the one the Hithp. ol 

which means to 6oa«(, and render it " prescribe," " declare." " Prescribe for me when I shall intreat," ete. The LXX. and 
Vule Kive it the same meaning. Othi-rs understand the meaning t" be : " Take to thyselt honor ; forwh. n shall Imtre»r 
efc it I will give thee the honor offlxing the time when the plague shall cease. These two explanations yield neatly 
the same sense. Others have been resorted to (e. g., " Give glory over me," v. e., I will run the risk of a failure, by allowing 
thee to fix the tiffl"), but are less plausible.— Tb.]. ..^„...-i 

« rVIII. 11 (16). nniin has the article, and the sentence reads, "saw that the respite (literally, breathing-space) 
tt: T_ 
"""''[VIII.*!! (15)!° 133rn""And he made heavy." Comp. note on vii. 14. The Inf. Abs. is used for the finite verb. 



EXEGETICAL AND CEITICAL. 

VTI. 26 [VIII. 1] sqq. The second plague; 
the frogs. They come up out of the mire of the 
Nile when the water falls, especially from the 
marshes of the Nile. On the small Nile-frog 
called rana Mosaka or NUotica by Seetzen, see 



Keil.* How did the natural event become a mi- 
racle? (1) By the announcement of the extra- 

* [Keil gives no in<brmarion except by referring to Seetzm. 
Seetzen diSTingnishes the rana Mlotica from the rana Mo~ 
Baica, the lattur being th < most ai'unJaut. Frogs of thi« kind 
cree ) rather than j'lmp, and are called toads by Pi'etz|n, 
though they are lound in water until after the inuudafioa 
(which continues thre" months, betiinning ab.iut June 26). 
The Egyptian name tor this trcg is do/da,— Te,.]. 



22 



EXODUS. 



ordinary enliancement of it to the extent of making 
it a plague; vid. vers. 28, 29 [viii. 3, 4] ; (2) by 
the equally confident promise of the sudden death 
of the frogs. The imitation of this miracle by 
the sorcerers may here too have consisted in 



their seeming, during the continuance of the 
plague, to have increased it by their incanta- 
tions. 

VIII. 10 [14]. iph, the largest dry measnrt 
of the Hebrews. 



C— THE GNATS. 
Chapter VIII. 12-16 [16-19]. 

12 [16] And Jehovah said unto Moses, Say unto Aaron, Stretch out thy rod, and 

smite the dust of the land, that it may become lice [gnats] throughout all the 

13 [17] land of Egypt. And they did so; for [and] Aaron stretched out his hand 

with his rod, and smote the dust of the earth [land], and it became lice [gnats] 
in [on] man, and in [on] beast ; all the dust of the land became lice [gnats] 

14 [18] throughout all the land of Egypt. And the magicians did so -with their en- 

chantments [secret arts] to bring forth lice [the gnats], but they could not : 

15 [19] so [and] there were lice [gnats] upon man, and upon beast. Then [And] the 

magicians said unto Pharaoh, This is the finger of God : and Pharaoh's heart 
was hardened, and he hearkened not unto them ; as Jehovah had said. 



EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL. 
Ver. 12 [16] seq. Gnats. DJ3 or D'33. Jo- 
s'cphus, the Rabbins, [the A. V.], and Luther ren- 
der : "lice." The LXX., ffKw^Ef; the Vulg., 
leiniphes. Very small, painfully stinging gnats, 
crawling on the skin, and even in the nose and 
ears. They are very abundant in Egypt. The 
dust mai'ks the transition from the mire to the 
time of drought. The transformation of the dust 
into gnats is a symbolic act, like the transforma- 
tion of waier into blood. They come out of the 
dust, and iiy around like the dust, too small to 
measure or to seize. Keilsays: "The gnats come 
out of the eggs laid in the dust or ground by the 
preceding generation. . . . The miracle consists 
in both cases not in an immediate creation, but 
in Ihe pre-announcement, and the corresponding 
sudden creative (?) generation and supernatural 
f?) increase of these animals." Out of the eggs, 
and at the same time supernatural — this is dis- 
cordant. 

Ver. 14 [18]. The scribes. D'BU"!n. Of 
Ihe three forms of designation, D'SK'ja sorcer- 
ers, CDDn wise men, and D'SO'in' Upoypafi/J-a- 
TsrZf, Egyptian scribes, attached' to the court, 
interpreters of hieroglyphic writings, the chief 
one is here selected, making the expression of 
tlieir impotence the stronger. They cannot imi- 
tate this miracle. Why not? Knobel says: 
Because, according to the writer's view, this was 
a case involving the production of creatures. 
Keil: Because God's omnipotence in the case of 
this miracle put a check upon the demoniacal 
forces which the sorcerers had employed. Strange 
that the characteristic mark of magic wonders is 
again continually overlooked. The agency of 
Batan consists in lyinff forces and signs and mi- 



racles. Satan, in all that he says (Matt, iv.) is 
ihe liar. If we take ver. 13 literally, we might 
say that Moses had already transformed all the 
dust of Egypt into gnats, and that hence there 
was no dust left for them to work miracles on. 
But it is more obvious to assume that in this case 
they found the deception harder, or rather, that 
they were seized with a religious terror, and now 
declared to Pharaoh that they could go with him 
no further, in order to induce him to retrace his 
steps. This seems to be implied in their decla- 
ration: "This is the finger of God." According 
to Bochart this means: nos non cohibent Moses et 
Anron, st-d divina vw, ulrisque major. Keil adds : 
"If tiiey had meant the God of Israel, nilT 
would be used." But did they know Jehovah ? 
And did they not also, as Egyptian priests, refer 
all their doings to the influence of the Godhead? 
According to Kurtz, by "finger" they meant an 
indication [Fingerzeig],a warning of the Egyptian 
gods themselves. Keil, on the other hand, finds 
in the finger of God simply an expression of cre- 
ative omnipotence, as in Ps. viii. 4 [3] ; Lukexi. 
20; Ex. xxxi. 18. Yet theeduoating wisdom of God 
is emphasized, especially in Ex. xxxi. 18. The 
recognition of the fact that Ood's finger displayed 
itself is the prelude of the perception of His 
strong hand and His outstretched arm. Therefore 
the phrase cannot be intended to designate either 
the gods of Egypt, who could not possibly, in the 
mind of the priests, take part with Moses and 
Aaron, or the God of Israel according to the 
Egyptian notion of Him, but only the deity, as 
conceived by a general overpowering religious 
feeling. 

Ver. 15 [19]. -Was hardened. Keil's infer- 
ence, "This punitive miracle, therefore, made on 
Pharaoh no impression," obliterates the antithe- 
sis which the text brings out [viz., that although 
the magicians saw a divine hand in the miracle, 
yet Pharaoh remained obdurate]. 



CHAP. VIII. 16-28. 



28 



D.— THE BLOOD-SUCKING GAD-FLT. 



Chap. 



VIII. 16-28 [20-32]. 

16 [20] And Jehovah said unto Moses, Rise up early in the morning, and stand 

before Pharaoh : lo, he cometh forth to the water ; and say unto him. Thus 

17 [21] saith Jehovah, Let my people go, that they may serve me. Else [For] if 

thou wilt not let my people go, behold, I will send swarms of flies [send the 
flies] upon thee, and upon thy servants, and upon thy people, and into thy 
houses: and the houses of the Egyptians shall be full of swarms of flies [full 

18 [22] of the flies], and also the ground whereon they are. And I will sever [sepa- 

rate] in that day the land of Goshen, in which my people dwell, that no 
swarms of flies [no flies] shall be there : to the end thou mayest know that I 

19 [23] am Jehovah in the midst of the earth [land]. And I will put a division be- 

20 [24] tween my people and thy people : to-morrow shall this sign be. And Jehovah 

did so ; and there came a grievous swarm of flies [came grievous flies] into 
the house of Pharaoh, and into his servants' houses, and into all the land of 
Egypt ; the land was corrupted [was like to be destroyed'] by reason of the 
swarm of flies [the flies]. 

21 [25] And Pharaoh called for Moses and for Aaron, and said, Go ye, sacrifice to 

22 [26] your God in the land. And Moses said. It is not meet so to do; for we shall 

[should] sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians to Jehovah our God ; lo, 
shall we [if we should] sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians before their 

23 [27] eyes, and will they [eyes, would they] not stone us V We will go three days' 

journey into the wilderness, and sacrifice to Jehovah our God, as he shall 

24 [28] command us. And Pharaoh said, I will let you go, that ye may sacrifice to 

Jehovah your God in the wilderness ; only ye shall not go very far away : 

25 [29] entreat for me. And Moses said. Behold, I go out from thee, and I will 

entreat Jehovah that the swarms of flies may [and the flies will] depart from 
Pharaoh, from his servants, and from his people, to-morrow ; but [only] let 
not Pharaoh deal deceitfully any more in not letting the people go to sacrifice 

26 [30] to Jehovah. And Moses went out from Pharaoh and entreated Jehovah. 

27 [81] And Jehovah did according to the word of Moses ; and he removed the swarms 

of flies [the flies] from Pharaoh, from his servants, and from his people ; there 

28 [32] remained not one. And Pharaoh hardened his heart at this [heart this] time 

also, neither would he [and he did not] let the people go. 



TEXTUAL AND GEAMMATICAIi. 
1 [Ver. 20 [24]. The Hebrew is T\TWr\' There is no propriety in rendering the future verb here, as is commonly 

"T • 

done, by the Preterite. Besides, from the nature of the caae, the Preterite is too strong ; the land was not wholly de- 
stroyed; there was a danger that it would be, and therefore Pharaoh called for Moses and A iron in order to avert the 
prospective ruin of the land. The future tense expresses an action aa strictly future, or as future with reference to another 
paat event, or aa customary, or as going on either at a past or present time. Here we must understand that the devasta- 
tion was going on, and t^tal ruiu was impeoding. Hence we may render; "was being destroyed," or (as we have done) 
" was like to be destroyed." — Ta.] 

3 [Ver. 22 [26]. The particle tn, commonly meaning, " behold," seems to have here, as occasionally elsewhere, the 

force of a conditional particle. There is no mark of interroeation in the sentence, and apparently Moses says : " Lo, we 
shall sacrifice . . . and they will not stone us." But ths sense seems to require the lasc clause to be taken interroga- 
tively.— Tb.] 



EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL. 
Vers. 16 [20] sqq. The gnats are followed by 
a worse plague, called 3'^J?. 
phrase cannot signify 



This definite 
all kinds of Termiu" 



(Luther, rrd/i/ivia, Sym.). The LXX. render 
Kvvduvia, "dog-fly," by which is to be under- 
stood the larger species of flies, the blood-sucking 
gad-fly, as is especially to be seen in the plague 
of the cattle [vid. Hengstenbcrg, Egypt, etc., p. 
116). Raphael Hirsch : "beast of the desert." 



21 



EXODUS. 



There is no reason why the adjective 133, yer. 
20, should not be rendered literally, the heavy 
(grievous) dog-fly. If 133 is to convey the 
notion of multitude, this must also be indicated 
by the substantive. Moreover, the attributive 
"numeroua" would rather weaken than strength- 
en the thought. Numerous flies!* — In this 
plague two new factors enter : (1) It is expressly 
noticed that the land of Goshen, i. e., Israel, shall 
be exempt from this plague. (2) This time, 
without the symbolic use of Moses' rod, the 
visitation is announced only, and announced by 
Jehovah as His own act. Moses and Aaron are 
already suCEoiently accredited as messengers of 
God; now their God will manifest Himself more 
definitely as the God of Israel, Jehovah, as He 
is al-o at the same time the God (Elohim) abso- 
lutely, and, therefore, also in the midst of Egypt. 

Vers. 17, 18 [21, 22]. Notice the sententious 
form of the antithesis, nWa and O'Wd — 
[Literally: "If thou will not send my people 
away, I will send the flies upon thee," etc. 
— Tr.] 

Ver. 19 [23]. "nn3," says Keil, "does not 
signify iiaaroXf/, divmo (LXX., Vulg.), but ran- 
som, redemption.^' At all events, however, it 
would be obscure to translate: "I will put a 
redemption between my people and thy people.' ' 
We understand : a quarantine^ 

Ver. 21 [25]. Pharaoh's first concession. He 
is willing to grant to the people a sacrificial fes- 
tival, accompanied by cessation from labor, but 
not to let them go out of the land, because he 
forebodes the consequence of a conditional 
emancipation, whereas he is unwilling to relax 
his despotic power over them. 

Ver. 22 [26]. It is not meet [Lange : safe]. 
De Wette translates ]13J by "fitting," Keil by 

♦[Lange apparently has here m mind KeiFs interpreta- 
tion, Kchicere Mengp, " grievous multitude," a meauing borne 
out by X. 14 ; Gen. 1. 9, etc.— Tk. | 

t [Lange h tian^lation agrees with that of A. V. Knobel 
conjectures that instead of ^^^^, we should read 7173, 
•' separatioa," from the verb 71/3, which is used in the 

T T 

preceding verse. But such a noun nowhere occurs, though 
it would be an allowable formation. Better assume, with 
Geseniiia, FUrst, and the mo'^t, that the noun has here a rare, 
though perhaps its orlgioal, meaning, that of redemption 
being derived from it. — Te.] 



" established." The first expresses too little, 
the second too much.* — The abomination of 
the Egyptians.— Knobel says: "The Egypt- 
ians sacrificed only bulla, calves and geese (He- 
rod. II. 45), but no eows, as being sacred to 
Isis (Herod. II. 41; Porphyr. Abstin. 2, 11); 
also no turtle-doves (Porphyr. 4, 7). Also no 
sheep and goats, at least, not generally ; in the 
warship of Isis at Thiborna in Phocis none could 
be offered (Pausan. 10, 32, 9), and in Egypt 
those who belonged to the temple and district 
of Mendes offered no she-goats or he-goats, 
though they did offer sheep ; whereas the oppo- 
site was the case in Upper Egypt (Herod. II. 42, 
46). The Egyptians were greatly scandalized 
when sacred animals were sacrificed or eaten 
(Josephus, Apion I. 26). The Hebrews, on the 
other hand, sacrificed sheep, goats and rams, 
and cows no less, e. g, for peace-offerings (Lev. 
ill. 1), burnt -offerings (1 Sam. vi. 14), sin-offer- 
ings (Num. xix.), and others (Gen. xv. 9)." 
It is singular that Keil can suppose the meaning 
to be only that the ceremonial rules and ordi- 
nances [of the Egyptians] were so painfully 
minute that the Jewish method of offering sac- 
rifices might well scandalize the Egyptians. 
The sacrifice of cows would of itself be to them 
abominable enough. The more sacred the ani- 
mal was, the more abominable did the sacrifice 
of it seem to be. But the chief point in the 
matter seems to be overlooked. It was the offer- 
ing in Egypt , of sacrifices to Jehovah, a god 
foreign to the Egyptians, which must have been 
an abomination. Even after the Reformation 
many Catholic princes thought that each laud 
could have but one religion. 

Ver. 24 [28]. Pharaoh permits them to go out 
a little distance on condition that they will in- 
tercede for him. Moses assents, without re- 
peating the demand for a three days' journey, 
but requires that Pharaoh shall not deceive him, 
but keep his word. 

Ver. 28 [32]. The fourth hardening of the 
heart. 



* [Lange's rendering " ncher " is without analogy, except 
aa "sicher" may mean "certain," "sure," which can hardly 
be Lange^s intention here. Keil's explanation la the usual 
one ; *^feitgesteLlt,^' defined by ataluttim, rectum, " right." The 
more common meaning is "fixed;" but this cannot be the 
force of the word here. — Tr.] 



B.— THE PESTILENCE OF THE BEASTS. 
Chapter IX. 1-7. 



1 Then [And] Jehovah said unto Moses, Go in unto Pharaoh, and tell [speak 
unto] him. Thus saith Jehovah, God [the God] of the Hebrews, Let my people go, 

2 that they may serve me. For if thou refuse to let them go, and wilt hold them 

3 still [and still hold them], Behold, the hand of Jehovah is' upon thy cattle which 



TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL. 
1 [Ver. 3. rfin. This Is a solitary instance of the participial form of n'H, though in Neh. vi. 6 and Eccl. il. 22 th« 

T TT 

participle of the archaic and Aramaic form of the verb, niil, occurs. It might be rendered : " Behold, the hand of Jeho* 

TT 

vah will comfi upon," etc. — Tr.] 



CHAP. IX. 8-13. 



S5 



is in the field, upon the horses, upon the asses, upon the camels, upon the oxen, 

4 and upon the sheep : there shall be a very grievous murrain [pestilence]. And 
Jehovah shall sever [will make a distinction] between the cattle of Israel and the 
cattle of Egypt : and there shall nothing die of all thai is the children's of Israel. 

5 And Jehovah appointed a set time, saying, To-morrow Jehovah shall [will] do this 

6 thing in the land. And Jehovah did that [this] thing on the morrow, and all the 
cattle of Egypt died : but of tbe cattle of the children of Israel died not one. 

7 And Pharaoh sent, and behold, there was not [behold, not even] one of the cattle 
of the Israelites dead [was dead]. And the heart of Pharaoh was hardened [hard], 
and he did not let the people go. 



EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL. 

Ver. 1. Categorical demand of Jehovah as the 
God of the Hebrews. 

Ver. 2. A more definite assumption, in view 
of past experience, that Pharaoh may defiantly 
harden himself, 

Ver. 3. A very grievous pestilence. — 
The more general term "^21 is used. The pes- 
tilence is to come upon oattle of all sorts found 
in the field. 

Ver. 4. The separation of Israel is more 
marked here than in viii. 18 [22]. 

Ver. 5. Besides the foregoing sign, this fixing 



of the near time for the infliction of the plague 
is the most miraculous circumstance, since, as 
Keil says, " pestilences among the cattle of Egypt 
are wont to occur from time to time (comp. 
Pruner, Die Krankheiten dea Orients, pp. 108 
112 sq.)." 

Ver. 6. AH the cattle.— The word all is not 
to be taken absolutely, but only in opposition to 
the cattle of the Israelites. Comp. vers 9 
and 10. 

Ver. 7. It ia another characteristic of the tyrant 
that he cares the least for this calamity, which 
aflfects chiefly his poor subjects, though he has 
become convinced of the miraculous sparing of ' 
the Israelites. 



P.— THE BOILS AND BLAIN3. 
Chapter IX. 8-12. 

8 And Jehovah said unto Moses and unto Aaron, Take to you handfuls of ashes of 
the furnace, and let Moses sprinkle it toward the heaven [toward heaven] in the 

9 sight of Pharaoh. And it shall become small [fine] dust in [upon] all the land of 
Egypt, and shall be a boil [become boils] breaking forth rdth blains upon man, 

10 and upon beast throughout all the land of Egypt. And they took ashes of the 
furnace, and stood before Pharaoh, and Moses sprinkled it up toward heaven ; and 
it became a boil [became boils] breaking forth vrith blains upon man, and upon 

11 beast. And the magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boils ; for 

12 the boil was [boils were] upon the magicians, and upon all the Egyptians. And 
Jehovah hardened the heart of Pharaoh, and he hearkened not uuto them, as 
Jehovah had spoken unto Moses. 



EXEGETICAL AND CBITICAL. 
Ver. 8. " That the sixth plague, that of the 
boils, was extraordinary only in its extent, is 
shown by comparing Deut. xxviii. 27, where the 
same disease occurs with tbe name 'boils [A. V. 
botch] of Egypt,' as a common one in Egypt" 
(Hengstenberg). RosenmuUer (on Deut. xxviii. 
27) understands it of the elephantiasis, which is 
peculiar (?) to Egypt. But between diseases 
which chiefly work inward and boils there is a 
radical difference. Also " the elephantiasis does 
not affect cattle" [Hengstenberg]. See other 
interpretations in Hengstenberg, Egypt and the 



Books of Moses. His own explanation is: in- 
flammatory pustules — not merely heat-piinples. 
rni!' from VrVS, to be hot. LXX. eA/o? ipMnH- 
(?Ef. Vulg. ulcera ei vesicle turgentes. Kell (fol- 
lowing Seetzen) : the so-called Nile-pox. Ley- 
rer (in Herzog's Eeal-Encyclopadie) : Anthrax, a 
black inflammatory ulcer, " whose occurrence 
has been frequently observed after pestilences 
among beasts, especially after the inflammation 
of the spleen among cattle." 

Ver. 9. The symbolic element in the transac- 
tions is here especially prominent. The shower 
of ashes which Moses made before Pharaoh's 
eyes was only the syml)olic cause of the boils 



26 



EXODUS. 



which Jehovah inflicted. Kurtz and others 
associate this with a propitiatory rite of the 
Egyptians, the sprinkling of the ashea of sacri- 
fices, especially of human sacrifices. But here 
no propitiatory act is performed, but a curse 
inflicted; and it is a far-fetched explanation to 
say that the Egyptian religious purification was 
thus to be designated as defilement. Keil lays 
stress on the fact that the furnace {]^^3), ac- 
cording to Kimohi, was a smelting furnace or 
lime-kiln, and not a cooking-stove, and since the 
great buildings of the cities and pyramids came 
from the lime-kilns, " the sixth plague was to 
show the proud king that Jehovah was even able 
to produce ruin for him out of the workshops of 
his splendid buildings in which he was using 
the strength of the Israelites, and was so cruelly 
oppressing them with burdensome labors that 
they found themselves in Egypt as it were in a 
furnace heated for the melting of iron (Deut. iv. 
20)." This view he would confirm by the conside- 
ration that "in the first three plagues the natu- 
ral resources of the land were transformed into 
aouroes of misery." The thought might be fur- 



ther expanded thus : All the glories of Egypt 
were one after another turned into judgments : 
the divine Nile was changed into filthy blood 
and brought forth frogs and gnats ; the fruit- 
ful Boil produced the land-plagues, dog-flies, 
pestilences, boils and hail ; Egypt, so much 
praised for its situation, was smitten with the 
curse of the locusts and of the desert wind which 
darkened the day ; finally, the pride of the peo- 
ple was changed into grief by the infliction of 
death on the first-born; and, to conclude all, 
Jehovah sat in judgment on the Egyptian mili- 
tary power, Pharaoh's chariots and horsemen in 
the Red Sea. But with all this the boils are not 
shown to be a judgment upon Pharaoh's splen- 
dor. Also the alleged symbol would be not 
easily understood. The ashes without doubt in 
a pictorial and symbolic way by their color and 
fiery nature point to the inflammatory boils and 
their color. With reason, however, does Keil 
call attention to the fact that this plague is the 
first one which attacked the lives of men, and 
thus it constituted a premonition of death for 
Pharaoh in his continued resistance. 



O.— THE PLAGUE OP THE HAIL. 
Chapteb IX. 13-35. 



13 And Jehovah said unto Moses, Rise up early in the morning, and stand before 
Pharaoh, and say unto him, Thus saith Jehovah, God [the God] of the Hebrews, 

14 Let my people go, that they may serve me. For I -will at [will] this time send all 
my plagues upon thine [into thy] heart, and upon thy servants, and upon thy peo- 

15 pie ; that thou mayest know that there is none like me in all the earth. For now I 
will stretch [I would have stretched]^ out my hand, that I may smite [and smitten] thee 

^and thy people with pestilence ; and thou shalt be [wouldst have been] cut off from 

16 the earth. And in very deed [But] for this caiwe [for this] have I raised thee up 
[established thee] for to shew in thee [to shew thee] my power, and that my name 

17 may be declared [to declare my name] throughout all the earth. As yet exaltest 
thou [Thou art still exalting]' thyself against my people, that thou wilt not let 

18 them go? [not to let them go]. Behold, to-morrow about [at] this time I will cause 
it to rain [I will rain] a very grievous hail, such as hath not been in Egypt since 



TEXTUAL AKD GRAMMATICAL. 

1 [Vera. 15, 16. The Perf. "^I^rv?^ and the following Imperfects with the Vav Consecutive certainly cannot be ren- 
• : ~ T 
dered (with the A. V.) by the Future. It ie simply a case of apodosis with the protasis omitted. Pi ecisely similar is the 

construction in 1 Sam. xiii. 13, 'Ij^jSoD-nN mn" tOH Hn V "3, wLioh the A. V. correctly renders : " For now would 

' : : ~ : ~ v t : I .. .. ^ — . 
the Lord have established thy kingdom." Corap. Bwald, Awfuhrl. Gr. § 358 a. Our translators seem in both these verses 
to have folioweil tlie LXX., the Vulg., and older v rsions to tho neglect tif the Hebrew. E^p-xially does this appear iD 
ver. 16. where HH^^'in 10J7 3 is rendered; "for to, how in thee." Literally; "in order to cause thee to see." There 

is no p Bsihle ambiguity in thi- Hebrew. God's power was to he shown to Pharaoh, not in him. Probably our translato*^ 
were also iniiuenced by thn qu natiou of tbis v-rse in Rum. ix. 17, where Paul follows tlie LXX. In ti^e translation of 
TmOJ^n. however, the LXX. are more exact than Paul. In ver. 15 Jehovah says: "I niigbt have emiaen thee," etc 

''But," he adds, "for this I have preserved thee (literally, caused thee to stand) in order to show ihee," ^-c. The LXX 

have UeTrtpij0T}7, in Bom. ix. 17 ef^yetpa <rt. — qS^NI means simply " but," " neverthel ss," and not " in very deed." — TR.] 

* [Ver. 17. There is no interrogative particle here, and nn need of translating the verse as a question. It might be 
translat d as a conditional clause; " If thou yet exalt thyself," etc., ver. 18 giving the conclusion. — Ta.] 



CHAP. IX. 13-35. 27 



19 the foundation thereof .even until now. Send therefore now [And now send], and 
gather [save] thy cattle and all that thou hast in tlie field ; for upon [as for] every 
man and beast which shall be found in the field, and shall not be brought [gathered] 

20 home, the hail shall come down upon them, and they shall die. He that feared 
the word of Jehovah among the servants of Pharaoh made his servants and his 

21 cattle flee into the houses: And he that regarded not the word of Jehovah left his 

22 servants and his cattle in the field. And Jehovah said unto Moses, Stretch forth 
thine [thy] hand toward heaven, that there may be hail in all the land of Egypt, 
upon man, and upon beast, and upon every herb of the field throughout the land 

23 of Egypt. And Moses stretched forth his rod toward heaven : and Jehovah sent 
thunder and hail ; and the fire [and fire] ran along upon the ground [came to the 

24 earth] ; and Jehovah rained hail upon the land of Egypt. So there was hail, and 
fire mingled with [continuous fire' in the midst of] the hail, very grievous, such as 
there was none like it [had not been] in all the land of Egypt since it became a 

25 nation. And the hail smote throughout all the land of Egypt all that was in the 
field, both man and beast ; and the hail smote every herb of the field, and brake 

26 every tree of the field. Only in the land of Goshen, where the children of Isra 1 

27 were, was there no hail. And Pharaoh sent, and called for Moses and Aaron, and 
said unto them, I have sinned this time : Jehovah is righteous [is the righteou t 

28 one], and I and my people are wicked [the wicked]. Entreat Jehovah (for it is 
enough) that there be no more [for it is too much that there should be]* mighty thun- 

29 derings and hail ; and I will let you go, and ye shall stay no longer. And Moses 
said unto him. As soon as I am gone [When I go] out of the city, I will spread abroad 
my hands unto Jehovah : and the thunder shall cease, neither shall there be any 

30 more hail ; that thou mayest know how [know] that the earth is Jehovah's. But 
as for thee and thy servants, I know that ye will [do] not yet fear Jehovah God. 

31 And the flax and the barley was smitten ; for the barley was in the ear, and the 

32 flax was boiled [in the blossom]. But the wheat and the rye [spelt] were not smit- 

33 ten ; for they were not grown up [for they are late]. And Moses went out of the 
city from Pharaoh, and spread abroad his hands unto Jehovah : and the thunders 

34 and hail ceased, and the rain was not poured upon the earth. And when Pharaoh 
saw that the rain and the hail and the thunders were ceased, he sinned yet more 

35 [again], and hardened his heart, he and his servants. And the heart of Pharaoh 
was hardened, neither would he let the children of Israel go; as Jehovah had spoken 
by Moses. 

8 [Ver. 24. The Hithp. of np7 occurs, besides here, only in Ezek. i. 4, where it is also used of lightuing, and is ren- 

dered in the A. V. : " infolding itself" (marg. " catching itself"). The idea seems to ha that of different flashes of light- 
ning ctmin!< so thickly that the one seenipd to take hold of the other; or, perhaps, it is descriptive of chain-lightning. 
Lange, following Do Wette, and others understand it to mean balls of fire. This seems hardly to be borne out by ihe 
phrase. — Ta.] 

* [Ver. 2S. Lange renders: "Pray to Jehovah, that it may be enough of God's voices of thunder." So, substantially, 
Murphy, Keil, Knobel, Arnheim, Herxheimer, De We'te, Fiirst, Philippson, Rosenmuller, following LXX., Vulg. But ic 
is hard to see what right we have to give the expresnon this turn, whereas the original simply says: "and much." If we 
must supply a verb, we are hardly justified in making it Jussive. And if we were, by what right cim the expression : "let 
there be mvcli of there being thunder and hail, be made to mean, " let there be nn morp, thunder nnd bail ?" Jj'or this is what 
" enough " is assumed to mean. But while 3*i sometimes does mean " enough,' that is a very different conception from " no 

more." If one prays : " let there be enough of thunder," the presumption is 1hat he wants more rather than less. Further- 
more, JO with the Inf., though often employed to denote the negation of a resul , jet is perhaps never used elsewhere to 

denote an otisect negatively, and is certainly no where else used after verbs of entreaty to denote the thing d'-pr^cated. 
There is also no analogy for the use of TO with the Inf. in a partitive sense, as Keil and others would here 

understand it. And even if tD d'd have the partitive sense (though even in the multitude of instances in which 

it is connec*ed with nouns after J"\ it only once — Ezek. xliv. 6 — has a partitive sense), the use of the Inf. would 

be pleonastic. In view of these considerations, there seems hardly to be any other way than to follow Ka- 
Hsch, Glaire, anil Ewald (Gram. § 217 &, | 285 dj, and render; "It is too much that there shfuld be." Literally, 
"much from being," or, this being the Hebrew method of expressing a comparison, "more than being." But our 

idiom frequently requires " more than " to be rendered by "too much fjr." E. g. Euth i. 12, ty''N7 niTID ^J^JpT, "I 

am old fi-om belonging to a husband," i. e. " older than to belong t)," or rather, "too old to belong to." So here; "it is 
much from [more than] there being thunder," etc. That is, " It is too much that there be." A still more apposite case is 

to be found in 1 Kings xii. 28, D7t2?1T 1117 VD QD7 31, "it is much to you from going up to Jerusalem," j. e. (as 

• - T : ^v V T 

Luther, A. v., and Keil render it), " it is too much for you to go up." A still more indisputable analogy is found in Is. 
llix. 6, 13j; 'S ^ni'riD "JpJ. " It is light from thy being a servant," i. e. " It is too light a thing that thou shouldest 

be a servant." So Ezek. viii. 17. With thi^ construction we get a clear and appropriate sense without forcing the origi- 
»al.— Te.] 



28 



EXODUS. 



EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL. 

Ver. 13. The Seventh Plague. Hail and Thun- 
der-storms.— Rise up early In the morning. 

— Even in reference to the forms of politeness 
there seems to be an intentional letting down. 
According to yiii. 16 [20] Moses was to avail him- 
self of that time in the morning when Pharaoh was 
going to the Nile. This consideration here disap- 
pears. The demand is more imperative; the 
threat more fearful. 

Ver. 14. This time all the plagues are to be 
directed, in a concentrated form, primarily to 
the heart of Pharaoh, to his own personal inte- 
rests, affecting first himself, then his servants, 
then his people, beginning at the top, and going 
down. " From the plural niilJD it appears that 
this threat relates not merely to the seventh 
plague, the hail, but to all the remaining ones" 
(Keil). It appears also that now Pharaoh's 
obduracy is to be regarded as quite determined. 
This is still more evident from the two following 
verses (see Comm. on Rom. ix.). From this 
time forward, therefore, ensue Jehovah's acts 
of hardening Pharaoh's heart in the narrower 
sense of the term. — That there is none like 
me. — Comp. ver. 16. The exodus of the Israel- 
ites from Egypt, following the last act of divine 
judgment upon Egypt, may be designated as 
the specific date of the victory of monotheism 
over the heathen gods, or of the theocratio faith 
over the heathen religions. 

Ver. 15. For noiw I would have stretched 
out my hand. — If Pharaoh's person and sur- 
roundings alone had been in question, Jehovah 
would have already destroyed him with the pes- 
tilence. We do not, with Keil, render: If I had 
stretched out my hand ... thou wouldest have been 
destroyed; for this would present a tautological 
sentence, obscuring the connection and funda- 
mental thought. Jehovah's declaration means: 
Thou, considered by thyself alone, art already 
doomed to condemnation ; but I establish thee, 
as it were, anew, in order to judge thee more 
completely and to glorify my name in thee. 
Vid. Comm. on Rom. ix. This is the gift of 
divine forbearance which the godless enjoy on 
account of the pious. — 'T'J^'ID^^n accordingly 
does not mean merely cause to stand; and Paulj 
quite in accordance with the sense of the text, 
chose a stronger expression, whereas the LXX. 
had weakened it, employing durripij&ri^. The 
first spread of the news of Jehovah's victory is 
recorded in ch. xv. 14. 

Ver. 17. A fine antithesis, analogous to that 
of ch. viii. 17 [21]. The form of the thought 
likewise intimates that man, by the change of 
his disposition, may become different, and that 
then Jehovah may, as it were, present Himself 
to him as a different being. — Esalting thyself. 



— Properly, setting thyself up as a dam, bVinDip. 
Israel, as the people of the future, is like u 
stream whose current the hostile powers of the 
world, like dams and dykes, are checking. 
First, it breaks through the power of Pharaoh 
with theocratic impetuosity amidst psalms of 
triumph. Something like this was true of the 
Reformation ; in the highest sense, it was true 
of Apostolic Christianity; and it was no mere 
play of the fancy, when the great Egyptian 
plagues were associated with the great Christiaa 
martyrdoms. 

Ver. 19. And now send. — Had Pharaoh 
done so, he would at the last moment have ac- 
knowledged Jehovah's power. But the word, 
which he himself without doubt disregarded, 
served to warn and preserve other God-fearing 
Egyptians. 

Ver. 22. Stretch forth thy hand toward 
heaven. — Still another symbolic form, and that 
of the finest appropriateness. Here the out- 
stretched hand is more important than the Bym.< 
bolic rod, though the latter serves for a sign 
this time also. 

Ver. 23. Sublime description of the hail and 
thunder-storm, like Ps. xviii. and xxix. ; Job 
xxxvii. and xxxviii. " Thunder-storms are not i 
frequent in Lower and Central Egypt, yet occa- 
sionally occur between December and April, and 
in connection with them hail sometimes falls, 
but seldom in considerable quantity. Comp. 
Hengstenberg, Egypt, etc., p. 121 sq." (Keil.) 
In Egypt the cattle are driven to the pastures 
from January to April. Yid. Hengstenberg, 
I. c, p. 123, where he quotes from Niebuhr and 
others. 

Ver. 25. 73 in ver. 26, like the preceding 
"balls of fire" (for lightning), harmonizes with 
the hyperbolic style of the description. 

Vers. 26, 27. In such a heavy storm the ex- 
ceptional condition of Goshen must have been 
the more striking. Now even Pharaoh has 
recognized in the thunder the voice of Jehovah. 
The first declaration, that Jehovah is righteoua, 
comes, remarkably enough, from his mouth. 
His repentance, however, soon shows itself to 
be a mere attritio, a transitory, slavish terror. 
The contritio is wanting ; this was at once seen 
by Moses. The same is indicated in the charac- 
teristic utterance : I have sinned this time. 

Vers. 31, 32. This specification gives a clue 
to the season of the year. It was towards the 
end of January. Vid. Hengstenberg, p. 124, 
and Keil, p. 492. The barley was an important 
article of food for men and cattle, although spelt 
and wheat furnished finer bread. The flax fur- 
nished the light linen which the hot climate 
made a necessity ; ''according to Herodotus II. 
81, 105, a very important product of Egypt" 
(Keil). 



CHAP. X. 1-20. 29 



H.— THJE LOCUSTS. 
Chap. X. 1-20. 

1 And Jehovah said unto Moses, Go in unto Pharaoh ; for I have hardened his 
heart and the heart of his servants, that I might shew [may do] these my signs 

2 before him [in the midst of them] ; And that thou mayest tell in the ears of thy 
son and of thy son's son, what things I have wrought in Egypt [what I have done 
with the Egyptians]^ and my signs which I have done among them ; that ye may 

3 know how [may know] that I am Jehovah. And Moses and Aaron came [went] 
in unto Pharaoh, and said unto him. Thus saith Jehovah, God [the God] of the 
Hebrews, How long wilt thou refuse to humble thyself before me ? let my people 

4 go, that they may serve me. Else [For] if thou refuse to let my people go, behold, 

5 to-morrow will I bring the [bring] locusts into thy coast [borders] : And they shall 
cover the face of the earth, that [so that] one cannot [shall not] be able to see the 
earth : and they shall eat the residue of that which is escaped, which remaiueth [is 
left] unto you from the hail, and shall eat every tree which groweth for you out of 

6 the field ; And they shall fill thy houses, and the houses of all thy servants, and 
the houses of all the Egyptians, which [as] neither thy fathers, nor thy fathers' 
fathers have seen, siuce the day tdat they were upon the earth unto this day. And 

7 he turned himself [turned], and went out from Pharaoh. And Pharaoh's servants 
said unto him ; How long shall this man be a snare unto us? Let the men go, that 
they may serve Jehovah their. God: knowest thou not yet that Egypt is destroyed ? 

8 And Moses and Aaron were brought again [back] unto Pharaoh : and he said unto 
them, Go, serve Jehovah, your God: hut who are they that shall go [are going] ? 

9 And Moses said. We will go with our young and with our old ; wi^h our sons and with 
our daughters, with our flocks and with our herds will we go ; for we mud hold [we 

10 have] a feast unto [of] Jehovah. And he said unto them. Let [May] Jehovah be 
so with you, as I will let you go and your little ones! Look to it [See] ; for evil is 

11 before you. Not so: go now, ye that are men [ye men], and serve Jehovah; for 
that ye did desire [that is what ye are seeking]. And they were driven out from Pha- 

12 raoh's presenrie. And Jehovah said unto Moses, Stretch out thine [thy] hand over 
the land of Egypt for the locusts, that they may come up upon the land of Egypt, 

13 and eat every herb of the land, even all that the hail hath left. And Moses 
stretched forth his rod over the land of Egypt, and Jehovah brought [drove] an 
east wind upon the land all that day and all that [the] night : and when it was 

14 morning the east wind brought the locusts. And the locusts went [came] up over 
[upon] all the land of Egypt, and rested in all the coasts [borders] of Egy[)t; very 
grievous were they: before them there were no such locusts as they, neither after 

15 them shall be such. For [And] they covered the face of the whole earth [land], 
so that [and] the land was darkened ; and they did eat every herb of the land, and 
all the fruit of the trees which the hail had left : and there remained not auy green 
thing in the trees, or in the herbs of the field, through [in] all the land of Egypt. 

16 Then [And] Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron in haste ; and he said, I have 

TEXTUAL AND GEAMMATICAL. 
1 [Ver. 2. That D'ISD here means "Egyptians," and not "Egypt," is evident from the plural pronoun which fol- 
lows. And the whole phrase D'ISDS 'jlSbj>nn is poorly reproduced in the A. V. This verb in the Hithpael la 
oJwajB followed by 3 with the name of a jperson. The meaning of it is, " to do one's pleasure with." Except here, and 1 
Sam. vi. 6, the phrase is used in a bad sense, e. g^ 1 Sam. xxxi. 4, " lest these uncircumcised come and thrust me through, 
and abate me." Oomp. Judg. xix. 25. Here, therefore, the meaning is, " how I did my pleasure with the Egyptians."— Te.]. 



30 



EXODUS. 



17 sinned against Jehovah your God, and against you. Now therefore [And now] 
forgive, I pray thee, my sin only this once, and entreat Jehovah your God that he 

18 may take away from me this death only. And he went out from Pharaoh, and 

19 entreated Jehovah. And Jehovah turned a mighty [very] strong west wind, which 
[and] took away the locusts, and cast [thrust] them into the Red Sea: there re- 
mained not one locust in all the coasts [borders] of Egypt. But Jehovah hard- 
ened Pharaoh's heart, so that he would not [and he did not] let the children of 
Israel go. 



20 



EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL. 

Yer. 1. I have hardened bis heart. — Ac- 
cording to shallow rationalistic views, this be- 
trays a low state of intelligence; viewed from 
the ethical relations of life, it indicates a very 
high one. Pharaoh's acts of self-hardening pre- 
ceded this ; but after the seventh one, his sen- 
tence was determined; the following plagues, 
therefore, must complete hia obduracy. Moses 
must know this beforehand, in order that he may 
not be discouraged respecting his mission. But 
that, under divine revelation, he can foreknow 
it, is characteristic of the man who, being emi- 
nent in religious conscientiousness, has a won- 
derfully profound insight into the justice and 
judgments of God. The general prediction of 
ch. vii. 3-5 is now for the first time completely 
fulfilled ; hence it is here repeated. 

Ver. 2. That thou mayest tell. — " How Is- 
rael related these miraculous signs to children 
and children's children, is shown in Ps. IxxWii. 
and cv." (Keil). 

Ver. 3. To humble thyself. — Jehovah speaks 
now in a severer tone. After so many apparent 
failures, this is a proof that Moses has his con- 
fidence and his word from God. Analogous is 
the heathen legend of the Sibyl who, for the 
prophetical books twice reduced in number, kept 
asking the same price. 

Ver. 4. The antithesis is sharp. Similar 
forms in ix. 17 and viii. 17 [21]. It is not merely 
the antithesis between a divine and a human ac- 
tion; the almighty personality of Jehovah con- 
fronts the defiant personality of Pharaoh. The 
assurance with which the locusts are predicted 
for the morrow marks the miracle, as also after- 
wards the sudden removal of them at Moses' in- 
tercession. 

Ver. 5. The face [lit. eye] of the land. — 
" This phraseology, peculiar to the Pentateuch, 
and occurring elsewhere only ver. 15 and Num. 
xxii. 5, 11, rests on the ancient and genuinely 
poetic conception, that the earth with its floral 
ornamentation looks upon man " (Keil). 

Ver. 6. Fill thy houses.— F«. Joel ii. 9. 
On locusts finding their way into houses, vid. the 
quotations in Keil. 

Ver. 7. Pharaoh's servants. — The courtiers 
begin to tremble. But they are governed by no 
noble motive to intercede for Israel, but by the 
fear that by resistance Egypt may go to ruin. — 
A snare. — In whose fatal toils they are be- 
coming entangled to their destruction. 

Ver. 8. For the first time Pharaoh enters upon 
negotiations before the plague; yet without con- 
sistency. — Who are they? (lit. who and 
■who) 'pi 'n. Immediately the timorous policy 



of the tyrant withdraws more than half of the 
concession. 

Ver. 9. To make a festival are needed not only 
the whole assembly, old and young, but also the 
cattle and possessions in general, on account of 
the ofi'erings. Pharaoh suspects that freedom 
also is involved in the plan. According to 
Keil, the women, who are seemingly omitted, are 
designed to be included in the " we." They are 
also included in the phrase "young and old." 

Ver. 10. The thought, "Jehovah be with you 
on your journey, ' is transformed by Pharxoh 
into mockery : As little as I will let you go with 
your children, so little shall ye go on your jour- 
ney, 80 little shall Jehovah be with you. Inas- 
much as he has been obliged to refer the pre- 
ceding experiences to Jehovah, his audacity here 
passes over into blasphemy. 

Ver. 11. Go now, ye men. — Q'^^JH. The 
expression forms an antithesis to the D'ttf JKH, ia 
the use of which the servants proposed the re- 
lease of the Israelites in general. But that he 
is not even willing to let only the men go is 
shown by the fact that the messengers of God 
were at once driven out. The expression " ye 
men," " ye heroes," may involve a scornful allu- 
sion to the power with which they have risen 

up against him. Also in the form X3 oS the 
irony (according to Keil) is continued. — They 
were driven out. — As we should say, they 
were turned out of doors. " The restriction of 
the right of departure to the men was pure 
caprice, inasmuch as according to Herodotus II. 
60 the Egyptians also had religious festivals in 
which the women were accustomed to go out with 
the men " (Keil). 

Ver. 12. Stretch out thy hand.— Accord- 
ing to ver. 13, with the rod in it. Was it in or- 
der that they might rise up like a hostile military 
force? More probably the idea is that they are 
to rise up in the distance like clouds carried by 
the wind. With the wind, brought by it, locusts 
are wont to come. Vid. the citations in Keil. 

Ver 13. And Jehovah drove.— Jehovah 
Himself is the real performer of miracles. When 
He seems in His government to follow Moses' 
suggestion, while, on the other hand, the action 
of Moses is only a symbolical one resting on pro- 
phetic foresight, this all signifies that God's do- 
minion in nature answers to God's dominion in 
His kingdom, therefore, also, in the mind of 
Moses. It is a pre-established harmony, in 
which the outward things of nature are made 
serviceable to the inward necessities of the spi- 
ritual life. Vid. Matt, xxviii. 18.— An east 
wind, D"1p^-nn. "Not vdm (LXX.), south 
wind, as even Bocharl [merozoicon III,, p. 287) 



CHAP. X. 21-29. 



31 



thought. For although the swarms of locusts 
come to Egypt generally from Ethiopia or Libya, 
yet they are sometimes brought by the east wind 
from Arabia, as has been observed, among others, 
by Denon, quoted by Heugstenberg, Egypt, etc., 
p. 12.5" (Keil). 

Vers. 13—15. Further miraculous features: 
(a) that the locusts come from so far (the 
wind blew twenty-four hours) ; (6) that they 
cover the whole land, whereas they generally 
attack only particular regions. Among the va- 
rious forms of the preludes of the final judgment, 
(blood, fire, war, pestilence, darkness), the 
plagues of lo(!U3t^ are also especially prominent. 
According to Joel, the fundamental sigaificanco 
of them is the incesdant destruction of the flesh 
on all sides.* 

* [This ia obscnre. It ia true that ttiQ invasioa of the lo- 
cnsta is daacribed by Joel as the precuraor of " the d'iy of 
Jehovah " (i. 15 ; ii. 1) ; but where or in what sense he ropr - 
seats them aa destroying thejlfjih, it is impossible to see. Cer- 
tainly if the literal language of Joel la referred to, there ia 
nothing of the sort. Aa 1 no more ia there any indication 
that Joel means to intimate that locusts symbolize the de- 
struction of the fieah, Lan^e moreover leavei us in dou'it 
whether be Ujiea the word "fleab " in the literal or figurative 
sense. — ^Ta.]. 



Vers. 16, 17. And Pharaoh called in 
haste. — This is his second confession of sin, 
more distinct than the first, ix. 27. For (he third 
time he implores Moaes' intercession ; viii. 24 
(28), ix. 28, and here. His penitence, however, 
again exhibits the character of an insincere sub- 
mission, attritio; he begs Moses' forgiveness, but 
wishes him to intercede with God to avert this 
death, this deadly ruin, which he sees in the 
plague of locusts. He condemns himself, how- 
ever, for what follows, inasmuch as he anks for 
exemption only this once. 

Ver. 18. Moses' intercession has a twofold sig- 
nificance: It is, first, an expression of divine 
forbearance; secondly, I he attestation of the 
miracle displayed in the plague of locusts. 

Ver. 19. The east wind is changed to a west 
wind, or, more probably, to a northwest wind. 
" That the locusts perish in the sea is variously 
attested. Oregatim aublatse vento in maria aut 
slagna decidiml , says Pliny" (Keil). For Pha- 
raoh the help may have been ominous, 'as he 
himself afterwards with his host was to peristi, 
like the locusts, in the Red Sea, 



I.— THE DARKNESS. 

Chap. X. 21-29. 

21 And Jehovah said unto Moses, Stretch out thine [thy] hand toward heaven, 
that there may be darkness over i;he laud of Egypt, even darkness which may be 

22 felt. And Moses stretched forth his hand toward heaven ; and there was a thick 

23 darkness in all the land of Egypt three days. They saw not one another, 
neither rose any from his place for three days: but all the children of Israel had 

24 light in their dwellings. And Pharaoh called unto Moses, and said. Go ye, serve 
Jehovah ; only let your flocks and your herds be stayed [kept back] ; let your 

25 little ones also [also your little oaes shall] go with you. And Moses said. Thou 
must give us also [Thou shalt also put into our hands] sacrifices and burnt-offer- 

26 ings, that we may sacrifice unto Jehovah our God. Our cattle also shall go with 
us; there shall not an [a] hoof be left behind; for thereof [from them] must we 
[shall we] take to serve Jehovah our God ; and we know not with what we muft 

27 serve Jehovah until we come thither. But Jehovah hardened Pharaoh's hearr, 

28 and he would not let them go. And Pharaoh said unto him, Get thee from me, 
take heed to thyself, see my face no more ; for in that [the] day thou seest my face 

29 thou shalt die. And Moses said, Thou hast Siioken well ; I will see thy face again 
no more. 



EXEQETICAL AND CRITICAL. 

Vers. 21-2.3. The natural phenomenon under- 
lying this mi»!ioulous infliction of Egyptian dark- 
ness is generally taken to be the Chamsin, the 
scorching hot south wind (in Italy the Sirocco, 
in Switzerland the Fohn^, "referred to appa- 
rently by the LXX., where they render "'^K'n 



'T':??? ^y "tfirof Kol yv6(tioc, nal iJiieXXa. This 
wind, which in Egypt is accustomed to blow be- 
fore and after the vernal equinox, and generally 
lasts two or three days, usually rises very sud- 
denly and fills the air with such a mass of fine 
dust and coarser sand, that the sun ceases to 
shine, the sky is covered with a thick veil, and 
the obscuration becomes so nocturnal that the 
darkness of the thickest fog of our late autumn 



32 



EXODUS. 



or wiater days is not to be compared with it (vid, 
Schubert's Reise, II., p. 409)." (Keil). See fur- 
ther citations in Keil. Hengstenberg interprets 
the darkness in Egypt as the image of the divine 
anger, the light in Goshen as image of the divine 
grace. But the preceding plagues also were at 
least signs of the divine anger. The judgment 
of darkness doubtless expresses more specifically 
the fact, that the wisdom of Egypt has become 
transformed into a spiritual night, in which the 
night of death soon to follow is pre-announoed, 
whereas the light in Goshen in contrast with it 
may signify the dawn of a higher wisdom which 
finally brings freedom. The miracalousness of 
it consisted, first, in its following the symbolic 
action and prediction of Moses ; secondly, in 
its intensity and the exceptional condition of 
Goshen. — In their d^vellings. — Keil correctly 
refers this, in opposition to Kurtz, to the coun- 
try ; whereas the latter understands that the 
Egyptians were even unable to illumine their 
houses. But one might as readily infer that 
the Israelites obtained light only by artificial 
means. — Darkness ■which may be felt. — 
Beautiful hyperbolic expression ; yet the dust 
brought by the tornado could indeed be felt by 
the hand. 

Ver. 24. Pharaoh, frightened, makes a new 
concession, but again with a shrewd reservation. 
The concession consists, strictly speaking, of two 
parts, and the reservation is very lurlively in- 
serted between the two. — Go ye, he says at fii-st, 



this time not only the strong men ; and at last, 
as if with the intention of entrapping Moses by 
the excitement of his emotions: Also your 
little ones shall go with you. — Nevertheless 
all their cattle were to be left in the hands of the 
Egyptians as a pledge of their return. "JX\ 
aistatur, be stopped, kept in certain places under 
the charge of the Egyptians as a pledge of your 
return" (Keil). 

Ver. 25. Moses invalidates Pharaoh's demand 
by reference to the religious duty of his people. 
They must make an offering, must therefore have 
their cattle with them. But, together with the 
claims of religious feeling, those of justice are 
also insisted on, in the utterance which has even 
become parabolical: " There shall not a hoof be 
left behind." This bold utterance, on the other 
hand, is softened by the declaration that they 
did not know what offerings (and how many) 
they would have to bring to Jehovah. 

Ver. 28. The negotiation becomes more and 
more unequivocal. The one intention has strug- 
gled with the other in carefully chosen terms up 
to the point of decision. The tyrant's' defiance 
now flames up, and Moses, with a calm conscious- 
ness of superiority, tinged with irony, assents to 
the decree that he shall not again, on penalty of 
death, appear before Pharaoh. It is an indirect 
announcement of the last plague. But its first 
consequence win oe that Pharaoh must take back 
his threat, xii. 31. 



THIRD SECTION. 



Announcement of the last or tenth plague, the immediate miraculous interposition 
of Ood. The commands respecting the indemnification of the Israelites, and 
the Pacsover, as the festival preliminary to their deliverance. The midnight 
of terror and of the festival of deliverance. The release and the exodus. The 
legal consequences of the liberation : the Passover, the consecration of the 
first-born, the feast of unleavened bread. Chaps. XI. 1 — XIII. 16. 

A.— ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE LAST PLAGUE. 
Chapter XI. 1-10. 

1 And Jehovah said unto Moses, Yet will I bring one' plague more [One more 
plague will I bring] upon Pharaoh and upon Egypt ; afterwards he will let you go 
hence: when he shall let you go, he shall [will] surely thrust you out hence alto- 

2 gether. Speak now in the ears of the people, and let every man borrow [ask] of 
his neighbor, and every woman of her neighbor, jewels [articles] of silver, and 

3 jewels [articles] of gold. And Jehovah gave the people favor in the sight of the 
Egyptians. Moreover the man Moses was very great in the land of Egypt, 

4 in the sight of Pharaoh's servants, and in the sight of the people. And Moses 
said, Thus saith Jehovah, About [At] midnight will I go out into the midst of 

5 Egypt: And all the first-born in the land of Egypt shsQl die, from the first-born 
of Pharaoh that sitteth u"on his throne, even [throne], unto the first-boru of the 

6 maid-servant that is behind the mill; and all the first-born of beasts. And there 
shall be a great cry throughout [in] all the land of Egypt, such as thare was none 
like it [the like of which hath not been], nor shall be like it [nor shall be] any 



CHAP. XI. 1-10. 



33 



7 more. But against any of the children of Israel shall not a dog move [sharpen] 
his tongue, against man or beast ; that ye may know how [know] that Jehovah 

8 doth put a difference [doth distinguish] between the Egyptians and Israel. And 
all these thy servants shall come down unto me, and bow down themselves [bow 
down] unto me, saying, Get thee out, and all the people that follow thee : and after 
that I will go out. And he -went out from Pharaoh iu a great [burning] anger. 

9 And Jehovah said unto Moses, Pharaoh shall [will] not hearken unto you ; that 
10 my wonders may be multiplied in the land of Egypt. And Moses and Aaron did 

all these wonders before Pharaoh ; and Jehovah hardened Pharaoh's heart, so that 
he would not [and he did not] let the children of Israel go out of his land. 



EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL. 

Ver. 1. And Jehovah said. — According to 
Keil, Jehovali's address to Moses here reported 
was made before the interview with Pharaoh re- 
corded in X. 24-29, but is given here by the nar- 
rator because it explains Moses' confident answer 
in X. 29. But we cannot suppose that Moses 
would have preannounoed the tenth plague be- 
fore Pharaoh's obduracy in reference to the ninth 
had showed itself. Also, it is clear from ver. 8 
that the announcement made in vers. 4-8 imme- 
diately follows Moses' declaration in x. 29. The 
difference between this announcement and the 
former ones consists in the fact that this last one 
is made immediately after Pharaoh's obdurate 
answer. By a sort of attraction other particu- 
lars are added to this central part of the section : 
Vers. 9 and 10 as a recollection which the theo- 
cratic spirit loves to repeat. Vers. 1-3, how- 
ever, are put before vers. 4-8, evidently from 
pragmatic considerations ; in historical order 
they form ihe immediate consequence of what is 
there related. Only the matter of the silver and 
gold articles seems to have been often talked of: 
the idea is advanced as early as iii. 21. 

Ver. 8. That follow thee. — Here for the 
first time the thought appears, that the people 
are to form a military host. — In a burning 
anger. — Patience is exhausted, andtheprophet's 
anger breakingforth is a foretoken of judgment. 

Vers. 9, 10. What Jehovah has predicted (iv. 
21; vii. 3) has thus far all been fulfilled. The 
pause before the last thunder-bolt has inter- 
vened, and occasions a review. 

Vers. 4, 6. At midnight. — The day is not 
fixed, only the dreadful hour of tlie niglit. Keil 
correctly observes, in opposition to Bauaigarten, 
that the institution of the feast of the Passover 
does not come till after the announcement of the 
last plague, and in accordance with this direc- 
tion at least nine* days, according to xii. 3, must 



*JProbably a misprint for "four," i. e., tho four days inter- 
vening between the lOtli and tlie 14th of the month. Mur- 
phy agrees with Baumgarten that the midnight liere spolten 
of is the one foliowing the announcement of the plague, 
which, therefore, according to xii. 6, 29, must have taken 
place on the 14th. This of course requires us to assume that 
the injunction of xii. 1-3 preceded this announcement. In 
itself considered, however, there is certainly no more diffi- 
culty in this than in the view held by Keil respecting xi. 
1-3, vie., that chronologically it belongs before x. 24-29. — 1ft, j. 



have preceded the Passover. Also the indefi- 
nitely protracted expectation of the stroke must 
have heightened the fear in Egypt, and made the 
stroke the more effectual. At midnight will I 
go out. — The servant with his symbolic action 
retires; Jehovah will Himself step forth from 
His hidden throne, and march through the whole 
of hostile Egypt injudicial majesty. The judg- 
ment will be BO severe that even Moses with his 
rod must reverently retire, all the more, as in 
this last scene there is to bo made manifest on 
Israel's part also a relative complicity in guilt, 
which can be expiated only by the blood of the 
paschal lamb. Moses must here retire on ac- 
count also of the infliction of death on the first- 
born children of Egypt. — The maid-servant 
that la behind the mill. — Prom the king's 
son down to the lowest female slave. A still 
stronger expression ii used for the latter extreme 
in xii. 29.*— All the first-born.— The first- 
born are the natural heads, representatives, 
priests, and chief sufi'erers, of families ; and to 
the first-born as priests correspond the first-born 
of beasts as offerings [vid. xiii. 2). Here, it is 
true, the oflfering spoken of is the curse-offering, 
DT'.n. According to Keil, the beasts also are 
mentioned because Pharaoh was going to keep 
back the men and the cattle of the Israelites. 
But this judgment goes so deep that the first- 
born Israelitish children must likewise be atoned 
for ; therefore also faultless lambs must be of- 
fered. The first-born among lambs cannot have 
been meant. 

Ver. 7. Not a dx)g sharpen his tongue. — 
A proverbial expression, signifying that not the 
slightest trouble could be experienced. Hence, 
loo, not even the cattle of the Jews were to suf- 
fer the least disturbance (vid. Judith xi. 19). 
The proverbial expression may seem strange in 
this connection ; but the thought readily occurs, 
that the Egyptians, in this great calamity which 
they had to experience on account of the Israel- 
ites, might come against them with revengeful 
purpose. But even this will so little be the case 
that rather all of Pharaoh's servants will fall at 
Moses' feet and beg him to go out together with 
his people. 



* [Where prisoners are substituted for grinders. But, as 
Keil remarks, according to Judg. xvi. 21 ; Isa. xlvii. 2, it 
was not uncommon to employ prisoners aa grinders. — Ta.j. 



31 EXODUS. 



B.— THE DIVINE ORDINANCE OF THE PASSOVER. 
Chaptek XII. 1-20. 

1, 2 And Jehovah spake unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, This 
month shall be unto you the beginning of months ; it shall be the first month of the 

3 year to you. Speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel, saying. In [On] the 
tenth day of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to 

4 the house of their fathers [according to households], a lamb for a house : And if 
the household be too little for the [a] lamb, let him and his neighbor next unto 
his house take it according to the number of the souls ; every man according to his 

5 eating, shall [shall ye] make your count for the lamb. Your lamb shall be [ye 
shall have a lamb] without blemish, a male of the first year [one year old] : ye shall 

6 take it out [take it] from the sheep, or from the goats. And ye shall keep it up 
[keep it] until the fourteenth day of the same [this] month : and the whole assem- 

7 bly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening. And they shall take 
of the blood, and strike [put] it on the two side-posts and on the upper door-post 

8 [the lintel] of the houses wherein they shall eat it. And they shall eat the flesh 
in that night roast [roasted] with fire, and unl avened bread ; and [bread] : with 

9 bitter herbs they shall eat it. Eat not [nothing] of it raw, nor sodden at all 
[boiled] with water, but roast [roasted] with fire r his [its] head with his [its] legs, 

10 and with the purtenance [inwards] thereof. And ye shall let nothing of it remain 
until the morning; and that which remaineth of it until the morning ye shall burn 

11 with fire. And thus shall ye eat it : with your loins girded, your shoes on your 
feet, and your staff in your hand; and ye shall eat it in haste': it w the Lord's 

12 pasaover [a passover unto Jehovah]. For [And] I will pass through the land of 
Egypt this night, and will smite all the first-born in the land of Egypt, both man 
and beast ; and against all the gods of Ejrypt I will execute judgment : I am Je- 

13 hovah. And the blood shall be to you for a token [sign] upon the houses where 
ye are : and when I see the blond, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be 
upon you to destroy you [there shall be no destroying plague upon you], when I 

14 smite the land of Egypt. And this day shall be unto you for a memorial; and ye 
shall keep [celebrate] it a feast to Jehovah ; throughout your generations ye shall 
keep it a feast by an ordinance forever [celebrate it as a perpetual ordinance]. 

15 Seven days shall ye eat unleavened bread; even [yea, on] the first day ye shall 
put away leaven out of your houses ; for whosoever eateth leavened bread from the 

16 first day until the seventh day, that soul shall be cut off from Israel. And in the 
first day there shall be a holy convocation, and in the seventh day there shall be a 
holy convocation to you [on the first day ye shall have a holy convocation, and ou 
the seventh day a holy convocation] ; no manner of work [no work] shall be done 
in them ; save [only] that which every man must eat [is eaten by every man], that 

17 only may be done of you. And ye shall observe the feast of unleavened bread; 
for in [on] this self-same day have I brought your armies [hosts] out of the land 
of Egypt ; therefore shall ye [and ye shall] observe this day in [throughout] your 

TEXTUAL AND GEAMMATICAL. 
'[Ver, U. pisna. Lango translates: in Pluchlrbereitschaft, "in readiness for flight," condemning De Wette's tender- 
ing, JSiV/rriigrSeif, "haste," "prGcipitation." But in the only other two pasaaares where the word ocourB, Lange's transla- 
tion is hardly admiaaible. Dent. xvi. 3, " Thou earnest forth out of the land of Egypt in haste, Tir^nS-" It could not be 
piiid, " Thon earnest forth in readiness for flight." So Isa. lii. 12, " Ye shall not go out with baste (VuSnB), t^°^ go liy 
flight," Here the -word also denotes anxious haate. The verb TSn likewise everywhere conveya the notion of hurried- 
n'3% or anxiety conne&ted with haato. — Ta.], 



CHAP. XII. 1-20. 



35 



18 generations by [as] an ordinance forever. In tbe first month, on the fourteenth day 
of the month at even, ye shall eat unleavened bread, until the one and twentieth 

19 day of the month at even. Seven days shall there be no leaven found in your 
houses : for whosoever eateth that which is leavened, even [leavened], that soul 
shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he be a hiranger [sojourner] 

20 or born in the land. Ye shall eat nothing leavened; in all your habitations shall 
ye eat unleavened bread. 



EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL. 

Ver. 1 sqq. Institution of the Passover. As 
ChristenJom reckons its years ao^ordiug to the 
salvatioa in Christ, so the Israelites were to 
reckon the months of the year from the first 
month of their redemption. The first mouth, 
in which the redemption took place, Abib (month 
of green ears) or Nisau, was to become the first 
mouth of tlieir year. Hereby likewise the feast 
of the Passover was to be made the foundation 
of all the Jewish feasts, and the Passover sacri- 
fice the founlation of all the various kinds of 
offering. The feast, however, becomes a double 
one. The Passover, as the feast of redemption, 
lasis, together with the day of preparation, only 
one night; thefeastof unleavened bread (including 
the Passover) seven days. Since the feant of 
the great day of atonement also coalesces with 
the feast of tabernacles which follows close upon 
it, it wou'd seem that the feast of Pentecost, al-o, 
as the feast of ingathering, requires to be cou- 
pled with something. The institution of the 
feast of the Passover, connected with the an- 
nouncement of the destruction of the first-born 
of Egypt, is narrated in vers. 1-14; in 15-20 
the iostitution of the feast of unleavened bread 
The two feasts, however, are so thoroughly 
blended into one, that the whole feast may 
be called either the Passover, or the feast 
of unleavened bread. The festival as a whole 
signifies separation from the corruption of 
Egypt, this being a symbol of the corruption 
of the world. The foundation of the whole con- 
sists in the divine act of redemption celebrated 
by the Passover. The result consists in the act 
of the Israelites, the removal of the leaven, 
which denotes community wi-h Egyptian princi- 
ples ( Vid. Comm. on Matthew, pp. 245, 289). 
We have here, therefore, a typical purification 
based on a typical redemption. 

Vera. 1,2. In the land of Egypt. — It is a 
mark of the dominion of Jehovah in the midst 
of His enemies, that He established the Jewish 
community in the land of Fgypt, as al.^o the 
Christian community in the midst of Judaism, 
and the Evangelical ootnmunity under the domi- 
nion of the Papacy. To the triumphant assu- 
rance in regard to the place corresponds the 
triumphant assurance in regard to the time: 
the Passover, as a typical festival of redemption, 
was celebrated before the typical redemption 
itself; the Lord's Supper before the real redemp- 
tion; and in the constant repetition of its cele- 
bration it points forward to the final redemption 
which is to take place when the Lord comes. 
Keil calls attention to this legislation in the land 
of Egypt, as the first, in distinction from the 
legislation on Mt. Sinai and the fields of Moab. 



— The beginning of months. — It does not 
definitely ioiiow from this ordinance that tlf! 
Jews before had a diffi;renl beginning of tlij 
year; but this is probable, inasmuch as thu 
Egyptians had a different one. Vid. Keil, Vol. 
11.. p. 10. Nisau nearly corresponds to our 
April. 

Ver. 3. Unto all the congregation of 
Israel. — As heretofore, through the elders. — 
A lamb. — A Inmb or kid. — According to 
households. — The companies were not to be 
formed arbitrarily, but we?e to be formed ac- 
cording to families. Vid. ver. 21. — On the 
tenth day of this month. — Vid. ver. a. 

Ver. 4. Of course more than two families 
might unite, if some of them were childless. 
Also perhaps the gaps in smaller families might 
be filled by members from excessively large 
ones. Later tradition fixed upon ten as the nor- 
mal number of participants. 

Ver. 5. Quality of the lamb: without blemish, 
male, one year old. For divergent opinions, 
see Keil, Vol. IT., p. 11.* That the lamb, as 
free from blemish, was designed to represent 
the moral integrity of the offerer (Keil), is a 
very doubtful proposition, since moral integrity 
needs no expiatory blood; it might, with more 
propriety, be taken to represent theocratic in- 
tegrity. Also the requirement that the lamb be 
a male can hardly [as Keil assumes] have ex- 
clusive reference to the first-born sons [for 
whom the lambs were substituted]. The re- 
quirement of one year as the age prob.ably is 
connected with the necessity that the lamb be 
weaned; furthermore, it was for a meal which 
was to suffice for an ordinary family. The first- 
born of beasts which were sacrificed on other 
occasions than at the Passover needed only to 



* [The age of tlie lamb is expressed ia Hettrew by the 
phrrtse: " Bon of a year." The Eabbinical interpretation is 
that this meand a > ear old or less, and in practice it has 
been applied 1 1 lambs from the age of eight dayd to that uf 
one year. Apparently our translators liad that interpret.a- 
tion in mind in rendering: "of the first year." But not- 
witlistanding the wide currency of this view (adcpted even 
bv Ko^enniiiiler, Baunigarten, Mnrpby and other modern 
commeutators), it seeais to be almost stupidly incorrect, hs 
Knobel very clearly shows. Murphy says: "The phrase 
'son of a year ' mefins of any age from a montii to a full 
year," and refers to Gen. vii. 6, 11. i!ut why "from a 
infmihf" Wny not "eight days" as well? Why not one 
day, or one second, from the time of birth ? Isaac, we are 
told in Gen. xxi. 4, waj circumcised whnn he was the "son 
of eight days." How old was he? In Lev, xxvii, 6 we 
read: "If it be fro u the sod of a month unto the son of five 
>ears," where the A. V, reads correctly "a month old," ai.il 
" five years old." It wou^d he a sinnular way of fixing two 
limits, if both expre.-sioos are so indeterminate as the Rub- 
biniial interpretation would make t lem. If the "son of a 
vear" may be as young as eight days, and the "son oi a 
month " may tie tw.'nty-nino days old, what is the use of the 
phrase " son of a month " atall? Or what is the sen^e of 
using the latter phrase as the eary limit? Why not say 
simply: "If it be the sou office years?" whifh, accordini^ 
to the Rabbinical iuterpretalion, ought to cover the wuole 
period. — Tr.] 



86 



EXODUS. 



be eight dnys old. As the lamb was of more 
value tliau the kid, it la natural that for this 
occasion it became more and more predomi- 
nantly used. 

Ver. G. Ye shall keep it. — Does this mean 
simply : ye shall keep it in store ? Probably it 
is intimated that the lamb was designed either 
to represent the persons, or to be held in custody 
for them. Why did this keeping of the animal 
last from the lOlh to the 14lh of Nisan ? " Which 
regulation, however, Jonathan and Baschi re- 
garded as applicable only to the passover slain 
in Egypt" (Keil). According to Hofmann, the 
lour days refer to the four generations spent by 
the Israelites in Egypt. In that case the whole 
analogy would lie in the number four. If the 
10th day of Nisan was near the day of the com- 
mand, and Moses foresaw that the last plague 
would not come till after four days, it was natu- 
ral for him not to leave so important a prepara- 
tion to the last day ; the four days, moreover, 
were by the ordinance itself devoted entirely to 
wholesome suspense and preparation ; in ano- 
ther form Fagius refers to this when he says: "ut 
occasionem habermt inter se. colloquendi et dispu- 
tandi," etc. Vid. Keil. — The whole assem- 
bly of the congregation of Israel. — Although 
every head of a family killed his lamb, yet the 
individual acts were a common act of the people 
in the view of the author of the rite. Israel 
was the household enlarged ; the separate house- 
hold was the community in miniature. Hence 
later the lambs were slain in the court. — In 
the evening {literally "between the two eve- 
nings"). This regulation, which distinguishes 
two evenings in one day, is explained in three 
ways: (1) between sunset and dark (Aben-Ezra, 
the Karaites and Samaritans, Keil and others) ; 
(2) just before and just after sunset (Kimchi, 
Kiisohi, Hitzig); (3) between the decline of the 
day and sunset (Josephus, the Mishna, and the 
practice of the Jews). Without doubt this is 
the correct explanation; in favor of it may be ad- 
duced xvi. 12; Deut. xvi. 6; Johnxiii. 2. Accord- 
ing to this passage, preparation for the Passover 
was begun before the sun was fully set. Consi- 
derable time was needed for the removal of the 
leaven and the killing of the lamb. According 
to the Jewish conception of the day as reckoned 
from 6 A. M. to 6 P. M., there was in fact a 
double evening: first, the decline of the day of 
twelve hours; secondly, the night-time, begin- 
ning at 6 P. M., which, according to Gen. i. 5 
and Matt, xxviii. 1, was always evening in the 
wider sense — the evening of the day of twenty- 
four hours — which preceded the morning, the 
day in the narrower sense.* 

* [GinaliurK in Alexander's Kitto'a Cyclopsedia, Art. Pasg- 
over, hue shown that the second of the thrfe views about 
" tlie two evenings " was not held by Kimchi and Raachl 
(otherwise called Jarchi), but that they agreed with the 
great mass ot Jewish comnientatoTS in adopting the third 
view. Tile phrase itself is so vague that from it alone the 
meaning cannot with certainty be gathered. Most modem 
Christian commentators, it should he said, adopt the first 
view. Deut. xvi. 6, where the time for sacrificing the Pas- 
sover is fixed " at the going down of the sun," is quot' d as 
fav-oring that view, while Lange quotes it on the other side. 
Whatever msy have been the exact meaning of the phrase 
originally, it is probable that the very early Jewish practice 
corresponded with the Kabbinlcal interpretation. The trans- 
actions recorded in 1 Kings xviii. indicate this. There we 
read (ver. '2&) that the prophets of Baal called on Bual from 



Ver. 7. Take of the blood. — The two door- 
posts, as well as the lintel of the door, denote 
the whole door; the threshold is excepted be- 
cause the atoning blood should not be trodden 
underfoot. " The door," says Keil, "through 
which one goes into the house, stands for the 
house itself; as is shown by the frequent ex- 
pression: 'in thy giites,' for 'in thy cities,' cU. 
XX. 10, etc." It is here assumed that every 
house or tent had a door properly so called. 
" Expiation was made for the house, and it was 
consecrated as an altar" (Keil). This is a con- 
fused conception. It was the household that was 
atoned for; the buildino; did thus indeed be- 
come a sort of sanctuary ; but in what sense 
was it to be an altar? For here all kinds of 
offerings were united in one central offering: 
the D|in, or the slaughter of the Egyptian first- 
born ; the expiatory offering, or the blood sprin- 
kled by the hyssop-branch on the door-posts 
(Lev. xiv. 49; Num. xix. 18), which, therefore, 
as such represent the several parts of the altar; 
the thank-offering, or the Passover-meal ; the 
burnt-offering, or the burning of the parts left 
over. Because the door-posts themselves stand 
for the altar, the smearing of them was after- 
wards given up, and, instead, the lamb was 
killed in the court; and this change must have 
been made as soon as there was a court. 

Ver. 8. On that night. — The one following 
the 14th of Nisan. Why only on the same night? 
Otherwise it would not have been a festive meal. 
Why roasted? The fire (itself symbolically sig- 
nificant) concentrates the strength of the meat; 
by boiling a part of it passes into the water. 
The unleavened bread has a two-fold significance. 
When eaten at the Passover, it denotes separa- 
tion from the leaven of Egypt (Matt. xvi. 6, 12; 
2 Cor. V. 8) ; as a feast by itself, the feast of 
unleavened bread, called bread of affliction, 
denotes remembrance of the afflictions which 
were connected with the flight from Egypt 
(Deut. xvi. 3). This is overlooked, when it is 
inferred from ver. 17 that the ordinance of the 
feast of unleavened bread was made at a later 
time (as Keil does, U., p. 20). — With bitter 
herbs. — D'l'lO, jrofpMef (LXX.), lactucse agnstet 
(Vulg.), the wild lettuce, the endive, etc. Vid. 
Keil II., p. 15, Knobel, p. 99. " According to 
Russell," says Knobel, "tliere are endives in 
Syria from the beginning of the winter months 
to the end of March ; then comes lettuce in 
April and May." According to Keil, "the bit- 
ter herbs are not called accompaniments of the 
meal, but are represented as the principal part 
of the meal, here and in Num. ix. 11." For 



morning till noon, and afterwards (ver. 29) from mid-day 
" until tbe time of the offering of the evening sacrifice" 
(more exaiitly, "until towards the time"). According to 
Ex. xxix. 39 the evening sacrifice also was offered "between 
the two evenings." If the meaning were " from mid-day till 
sunset," there would seem to be no reason why it should not 
have been so expressed. Besides, it is intrinsicEdly improba- 
ble that the howlings of tbe false prophets continued through 
the whole day. Especially Is it difficult, if not impossible, 
to find time enough in the evening of that day for the events 
which are narrated to have followed, viz. Elijah's prayer, 
the consumption of the burnt-offering, the slaying of the 
false prophets, the return from the Kishon, the prayer for 
rain, the servant's going seven times to look, Elijah's going 
to Jezreel.— Tb.] ' 



CHAP. XII. 1-20. 



ST 



7J^, he says, does nut mean almg with, together 
with, but retains its fundamental meaning, upon, 
over. In this way the following strange sym- 
\)olic meaning is deduced : " The bitter herbs 
are to call to mind the bitterness of life ex- 
perienced by Israel in Egypt, and this bitterness 
is to be overcome by the sweet flesh of the lamb." 
If only the bitter herbs did not taste pleasant! 
If only the lamb did not form a meal of thank- 
offering, and in this meal were not the chief 
thing! May not the lamb, according to the 
usual custom, have lain upon a, setting of bitter 
herbs? In the passage before us only the un- 
leavened bread is said to be put upon the biiter 
herbs. The modification of the arrangement in 
Num. ix. 11 is unimportant. It Is a strange 
noliua that the bitter herbs and the sweet bread 
formed ■' the basis of the Passover-meal " (Keil). 
In that case the "sweet" bread ought to have 
made the "sweet" flesh of the lamb superfluous. 
Moreover, the opposite of sweet is not bitter, 
hut sour. According to Knobel, the bitter herbs 
correspond to the frankincense which used to 
accompany many offerings of grain, inasmuch 
as they had, for the most part, a pleasant odor. 
But frankincense has a special reference to 
prayer. If the bitter herbs are to be interpreted 
as symbolic, we may understand that they sup- 
plement the negative significance of the unlea- 
vened bread by something positive, as being 
health-giving, vitalizing, conseoratory herbs. 

Ver. 9. Its head with its legs. [" From 
the head to the thighs," is Lange's translation.] 
"I.e., as Basohi correctly explains, whole, not 
cut in pieces, so that the head and legs are not 
separated from the animal, no bone of him is 
broken (ver. 46), and the inward parts together 
with the (nobler?) entrails, these of course first 
cleansed, are roasted in and with the body."* 
The unity of the lamb was to remain intact; on 
which point cjmp. Biihr, Symbolik des Mosaiachen 
Cultiis II., p. 635, Keil, and others. -j- The sym- 
bolic significance of the lamb thus tended to- 
wards the notion of personality and inviolability, 
that on which rested also the fact and continu- 
ance of the unity of the family which partook of it. 

Ver. 10. Let nothing of it remain, " But 
what nevertheless does remain till morning is to 
be burnt with fire" (Keil). But was any of it 
allowed to remain till morning? Vid. my hy- 
pothesis, Life of Christ, Vol. IV., p. 262.J 

Ver. 11. And thus. The preparation for the 
journey is here at once real and symbolic. The 
readiness to start is expressed by three marks : the 
loins girded (tucked up) ; the travelling shoes on 
the feet ; the walking-stick in the hand. " That even 
the 0. X. ritual was no rigid ordinance is proved 

* [Ttiis sentence is markei ai a quotation by Lanire, but 
the source, as very often in tlie German original, is not indi- 
cated ; and in this case 1 have not been able to trace it 
out.— Tr.J. 

f [B'4hr, 1. c. say>i on this point : " This had no other o^jent 
than that all who received a part of that one intact lamb, 
i. e., who at-i of it, sliould regard themselves as a unit and a 
whole, as a community, just like 'hose who eat the New Tes- 
tament Passover, the body of Christ (1 Gor. v. 7), of whi«* 
the Apostle, in 1 Cor. x. 17, says, 'For we b'^ing many are 
one bread and one body ; for we are all partakers of that one 
bread.' "— Tn.]. 

X [The hypothesis is that the remains of the paschal lamb, 
if there were any, were burnt up the same night, and there- 
fore were not allowed to remain till the next day. But this 
seems to conflict with the plain language of the verse. — Ta.]. 



by the remarkable fact that at the time of Christ 
they ate the passover lying on couches. — In 
haste. [" In readiness for flight," Lange.] A 
meal could hardly have been taken in " anxious 
flight" (Keil), or in "anxious haste" (Knobelj.* 
— It is Jehovah's Passover. Not the Puss- 
over unto Jehovah, as Keil takes it, referring to 
XX. 10, xxxii. 6. For the Passover designates 
Jehovah's own going through, going hy, passini/ 
ooer (sparing), as symbolically represented and 
appropriated by the Passover festival. The feast, 
it is true, is celebrated to Jehovah ; but it cele- 
brates Jehovah's act, and in the place where the 
rite is first instituted, it cannot appear as al- 
ready instituted. f The LXX. say: 7rao-;^o earl 
Kvpl<^. TheVulg. "es< enim Phase (id est tran- 
situs) domini. On the meaning of nD3 vid. the 
lexicons, and Keil II., p. 17. The pesach is pri- 
marily the divine act of "passing over;" next 
the Iamb with the killing of which this exemp- 
tion is connected; finally, the whole eight days' 
festival, including that of unleavened bread 
(Deut. xvi 1-6), as, on the other hand, the latter 
feast also included that of the Passover. That 
this first Passover was really a sacrificial feast, 
Keil proves, in opposition to Hofmann, II., p. 17. 
Comp. Hofmann's Schriflbeweis II., p. 271. J 

Vers. 12, 13. Explanation of tlie Passover. 
And I. The counterpart and prototype of the 
Passover festival are historic facts. First, Jeho- 
vah, as judge, passes through all Egypt. Se- 
condly, He visits upon the young life in the 
land a plague whose miraculousness consists 
especially in the fact that the first-born fall, the 

* [Why not in " anxious haste ?" A man can surely eat 
in haste as well as do anythiog else in haste. That there 
was to be a " readiness for flight" is sufficiently indicated 
by the precept concerning the girdles, sandals, and staves. 
Vid. under " Textual and Grammatical." — Ta.J. 

f [We have let the A. V. reading stand ; neverthelpss it 
is by no means so clear that Keil is not right. He certainly 
is supported not only by many of the best versions aivt 
commentators, but by the Hebrew, which literally rendered 
can read only, " It is a Passover to Jehovah," or *' It is a 
Passover of Jehovah." The latter ditfers from Lange's 
translation as making " Pussover " indefinite, whereas " Je- 
hovah's Paasover" is equivalent tn '^iJie Passover of Jeho- 
vah." Furthermore, the subject of the sentence naturally, 
if not necessarily, refers to the lamb ; but the lamb cannot 
tie called Jehovah's passing over. The last point made in 
opposition to Keil is not jnat, inasmuch as Keil does not 
render (as Lange makes him) " the Passover unto Jebovah," 
but distinctly leaves the noun indefinite, so that there 
is no implicit^on that it was an already existent institu- 
tion.— Ta ]. 

J [HofJDaann takes n^T in xii. 27 in the general sense of 

slaughter, instead of the ceremonial sense of Bocrifice, and 
argues that, as the lamb was killed in order to be eaten, it 
was in no proper sense an njfering to Jehovah, although ihe 
killing and eating of it was divinely commanded. He dis- 
tinguishes also between the original ordinance and the later 
celebration of it. Keil, on the contrary, lays stress nn the 
fact that n3T and nilT everywhere, except Pruv. xvii. 1, 

and 1 Sam, xxviii. 24, denote s'icrijice in the narrow ceremo- 
nial sense, and that the Passover in Num. ix. 7 is calli-d 
T3"lp, offering. Knobel likewise says, " Without doubt the 

Passover was a sort of offering." But he contends that it 
was not fas Keil and others hold) a sin-offering, for the rea- 
sons : (1) that the 0. T. gives no indication of such a charac- 
ter ; (2) thar. the mode of observing the rite differed from 
that belonging to the sin-offering, particularly in that the 
lamb was eaten, whereas none of the animal constituting 
the sin-offering was e.tten ; and (3) that it was a joyous fes- 
tival, whereas everything connected with the sin-offering 
was solemn. He classes it, therefore, rather with the burnt- 
offering. But the latter was not eaten, and had {though not 
exclusively, yet partially) an expiatory character. Fid. 
Lev. i.4.— Tb.]. 



38 



EXODUS. 



infliction beginning with (lie house of Pharaoh. 
The result is that all the gods of Egypt are judged 
by Jehovah. What does that meau ? Keil says : 
the gods of Egypt were spiritual powers, 6at/j.6via. 
Pseudo-Jonathan : idols. Knobel compares Num. 
xxxiii. 4, and says: "We are to think espe- 
cially of the death of the first-born beasts, since 
the Egyptians worshipped beasts as gods," (!)etc. 
The essential thing in the subjective notion of gods 
are the religious conceptions and traditions of 
the heathen, in so far as they, as real powers, 
inhere in national ideals and sympathies. Le- 
gends in point, vid. in Knobel, p. 1»jO. Thirdly, 
Jehovah spares the first-born of the Israelites. — 
The blood shall be to you for a sign. The 
expression is of psychological importance, even 
for the notion of atonement. It does not read : 
it shall be to me for a sign. The Israelites were 
to have in the blood the sacramental sign that 
by the ofi^ering of blood the guilt of Israel in 
connection with Egypt was expiated, in that 
Jehovah had seen the same blood. This look- 
ing on the blood which warded off the pestilence 
reminds us of the looking up to the brazen ser- 
pent, and of the believer's contemolation of the 
perfect atonement on the cross. Keil says, " In 
the meal the sacrificmm becomes a sacramentum." 

Ver. 14. The solemn sanction of the Passover. 
— As an ordinance for ever. The Institution 
of the Passover continues still in its completed 
form in the new institution of the Lord's Supper. 

Ver. 15. The solemn institution of the seven 
days' feast of unleavened bread. It was con- 
ti'mporaneous with the Passover ; not afterwards 
appended to it, for this is not implied by ver. 17. 
(See above on ver. 8). The real motive was the 
uniform removal of the Egyptian leaven, a sym- 
bol of entire separation from everything Egyp- 
tian. Hence the clearing away of the leaven 
had to be done on the first day, even before the 
incoming of the 16th of Nisan, on the evening of 
the 14th. Vid. ver. 18. Hence also every one 
who during this time ate anything leavened was 
to be punished with death. He showed symboli- 
cally that he wished to side with Egypt, not 
with Israel. The explanation, " The unleavened 
bread is the symbol of the new life, cleansed 
from the leaven of sin," (Keil), is founded on 
the fundamentally false assumption, revived 
again especially by Hengsteuberg, that the 



leaven is in itself a symbol of the sinful life. If 
this were the case, the Israelites would have 
had to eat unleavened bread all the time, and 
certainly would not have been commanded on 
the day of Pentecost to put leavened bread on 
the altar (Lev. xxiii. 17). The leaven is symbol 
only of transmission and fellowship, hence, in 
some cases, of the old or of the corrupt life. 
" Leaven of the Egyptian character," says Keil 
himself, II., p. 21. 

Ver. 16. On the first day. This is the day 
following the holy night, the second half of the 
15th of Nisan. Like the seventh day it is ap- 
pointed a festival, but to be observed less rigidly 
than the Sabbath. According to Lev. xxiii. 7, 
the only employments forbidden are the regular 
labors of one's vocation or service, and food may 
be prepared according to the necessities of the 
day ; this was not allowed on the Sabbath. 

Ver. 17. For on this self-same day. Strictly 
speaking then, the days of unleavened bread 
began with the beginning of the 15th of Nisan, 
and in commemoration of the exodus itself, 
whereas the Passover was devoted to the com- 
memoration of the preceding dreadful night of 
judgment and deliverance, the real adoption or 
birth of God's people Israel. 

Ver. 18. On the fourteenth day of the 
month. This is the feast of unleavened bread 
in the wider sense, including the Passover. The 
Passover, according to the very idea of it, could 
not be celebrated with leavened bread, i. e., in 
connection with anything Egyptian, for it repre- 
sented a separation, in principle, from what was 
Egyptian. 

Ver. 19. Also the foreigner, who wishes to 
live among the Israelites, mustsubmit to this ordi- 
nance, even though he has continued to be a fo- 
reigner, i. «., h,as not been circumcised. The one 
born in the land is the Israelite himself, so called 
either in anticipation of his de.stined place of 
settlement, or in the wider sense of nationality. 
Keil approves Leclerc's interpretation: quia 
oriundi erant ex Isaaco et Jacobo, [** because they 
were to take their origin from Isaac and Jacob."] 

Ver. 20. Eat nothing leavened. Again 
and again is this most sacred symbolic ceremony 
enjoined, for it symbolizes the consecration 
of God's people, a consecration based on their 
redemption. 



C— THE INSTITUTION OF THE FIRST PASSOVER. THE LAST PLAGUE. THE RE- 
LEASE AND THE PREPARATION FOR DEPARTURE. 

Chapter XII. 21-36. 
21 Then [And] Moses called for all the f Iders of Israel, and said unto them, Draw 
[Go] out,' and take you a Jamb [take you lambs] according to your families, aud 

TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL. 

1 [Ver. 21. " Draw out," as the rendering of Oli'D, is acquiesced in by Ltinge, De Wette, Wordsworth, Murphy, aad 

Tanon Cook (in the Speaker's Commentary), and is d'-fendi^d by Kali-ich and Bush. The latter, in a note on Judg. iv. 6, 
attiruis tliat "^"QJO never means *' to approacli." He assigns to it there the meaning "to draft," or *' enlist," ac. soldiei-p for 

his army — a meaning which certainly is no where else (therefore not "frequently," as Bush says) to ho found. That "V^*^ 



CHAP. XII. 21-86. 



39 



22 



23 



kill the passover. And ye shall [And] take a bunch of hyssop, and dip it in the 
blood that is in the basin, and strike the lintel and the two side posts [two posts] 
with the blood that is in the basin ; and none of you shall go out at the door of his 
house until the morning. For [And] Jehovah will pass through to smite the 
Egyptians ; and when he seeth the blood upon the lintel and on the two side posts 
[two posts], Jehovah will pass over the door, and will not suifer the destroyer to 

24 come in unto [come into] your houses to smite you. And ye shall observe this thine; 

25 for [as] an ordinance to [for] thee and to [for] thy sons fir ever. And it shall 
come to pass, when ye be [are] come to the land which Jehovah will give you, at^- 

2(5 cording as he hath promised, that ye shall keep this service. And it shall come to 

27 pass, when your children shall say unto you, What mean ye by this service? That 
ye shall say, It is the sacrifice of Jehovah's passover [the passover of Jehovah], who 
passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, when he smote the 
Egyptians, and delivered our houses. And the people bowed the head [bowed 

28 down] and worshipped. And the children of Israel went away [went], and did 

29 [did so ;] as Jehovah had commanded Moses and Aaron, so did they. And it 
came to pass that at midnight [at midnight that] Jehovah smote all the 
first-born in the land of Egypt, from the first-born of Pharaoh that sat 
on his throne unto the first-born of the captive that was in the dungeon ; 
and all the first-born of cattle. And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he, and 
all his servants, and all the Egyptians ; and there was a great cry in Egypt ; 
for there was not a house where there was not one dead. And he called for Moses 
and Aaron by night, and said , Rise up, and get you forth from among my people, 

32 b )th ye and the children of Israel ; and go, serve Jehovah, as ye have said. Also 
take your flocks and your herds, as ye have said, and be gone ; and bless me also. 

33 And the Egyptians were urgent upon the people, that they might send them out 

34 of the land in haste ; for they said, We be [are] all dead men. And the people 
took their dough before it was leavened, their kneading troughs being bound up in 

35 their clothes upon their shoulders. And the children of Israel did according to the 
word of Moses ; and they borrowed [asked] of the Egyptians jewels [articles] of 

36 silver, and jewels [urticles] of gold, and raiment. And Jehovah gave the people fa- 
vor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that [and] thoy lent unto them such things as 
they required [they gave unto them] : and they spoiled [despoiled] the Egyptians. 

may be used intransitively, Bush does not deny ; and indeed in Judg. xx. 37 he himself follows the rendering " drew them- 
selves along," and explains it as descriptive of a mass of men "stretching themselves out in a long tram and rapully 
nriting their way to tho city." This certainly is not far from the meaning which he denies to the word. What signihcance 



30 
31 



the lambs were not drawn by lot. It could mean only " take "—a meaning which, thouEh assigned to it here by K*liscn, 
tho word no where else has, and which, if it had it, would be the same as that of the following word. There is theretore 
little doubt that we are to understand the word, with the LXX., Vulg., Gesenins, Filrst, Bunsen, Amheim, Alford, Keil, 
Enobel, and othere, as used intransitively. — Tr.] 

None of you shall go out.— They are pro- 
tected only in the house, behind the propitiatory 
blood. 
Ver. 23. The destroyer to come in. — 

Comp. the blo^pciiov of Heb. zi. 28 with 2 Sam. 
xxiv. 16; Isa. xxxvii. 36. So Keil and others, 
whereas Knobel and others take l^nE/D as ab- 
Btrack=deatruction. Knobel's reasons (p. 105) 
are easily refuted ; e.ff., though Jehovah Him- 
self goes through Egypt, yet it does not thence 
follow that He might not make u-'o of an angel 
of judgment in the judicial inflictions (to be un- 
derstood symbolically, vid. Ps. Ixxviii. 49); Ho 
Himself, however, distinguishes bel ween His peo- 
ple and the Egyptians. 

Vers. 24-26. The establishment of the Passovpr 
festival is again enjoined, and at the same time 
there is connected with it an injunction to in- 
struct children concerning it. The Israelitish 
child will not unthinkingly practice a dead wor- 
ship; he will ask: What does it mean? And the 



EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL. 

The narrative evidently transports us to the 
14th day of Nisan, the days of preparation being 
passed over. 

Ver. 21. For this reason we do not translate 
UK/D intransitively, "go hence," etc. The pas- 
chal lambs have been for four days in a special 
enclosure; now they are to be drawn out, seized 
and slaughtered. Hence also the injunction pro- 
ceeds at once to the further directions concern- 
ing! tfifi transaction. 

Ver. 22 A bunch of hyssop. — A handful, 
says Maimonidea. Hys.-op "designates proba- 
bly not the plant which we cill hyssop, not tlie 
hyssopiis officinalis, it being doubtful whether this 
is found in Syria and Arabia {vid. Ritter, Erd- 
kunde, XVII., p. 686), but a species of the oriffa- 
nwm similar to the hyssop" (Keill. — That is in 
the basin — i. e., in which the blood was caught. 



40 



EXODUS. 



Israelitish fathers must not suppress the ques- 
tions of the growing mind, but answer them, and 
thus begin the spiritualizing of the paschal rite. 

Ver. 27. Worshipped. — Expression of faith, 
allegiance, joy, and gratitude. 

Ver. 28. Brief reference to the festive meal 
of faith in contrast with the dreadful judgment 
now beginning. At midnight.— According to 
Keil, we have no occasion here to look for any 
natural force as underlying the punishment, but 
to regard it as a purely supernatural operation 
of divine omnipotence, inasmuch as here the 
pestilence is not named, as in 2 Sam. xxiv. 15. 
Also (he says) Jehovah administers the last 
plague without Moses' mediation. But here too 
Moses' prophetic prediction has a place; and 
also the teleological design of the facts. And 
this was the main feature of all these punitive 
miracles, provided we do not conceive Moses' 
rod as having itself wrought them. According 
to Knobel, the miracle consisted in the pestilence 
" which from the oldest time to the present day 
has had its chief seat in Egypt." He gives a 
series of examples, p. 106. Also statemenis con- 
cerning the season in which the pestilence is ac- 
customed to appear in Egypt : December, Febru- 
ary, March. " It is most destructive from March 
to May." "Quite in accordance with the facts, 
the series of plagues ends with the pestilence, 
which generally lasts till the Nile inundation." 
"The pestilence spares many regions, e.g., the 
deserts (Pruner, p. 419)." On the death of the 
cattle: "According to Hartmann [Erdbeschreibung 
von Afriha, I., p. 68), the dogs in Cairo almost 
constantly have the pestilence; and when it 
rages among them, it ceases to prevail among 
men." According to Knobel, the occurrence 
was expanded by legendary tradition into a mi- 
racle. But miraculous are: (1) The prediction of 
the fact, its object, and its results; (2) the sud- 
den spread of the plague over the younger gene- 
ration, the first-born, especially the first-born 
of the king, being singled out; (3) the fact that 
both beasts and men suffered; (4) the liberation 
of Israel. That the religious expression of this 
great event has its peculiarity, that it makes ge- 
nefalizations, and leaves out subordinate fea- 
tures in accordance with its idealizing tendency 
and symbolic design — on this point one must 
shape his views by means of a thorough herme- 
neutical apprehension of thereligious style. Even 
Keil cannot quite adopt the assumption of Cor- 
nelius a Lapide, that in many houses grandfa- 
thers, fathers, sons, and wives, in case they were 
all first-born, were killed. But literally under- 
stood, the narrative warrants this. But the per- 
fect realization of the object aimed at lifts the 
event above the character of a legend. 



Vers. 30, 31. The great lamentation which in 
the night of terror resounds through Egypt be- 
comes the immediate motive for releasing Israel. 
And he called for Moses. — We need not, with 
Calvin, lay any stress on the fact that Pharaoh, 
X. 28, had commanded the men not to show them- 
selves again to him, as if a humiliating incon- 
sistency of the tyrant with himself were not cha- 
racteristic, aud as if in the history of despotism 
it were not a frequent feature. This crushing 
humiliation Pharaoh could not escape. Moses 
aud Aaron had to receive the permission from 
his own month. And we cannot call it mere 
permission. He drives him out by a mandate 
which bears unmistakable marks of excitement. 
Serve Jehovah, as ye have said. — These 
words involve the promise of complete libera- 
tion, and at the same time the intention to re- 
quire the Israelites to return. As ye have 
said — he repeats — and finally he even begs for 
their intercession: "bless me also." According 
to Keil, every thing, even the request for their 
blessing, looks to a manifest and quite uncondi- 
tional dismissal and emancipation. But this 
thought is expressed more positively in the be- 
havior of the Egyptians, who were the most ter- 
rified." 

Ver. 33. At all events the Israelites had a 
right to understand the dismission as an eman- 
cipation, although formally this right was not 
complete until Pharaoh hostilely pursued them. 
Keil refers to xiv. 4, 5. The report brought to 
the king, that the people had fled, seems, how- 
ever, to imply that in the mind of the Egyptians 
there had been no thought of unconditional 
emancipation, but only of an unconditional fur- 
lough. And when Pharaoh was disposed vio- 
lently to take back even this promise, that was a 
new instance of hardness of heart, the last and 
the fatal one. We are all dead men: as it 
were, already dead. Expression of the greatest 
consternation. 

Ver. 34. And the people took their 
dongh, before it was leavened. That is (ac- 
cording to Keil): "The Israelites intended to 
leaven the dough, because the command to eat 
unleavened bread for seven days had not yet 
been made known to them." But the text evi- 
dently means to say just the opposite of this: 
they carried, in accordance with the command, 
dough which was entirely free from leaven. 
They had already put enough for seven days 
into the baking-pans, and carried these on their 
shoulders, wrapped up in their outer garments, 
or rather in wrapping cloths, such as might be 
used for mantles or wallets. 

Vers. 35, 36. Vid. iii. 21 and Comm. on Gene- 
sis, p. 83. 



D.— THE EXODUS FROM EGYPT. LEGAL ENACTMENTS CONSEQUENT ON LIBERATION. 

Chaptek XII. 37— XIII. 16. 

37 And the children of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about six hun- 

38 dred thousand on foot, that were men [the men] beside [besides] children. And a 
mixed multitude went up also with them ; and flocks, and herds, even very much 



CHAP. XII. 37— XIII. 16. 41 

3y cattle. And they baked unleavened cakes of the dough which they brought forth 
out of Egypt, for it was not leavened ; because they were tbrust out of Egypt, and 

40 could not tarry, neither had they prepared for themselves any victual. Now the 
SDJouriiing [d veiling, i. e. time ot dwelling] of the childien of Israel, who dwelt 

41 [which they dwelt] in Egypt, was fiur hundred audthiny years. And it came to 
pass at thi end of the [end of] four liuudred and thirty years, even [on] the self- 
same day it came to pass, that all the hojts of Jehovah went out from the laud of 

42 Egypt. It is a night to be ra.uch observed [of solemnities] unto Jehovah for bring- 
ing them o it from the land of Egypt : this is that night of Jehovah to be observed 
of [night of solemnities unto Jehovah for] all the children of Israel in [through- 

43 out] their generations. And Jehovah said unto Moses and Aaron, This is the 

44 ordinance of the Passover : There shall no stranger [foreigner] eat thei-eof : But 
every man's servant [every servant] that is bought for money, wheu thou hast cir- 

43 cumcised him, then shall he eat thereof. A foreigner [stranger] and an [a] hired 
46 servant shall not eat thereof. In one house shall it be eaten ; thou shalt not carry 
forth aught of the flesh abroad out of the house; neither shall ye break a b )ne 
47, 48 thereof. All the congregation of Israel shall keep [sacrifice] it. And when a 
stranger [sojourner] shall sojourn with thee, and will keep the [sacrifice a] passover 
to Jehovah, let all his males be circumcised, and then let him come near and 
keep [sacrifice] it : and he shall be as one that is born in the land : for [but] no 

49 uncircumcised person shall eat thereof. One law shall be to [shall there be for] him 

50 that is home-born, and unto [for] the stranger that sojourneth among you. Thus 
did all the children of Israel] ; as Jehovah commanded Moses, so did they. 

51 And it came to pass the self-same day, that Jehovah did bring the children of 
Israel out of the land of Egypt by their armies [according to their hosts]. 

Chap. XIII. 1, 2 And Jehovah spake unto Moses, saying. Sanctify unto me all the 
[every] first-born, whatsoever openeth the [any] womb among the children of 

3 Israel, both of man and of beast : it is mine. And Moses said unto the people. 
Remember this day, in which ye came out from Egypt, out of the house of bondage : 
for by strength of hand Jehovah brought you out from this place [ihence] : there 

4 shall no leavened bread be eaten. This day came [come] ye out in the month 

5 Abib. And it shall be, when Jehovah shall bring thee into the land of the Ca- 
naanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, 
which he sware unto thy fathers to give thee, a land flowing with milk and honey, 

6 that thou shalt keep this service in this month. Seven days thou shalt eat unlea- 

7 vened bread ; and in the seventh day shall be a feast to Jehovah. Unleavened 
bread shall be eaten seven [the seven] days ; and there shall no leavened bread be 
seen with thee, neither shall there be leaven seen with thee in all thy quarters 

8 [borders]. And thou shalt show [tell] thy son in that day, saying. This is done 
[It is] because of that tvhieh Jehovah did unto me when I came forth out of Egypt. 

9 And it shall be for a sign unto thee upon thine [thy] hand, and for a memorial 
between thine eyes, that Jehovah's law may be in thy mouth : for with a strong 

10 hand hath Jehovah brought thee out of Egypt. Thou shalt therefore [And thou 

li shalt] keep this ordinance in his [its] season from year to year. And it shall be, 

wheu Jehovah shall bring thee into the land of the Canaanites, as he sware unto 

12 thee and to thy fathers, and shall give it thee. That thou shalt set apart unto Jeho- 
vah all that openeth the matrix [womb], and every firstling that cometh [every 
first-born] of a beast [of beasts] which thou bast ; the males shall be Jehovah's. 

13 And every firstling [first-born] of an ass thou shalt redeem with a lamb ; and if 
thou wilt not redeem it, then thou shalt break his neck : and all the first-born of 

14 man among thy children, shalt thou redeem. And it shall be, when thy son asketh 
thee in time to come, saying, What is this? that thou shalt say unto him. By 
strength of hand Jehovah brought us out from Egypt, from the house of bondage : 

15 And it came to pass, when Pharaoh would hardly let us go, that Jehovah slew all 
the first-born in the land of Egypt, both the first-born of man and the first-born of 
beast : therefore I sacrifice to Jehovah all that openeth the matrix [womb], being 

16 [the] males ; but all the first-born of my children I redeem. And it shall be for 
a token upon thine [thy] hand, and for frontlets between thine eyes ; for by strength 
of hand Jehovah brought us forth out of Egypt. 



42 



EXODUS. 



EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL. 

Ver. 37. And the children of Israel jour- 
neyed. — On the journey see the Introduction, 
Keil II., p. 26, the literature above quoted, and 
Keil II., p. 28, Note, Knobel, p. Ill sq.— About 

600,000 on foot. — " '/Jli as iu Num. xi. 21, 
the Infantry of an army, is added, because they 
■went out as a warlike host (ver. 41), and in the 
number given only the men able to bear arms, 
those oyer twenty years of age, are reckoned; 

D'lJjn is added because of the following 13/ 
ntSD : 'besides the little ones.' HH is used here 
in the wider significance of the dependent part 
of the family, including wife and children, as in 
Gen. xWii. 12 ; Num. xxxii. 16, 24, and often, 
those who did not travel on foot, but on beasts 
of burden or in wagons" (Keil). On the round 
number, as well a- the increase of Israel in 
Egypt, comp. Knobel, p. 121, Keil, I. c, and the 
Introduction. On the fruitfulness of the land 
of Goshen, tee Keil II., p. 29. Kurtz and Ber- 
theau have suggested as an explanation of the 
great number, that we may assume that the 
seventy Israelites who emigrated to Egypt had 
several thousand men-serynnts and maid-ser- 
vants. Keil insists that only the posterity of 
the seventy souls is spoken of. But compare 
the antithesis in Gen. xxxii. 10: "one staff" 
and "two bands." In Israel the faith consti- 
tuted the nationality, as well as the nationality the 
faith, as is shown by so many examples (Rahab, 
Kuth, the Gibeonites, etc.), and Israel had iu its 
religion a groat attractive power. 

Ver. 38. And a mi:sed multitude. — D^J^ 
31. Vulg. ; vulgua promiscuum ; Luther: vlel 
Pubelvolk, " a great rabble" — "In typical ful- 
fillment of the promise. Gen. xii. 3, without 
doubt stimulated by the signs and wonders of 
the Lord in Egypt (comp. ix. 20; x. 7; xi. 3) 
to seek their salvation with Israel, a great mul- 
titude of mixed people joined themselves to the 
departing Israelites; and, according to the gov- 
erning idea of the Jewish commonwealth, they 
could not be repelled, although these people 
afterwards became a snare to them. Vid. Num. 
xi. 4, where they are called 'IpiJpS, medley" 
(Keil). Literally, a collection.' Comp. Dent, 
xxix. 11. 

Ver. 33. Vid. ver. 34. It does not mean that 
they bad no time to leaven their dough, but that 
they had no time to prepare themselves other 
provisions besides. The deliverance came upon 
them like a storm; they were even thrust out 
of Egypt. 

Ver. 40. Vid. the Introduction, Keil II., p. 
80, Knobel, p. 121. 

Ver. 41. On the self-same day. — Knobel 
Bays very strangely, that the meaning is that 
Jacob entered Egypt on the same day, the 14th 
of Abib. Keil understands the day before de- 
pignated, vers. 11-14. We assume that "day" 
here denotes " time" in the more general sense. 

Ver. 42. Keil renders: night of preservation. 
Knobel: a festival. Both ideas are involved in 
*ipty, and evidently the text aims to express the 



antithesis indicated in our translation [Lange 
renders: featliche Wacht, "festive vigil." — Tr.] 

Vers. 43-45. The ordinance of the Pas- 
sover. — npn, i. q. pn, law, statute. As Israel 
now begins to become a people and a popular 
congregation, the main features of their legal 
constitution are at once defined. It all starts 
with the Passover as the religious communion 
of the people, for which now circumcision is 
prescribed as a prerequisite. As circumcision 
constitutes the incipient boundary-line and sepa- 
ration between Israel and the life of secular peo- 
ple, so the paschal communion is the character- 
istic feature of the completed separation. First, 
the congregation is instituted ; then follows the 
preliminary institution of the priesthood in the 
sanctification of the first-born ; then the first 
tiace of the fixed line of distinction, in the ordi- 
nance of the feast of unleavened bread; then 
the first provision for the permnnent sacrificial 
service, in Jehovah's claiming for Himself the 
first-born of beasts, xiii. 12, while a distinction 
is at the same time made between clean and 
unclean beasts, ver. 13; and finally the intima- 
tion is made that the natural sacerdotal duty of 
the first born shall be redeemed and transferred 
to a posiftVe priesthood. The circumstance that 
Israel thereby came into a new relation to fo- 
reigners, " that a crowd of strangers joined 
themselves to the departing Israelites" (Keil), 
can only be regarded as one of the occasions f"r 
that fixing of the first features of the law which 
was here quite in place. — No stranger. — What 
is said of the "UJ'IS, or non-Israelite, in gene- 
ral, is more particularly said of the sojourner 
O^^Pi) and of the hireling, day-laborer ("I'D!!'}. 
The latter, if not an Israelite, is a 1J who re- 
sides a longer or shorter time among the Israel- 
ites. Yet the exclusion is not absolute, except 
as regards the uucircumcised; every servant, 
on the other hand, who submits to circumcision 
(for no one could be circumcised by force, 
although circumcision was within the option of 
all) assumes the privileges and obligations of 
the communion. Thus, therefore, the distinc- 
tion of classes, as related to the communion of 
the people of God, is here excluded. 

Ver. 46. In one house shall it be eaten, 
— A new enforcement of the law that the com- 
munion, as such, must be maintained. The sig- 
nificance of the words: "Thou shalt not carry 
forth aught of the flesh abroad," the mediseval 
Church had little conception of.* 

Vers. 50, 61. The next to the last verse de- 
clares that this became a fixed custom in Israel; 
and the last one recurs again to the identity of 
the festive day with the day of the deliverance 
of Israel from Egypt. 

Oh. XIII., ver. 1. Sanctify unto me every 
first-born. — ".The sanctification of the first- 
born is closely connected with the Passover. 
The Passover effects (?) the exemption of the 
first-born of Israel, and the exemption has as 
its aim their sanctification " (Keil). But the 
thing meant is sanctification in the narrower 



* [Tlie reference is to tlio Corpiis-Christi festival, charac- 
terized by the public procest. ona whicii are lield in hooot of 
the liost— Te.] 



CHAP. XII. 37— Xr.I. 16. 



48 



seuse, the preparation of the sacerdotal order and 
of the offerings ; for the general sanctification com- 
prised the whole people. Here we have to do with 
sanctification for the specific service of Jehovah. 
It is assumed that the firiit-born are representa- 
tives and sureties of the whole race, and that 
therefore, without the intervention of grace and 
forbearance, the first-born of Israel also would 
have been slain. Accordingly, the phrase : "it 
is mine," refers certainly not only to the fact 
that Jehovah created the first-born, as Kurtz 
maintains, but still more to the right of posses- 
sion which this gracious favor establishes. 
Keil denies this. It refers, he says, according 
to Num. iii. 13 ; viii. 17, to the fact that Jeho- 
vah, on the day when he slew the first-bora of 
Egypt, sanctified the first-born of Israel, and 
therefore spared them. An ultra-Calvinisti'o dis- 
position of things, which seems to ground the 
exemption on Jehovah's caprice. While the 
sanctification cannot be dissociated from the 
exemption, as little can the exemption be disso- 
ciated from the creation. The election of Israel 
is indeed the prerequisite of the exemption of 
the Israelitish first-born; but this exemption 
again, as an act of grace, is a condition of the 
special sanctification of the first-born. 

Ver. 3. Remember this day. " In vers. 
3-10, the ordinance respecting the seven days' 
feast of unleavened bread (xii. 15-20), is made 
known by Moses to the people on the day of the 
exodus at the station Succoth" (Keil). We 
h*ve already above (on xii. 8) poinled out the 
incorrectness of this view. It is all the more 
incorrect, if, with Keil and others, we find in the 
leaven a symbol of sinfulness. The leaven which 
the Jews had heretofore had was connected with 
the leaven of Egypt, and was thus fitted to serve 
as a symbol of the fact that they were connected 
with the sinfulness of Egypt, and that this con- 
nection must be broken off. If now they had 
not been driven out so hastily, they would have 
had time to produce for themselves a pure 
and specifically .Tewish leaven, and this perhaps 
seemed the more desirable thing, as the un- 
leavened bread was not very palatable. But for 
this there was no time. With this understand- 
iug of the case, we render the last clause of ver. 
3, " so that nothing leavened was eaten." [This 
trinslation, however, is hardly possible. — Tk.]. 
— The house of servants. Servants of private 
persons they were not, it is true, but all Egypt was 
made for them by Pharaoh one house of slaves. 

Vers. 4, 5. The urgency in the enforcement of 
this feast is doubtless owing to the fact that there 
wai no pleasure in eating the unleavened bread. 
Il^nce the festival is represented as chiefly a ser- 
vice rendered to God. The meals accompanying 
thank-offerings preserved the equilibrium. 

Ver. 6. On the seventh day. In the line 
of the feast-days the seventh day is specially 
meationed as the festive termination ; on it 
work ceased, and the people assembled together. 

Ver. 9. For a sign upon thy hand. Ac- 
cording to Spencer, allusion is made to the 
heathen custom of branding marks on the fore- 
head or hand of soldiers and slaves. Keil, re- 
ferring to Deut. vi. 8 and xi. 18, assumes that 
we are probably to understand bracelets or 
frontlets. But in the passages quoted a much 



more general inculcation of Moses' words is 
meant. Inasmuch as the Jews were to observe 
several great festivals, it is not to be assumed 
that they were to be required to wear the signs 
only on the feast of unleavened bread ; all the 
less, as the day was so definitely fixed. We 
therefore regard the expression both here and in 
Deuteronomy as symbolic, but suggested by a 
proverbial phrase borrowed from the nations 
of antiquity. Our language has a similar pro- 
verbial, but less elegant, expression. That the 
Pharisaic Jews afterwards actually made them- 
selves such phylacteries grew out of their slavery 
to the letter of the law. See more in detail in 
Keil, II. p. 37. 

Ver. 12. Every first-born of beasts. First, 
the text recurs to the common statute respecting 
the first-born of men and beasts; hence: "all 
that openeth the womb." According to Keil, 
the term "^'^J^H, to set apart, offer, is used to 

point a contrast to the Canaanitish custom of con- 
secrating the first-born to Moloch ; he quotes 
Lev. xviii. 21. But the verb seems to express a 
more original and general separation of what is 
offered from what is not offered ; or it means to 
let depart. — The males. With this matter, 
therefore, the female first-born have nothing to 
do. The first-born son is the head of the young 
house, the heir of the old house. As the heir 
of the old house he also assumes its guilt ; as 
the head of the young house he must represent 
it. More particular specifications concerning 
the first-born male clean beast are given in xxii. 
29 (30), Deut. xv. 21. 

Ver. 13. The germ of the distinction between 
clean and unclean beasts. The substitution of a 
sheep or kid for the ass is a proof that the unclean 
beast signifies not the evil, but the profane, that 
which is not fitted to serve as a religious symbol. 

Ver. 14. 'When thy son asketh thee. 
Even in the theocracy the ceremonial worship 
is to be not a dumb one, repressing, or even 
suppressing, questions and instruction, but is to 
be spiritualized by questions and instruction. 

Ver. 15. All the first-born of my children. 
Keil opposes the view, very prevalent of old, 
that the sanctification of the firet-born is to be 
derived from the destination of the first-born to 
be priests. But he afterwards (II., p. 30) himself 
brings forwards reasons which refute his own 
view, founded on that of Outram and Vitringa, 
especially by citing Num. iii. Nothing cau be 
clearer than Num. iii. 12.* 

Ver. IB. Also in reference to the phylacteries 
we hold to the symbolical interpretation of the 
Caraites in opposition to the literal one of the 
Talmudists; so Keil II., p. 37. 

* [ Keil pays ; " In what way thpy ware to consecrate their 
life to the Lord dep ncied on the Lord's dinction, which pre- 
scribed that they should porfonn the non-sacerdotal labors 
ronni'Cted with the fanctnary, and so be the priests' servants 
in the sacred service. Yft fven this service was afterwards 
transferred to the Levites (Num. ill.) ; but in place of it the 
people were required to redeem their first-born sons from 
the service which was incumbent on them, and which had 
heen transferred to the Levitfs who were substituted for 
them, i. e., to ransom them by the payment to the priests of 
five shekels of silver for every person. Num. iii. 47 ; xviii. 
16." Num. iii. 12, above referred to as confuting Keil's view, 
says simply that the LmiUes were substitut d for the first 
born, but does not say that the first-born were originally 
destined to be prieals. Lange's statement, therefore, seems 
to be unwarranted. — TE.J. 



44 EXODUS. 



FOURTH SECTION. 

Direction of the Exodus. The Pursuit. The Distress. The Red Sea. The Song 

of Triumph. 

CHAPTEKa XIII. 17— XV. 21. 

A.— DIRECTION OF THE MARCH. THE DISTRESS. PASSAGE THROUGH 
THE RED SEA. JUDGMENT AND DELIVERANCE. 

Chap. XIII. 17— XIV. 31. 

17 And it came to pass, wlieii Pharaoh had let the people go, that G d led them 
not through [byl ths way of the land of the Philistines, although [ior]' that was 
near ; for God said. Lest peradventure the [Lest the] people repent, when they 

18 see war, and they return to Egypt: But God led the people about ihrouyh [by] 
the way of the wilderness of the K.ed Sea. And the children of Israel went up har- 

19 nessed [armed] out of the land of Egypt. And Moses took the bones of Joseph 
w.th him; for he had straitly [strictly] sworn the children of Israel, saying, God 

20 will surely visit you, and ye shall carry up my bones away hence with you. And 
they took their journey [they journeyed] from Succoth, and encamped iu Ethara in 

21 [on] the edge of the wilderness. And Jehovah went before them by day in a pil- 
lar of a cloud [of cloud], to lead them the way ; and by night in a pillar of fire, 

22 to give them light ; to go by day and night. He took not away the pillar of the 
cloud [of cloud] by day, nor the pillar of fire by night, from betbre the people. 

Chap. XIV. 1, 2 And Jehovah spake unto Moses, saying. Speak unto the children 
of Israel, that they turn [turn back] and encamp before Pi-hahiroth, between Mig- 
dol and the sea, over against [before] Baal-zephon ; before [over against] it shall 

3 ye encamp by the sea. For [And] Pharaoh will say of the children of Israel, They 

4 are entangled [bewildered] in the land, the wilderness hath shut them in. And I 
will harden Pharaoh's heart, that he shall [and he will] follow after them, and I 
will be honored [get me honor] upon Pharaoh, and upon all his host; that [and] 

5 the Egyptians may [shall] know that I am Jehovah. And they did so. And it 
was told the king of Egypt that the people fled : and the heart of Pharaoh and of 
his servants was turned against the people, and they said, Why have we done this 
[What is this that we have done], that we have let Israel go from serving us? 

6, 7 And he made ready his chariot, and took his people with him. And he took 
six hundred chosen chariots, and all the chariots of Egypt, and captains over every 

8 one [all] of them. And Jehovah hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt, 

9 and he pursued after the children of Israel, and the children of Israel went out with 
an [a] high hand. But [And] the Egyptians pursued after them, all the horses 
and chariots [chariot-horses] of Pharaoh, and his horsemen, and his army, and 

TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL. 

1 rXIII. 17. " For that was near." A. V., Mnrphy, Ealiecb, Gesenins. GJaire, Alford retain the rendering "although" 
for ^3 in this sentence. But such a meaning tor ^2 cannot be well substantiated. Ps. xlix. 10, adduced by Fiirdt, is cei> 

tainly not an instance of such use. Pa. cxvi. 10 is more plausible. The A. V. rendering : " I believed, therefore ['3] have 

T spoken," is incorrpct. But it is not necessary, with some, to translate: "I believed, although I speak." The particle 
here probably lia-i the meaning "when." In Ps. xlix. 19, adduced by Gesenius (Thesaurus), it means " because," the »ijo- 
dosis following in ver. 20. The same may be said of Gen. viii. 21; .lob xv. 27-29; Zech. viii. 6. The rendering *'\vhen" 
siifflces in Jer. iv. 30 ; xxx. 11 ; xlix. 16 ; 1. 11 ; li. 63 ; Mic. vii. 8 ; Ps xxvii. 10 ; xxi. 12. The rendering " for " snfficfs in 
Hob. xiii. 15; Nab. i. 10; Deut. xviii. 14; xxix. 19; Jer. xlvi. 23; Ps. Ixxi. 10; 1 Chron. xxviii. 5. The rendering " where- 
as," or " while," may be adopte t in Mai. i. 4 ; Bccl. iv. 14. Probably these comprise all the passages in which (he meaning 
" though " can with any plausibility be maintained. ^J) can be assumed to have the meaning " although " only as being 

equivalent to ^3 DX "even when." Even though this should be assumed sometimes to occur, still the case before us is 

not of that sort. The true explanation of such constructions is to assume a slight ellipsis in the expression : " God led 
them not by the way of the land of the Philistines, [as might have been expected], seeine that was near." Or": " for that 
V as near [and return to Egypt in caau of danger Wuuld be more readily resorted to]." — Tr.] 



CHAP. XIII. 17— XIV. 31. 45 



10 overtook them encamping by the sea, beside Pi-hahiroth, before Baal-zephon. And 
when Pharaoh drew nigh, the children of Israel lifted up their eyes, and behold, 
the Egyptians [Eiiypt] marched after them ; and they were sore afraid : and the 

11 children of Israel cried out unto Jehovah. And they said unto Moses, Because 
[Is it because] there were no graves in Egypt, hast thou [that thou hast] taken us 
away to die in the wilderness ? wherefore hast thou dealt thus with [what is this 

12 that thou hast done to] us, to carry [in bringing] us forth out of Egypt? Is not 
this the word that we did tell [spake unto] thee in Egypt, saying. Let us aloue, 
that we may serve the Egyptians? For it had been [is] better for us to serve the 

13 Egyptians than that we should die in the wilderness. And Moses said unto the 
people. Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of Jehovah, which he will shew 
to [work for] you to-day : for the Egyptians whom ye have seen to-day, ye shall 

14 see them again no more forever. Jehovah shall fight for you, and ye shall hold 

15 your peace. And Jehovah said unto Moses, Wherefore criest thou unto me? speak 

16 unto the children of Israel, that they go forward: But [And] lift thou up thy rod, 
and stretch out thine [thy] hand over the sea, and divide it : and the children of 

17 Israel shall go on dry ground through the midst of the sea. And I, behold, I will 
harden the hearts of the Egyptians, and they shall follow them : and I will get me 
honor upon Pharaoh, and upon all his host, upon his chariots, and upon his horse- 

18 men. And the Egyptians shall know that I am Jehovah, when I have gotten [get] 

19 me honor upon Pharaoh, upon his chariots, and upon his horsemen. And the an- 
gel of God, which [who] went before the camp of Israel, removed and went behind 
them ; and the pillar of the cloud [of cloud] went [removed] from before their face 

20 [before them], and stood behind them: And it came between the camp of the 
Egyptians and the camp of Israel ; and it was a cloud and darkness to them [and 
darkness], but it gave light by night to these [it lightened the night] :^ so that [and] 

21 the one came not near the other all the night. And Moses stretched out his hand 
over the sea ; and Jehovah caused the sea to go back [flow] by a strong east wind 
all that ni^ht, and made the sea dry land [bare ground]' and the waters were di- 

22 vided. And the children of Israel went into the midst of the sea upon the dry 
ground: and the waters were a wall unto them on their right hand, and on their 

23 left. And the Egyptians pursued, and went in after them to the midst of the sea, 

24 even all Pharaoh's horses, his chariots, and his horsemen. And it came to pass that 
in the morning watch Jehovah looked unto [looked down at] the host of the 
Egyptians through [in] the pillar of fire and of the cloud [of cloud], and troubled 

25 the host of the Egyptians, And took off [turned aside] their chariot wheels, that they 
drave them [and made them drive] heavdy : so that [and] the Egyptians said, Let 
us flee from the face of Israel ; for Jehovah fighteth for them against the Egyptians. 

26 And Jehovah said unto Moses, Stretch out thine [thy] hand over the sea, that the 
waters may come again [back] upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots, and upon 

27 their horsemen. And Moses stretched forth his hand over the sea, and the sea re- 
turned to his strength [to its course] when the morning appeared; and the 
Egyptians fled against it ; and Jehovah overthrew [shook] the Egyptians in [into] 

28 the midst of the sea. And the waters returned, and covered the chariots, and the 
horsemen and [of]* all the host of Pharaoh that, came into the sea after them ; 

> [XrV. 20. n'7''^n~r\N IK'I ^tJ^nni t^J'i^ 'T'- ''*' construction is difficult. The only literal rendering is : 
"And it was (or, became) the clourand'the darkness, and' it illumined the night." The difficulty is gotten over by Knohel 
and Ewald by altering IJK^nni into l]'2/nm, reading : " And it came to pass as to the cloud, that it made darkuew. 
B-it even with this conjectural change, it is' no less necessary to assume an ellipsis of " to the one " and "to the other," or 
" on the one side ' and " on the otiier," as is done by A. V. and the great majority of versions and coramentatorn. i lie arti- 
cle may be explained as pointing bnck to xiii. 21 : "And it was the cloud and the darkness which have been already de- 
scribed." Or it is even possible to take ^nSd (ver. 19) as the subject of the verb ; " And he became the cloud and dark- 
ness: hut he illumined the night," TR.] , j„j J., J *T, ^ „4. «o. 

8 [XIV.21. The Hebrew word here used, naiH, is ditferent from the one rendered « dry ground ' in the next verse ; 

and there is a clear distinction In the meaning, asTs^uite apparent from a comparison of Gen viii. 13, where it is said that 
on the first day of the first month the ground was 3in, with ver. 14, where it is said, tbat on the twenty-seventh day of 
the second month the earlh was 1!;3'. The fir«t mean'^s : free from water, drained ; the second means : free from moisture, 
dry. The distinction is generally, clear, though sometimes not exactly ohserved.—TE.I .• , 

« [XIT 28 The preposition 4 Ocriainly cannot here be rendered '-and;" but it may have a sort ot resumptive toice, 

equivalent to "even," " namely," " in Ehort."'— Ta.] 



46 



EXODUS. 



29 there remained not so much as one of them [of them not even one]. But the chil- 
dren of Israel walked upon dry land in the midst of the sea ; and the waters were a 

30 wall unto them on their right hand, and on their left. Thus [And] Jehovah saved 
Israel that day out of the hand of the Egyptians ; and Israel saw the Egyptians 

31 dead upon the sea shore. And Israel saw that [thtj] great work which Jehovah 
did upon the Egyptians, and the people feared Jehovah, and believed in Jehovah 
and his servant Moses. 



EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL. 

Cliap. xiii. 17. Not by the way of the 
land of the Philistines. Decidedly wise, 
theocratic polio? on llie part of Moses, rightly 
ascribed lo God. The people, disheartened by 
servitude, could not at once maintain a conflict 
with the warlike Philistines, without being 
driven back to Egypt. They must first acquire 
in the wilderness the qualities of heroes. Aud 
that, according to Goethe, was accomplished in 
a few years ! On the exodus, comp. Introduc- 
tion; Keil, TI. p. 42; Knobel, p. 131. 

Ver. 18. Led the people about. It is a 
quesiion whether the round-about way spoken 
of has reference simply to the absolutely direct 
route through the Philistine country, or to 
another more direct one which they had al- 
ready begun to take, but which they were to 
give up. According to xiv. 2, the latter is to 
be assumed. Moreover, reference is made not 
only to the small distance to the Red Sea, but to 
the whole distance through the wilderness along 
the Red Sea, first southward along the Gulf of 
ISuez, then along the Elanitio Gulf northwards, 
(see Knobel, p. 131). For we have here to do 
with an introductory and summary account. It 
was natural that nothing but the prophetic 
divine word of Moses should have the control 
of the march, inasmuch as the people would 
have rushed impetuously towards the old cara- 
van road of their fathers. Moses himself was 
further influenced by his former journey to 
Sinai and tlie revelation there made to him. 
'• From Raemses to the head of the Gulf would 
be a distance of some 35 miles, which might 
e.sily have been passed over by the Israelites in 
three days" (Robinson I., 80). The deviation 
from the direct way must, however, be taken 
into con.^iilcration, even though it may have 
added little to the distance. On the three routes 
from Cairo to Suez, see Robinson, p. 73.— Of 
the Red Sea. See the Lexicons, Travels, 
Knobel, p. 131, sqq* — Especially as the chil- 
dren of Israel went up armed for battle. 
So we understand the force of the 1 before D'K'on- 
A march in order of battle would have looked like 
a challenge to the Philistines. Moreover, WOT\ 
signifies, among other things, to provoke to 
anger.j- 



* [Knnbfil nfter a leirned discussion comes to th^ conclu- 
sion that the Hebrew name for the Red Sea, C]^D-D^ (lite- 
rally " sea of sedge ") was probably derived from some town 
on the sea, named from the abundance of sedge growinp; 
near it. He tiikes this view in preference to the ono which 
derives the name of the sea din^ctly from the sedge, for the 
reason that the sedge is not a general feature of the sea, and 
from the uuiform omission of the article before ci^Q. — Ta. I. 

f [It is hardly possible to translat-^ the simple conjunction 
1 by " cBpecialiy as." It any such connection of thought had 



Ver. 10. The bones of Joseph. Another 
testimony to the tenaciiy with which the Isra" 
elites retained moral impressions and old tradi- 
tions. The vow, 480 years old, aud the oath 
which sealed it, were still fresh. Vid. Gen. i. 
25. On the fruitfulness of the land of Goshen, 
see Robinson, p. 76. "From the Land of Goshen 
to the Red Sea the direct and onlyroute was along 
the valley of the ancient canal" (Ibid. p. 79). 

Ver. 20. From Succoth. Inasmuch as they 
had already, according to chap. xii. 37, gone from 
Raemses to Succoth in battle array, Succoth 
(Tent-town, or Booths) would seem to designate 
not the first gathering-place of the people (Keil), 
but the point at which the first instinctive move- 
ment towards the Philistine border was checked 
by the oracle of Moses, and by the appearance 
of the pillar of fire and of smoke. While they at 
first wished to go from Succoth (say, by the 
northern extremity of the Bitter Lakes, or even 
farther on), directly to Palestine, they now had 
to go along on the west side of the Bitter Lakes 
towards the Red Sea. Thus they come from Suc- 
coth to Etham. " Etham lay at the end of the 
wilderness, which in Num. xxxiii. 8 is called 
the wilderness of Etham; but in Ex. xv. 22, the 
wilderness of Shur, that is, where Egypt ends 
andthedesert of Arabia begins" (Keil). "Etham 
is to be looked for either on the isthmus of Ar- 
bek, in the region of the later Serapeum, or the 
south end of the Bitter Lakes. Against the first 
view (^ihat of Stickel, Kuriz, Knobel), and for the 
second, a decisive consideration is the distance, 
which, although Seetzen went from Suez to Arbek 
in eight hours, yet according to the statement 
of the French scholar, Du Bois Aym^, amounts to 
60,000 metres (16 hours, about 37 miles), a dis- 
tance such that the people of Israel could not in 
one day have traveled from Etham to Hahiroth. 
We must therefore look for Etham at the south 
end of the basin of the Biiter Lakes, whither 
Israel may have come in two days from Abu 
Keisheib, and then on the third day have 
reached the plain of Suez between Ajrud and 
the sea" (Keil). Abu Keisheib is Heroopolia 
near Raemses ; Ajrud is thought to be identical 
with Pi-Hahiroth. Tid. Num. xxxiii. 5 sq.* 

been intended ^3 would more probably have been used. Be- 
sides, such a statement would be almost contradictory of that 
in tlie preceding verse. The fact that they were armed, 
would make them leas likely to be afraid of war than if they 
were unarmed. The remark that U^DH siguifies, among 

other things, to provoke to anger, bafi little force in this con- 
nection, for the reasons : ( 1) that it is doubtful whether that 
is its etymological sigiiiftcance ; (2) that, even if this were 
its etymological significance, it ia a meaning nowhere found 
in actual uae ; (3) that this meaning cannot possibly have 
any application here, eince the participle is pasS'Ve, and we 
should have to translate, " went up provoked to au- 
g^r."— Ta.l. 

* [Notice may here be taken of a theorv of the ExodM 
propounded by Brugsch at the Internatlj'nal Congri'sa of 



CHAP. XIII. 17— XIV. 31. 



47 



Ver. 21. And Jehovah went before them. 

According to Keil this first took place at Etham; 
but it is to be observed that the deoisive more- 
ment began at Succoth. Keil says indeed that 
in verse 17 it reads that Elohim [God] led 
them, not till here that Jehovah went before 
them. But Jehovah and Elohim are not two 
different Gods. Jehovah, as Elohim, knew the 
Philistines well, and knew that Israel must avoid 
a contest with them. God, as Jehovah, was the 
miracle-working leader of His people. — By day 
in a pillar of cloud. — " This sign of the divine 
presence and guidance has a natural analogue 
in the caravan fire, viz. small iron vessels or 
stoves containing a wood fire, which, fastened 
on the tops of long poles, are carried as way- 
marks before caravans, and according to Curtius 
(de geatia Alex. mag. V. 2, 7), in trackless regions, 
are also carried before armies on the march, 
the smoke indicating to the soldiers the direc- 
tion by day, the flame, by night. Gomp. Har 
mar. Observations II., p. 278, Pococke, Descrip- 
tion of the East, II., p. 33. Still more analogous 
is the custom (mentioned by Curtius III. 8, 9) 
of the ancient Persians, who carried before the 
marching army on silver altars a fire quern ipn 
sacrum et seternum vacant. Yet one must not 
identify the oloudy and fiery pillar of the Israel- 
itish exodus with such caravan or arnvy fires, 
and regard it as only a mythical conception or 
embellishment of this natural fact " (Keil). He 
opposes Roster's view, that the cloud was pro- 
duced by an ordinary caravan fire, and became a 
symbol of the divine presence, thus setting aside 
also Kuobel's theory (Comm., p. 184) of a legend 
which was derived from this usage. Here too 
Keil is concerned about supernataralism in the 
abstract, and about something purely outward, 
so that we do not need here to move in the 
sphere of faith, of vision, of symbol and of 
mystery. The internal world is left out of con- 
fideration, while the inspired letter has to serve 
as evidence for the miraculous appearance. 
According to him the phenomenon was a cloud 
which inclosed a fire, and which, when the 



Orientalists in London, Sopt. 1874, also puolished at Alex- 
andria in French ("ia S»-(i« ie« Bebreux d' EggpU et leu mnnw- 
menti Egyjfliem"). T.ie theory is state! and criticised by 
Dr. J. P. Thompson in the Bibliofheca Sacra for Jan. 1875. 
In brief it is as follows : Rameses he identities with Zan, the 
Zoan of the Scriptures, situated near the mo^ith of the Tnnitic 
branch of the Kile Sa coth is idenifled with Thukut, a 
place mentioned on the E^ptian monuments as lying to the 
right of the Petusiac branch of the Nile. Etham is found in 
the place knuwa by the Egyptians as Khat m, east of Lake 
Menzaleh. Migdol is identified with the town called Mau- 
dolos by the Urepks, a fortress on the elge of the desert, not 
ar from the Mediterranein. Thus Brngsch holds that the 
line of the journey lay much farther north than is com- 
monly assumed. And tho ssa which the Israelites crossed 
wai, according to him, not the Bed Sea, but Lake Serbonis 
between wuich and the Mediterranean the Israelites 
marched in their flight from Pharaoh, and in which the 
latter with his host was destroyed. The principal objections 
to thii theory are stated by Dr. Thompson : (1) In order to 
n-aoh their rmdeimm, the Israelites, according to Brngsch, 
must have travelled nearly twenty miles north, crossing the 
PeliHiac branch of the Nile ; and then on the next day must 
have recrossed it— a great improhahillty. (2) It would have 
been a blunder in strategy for Moses to have led the people 
Into the treacherous S=rbonian bog. (3) The sacred narra 
tive plainly declares that the Israelites were commanded 
not to go by the way towards the Philistine country (Ex. 
xni. 17), whereas this way led directly towards it. (4) The 
scriptures declare that it was by the wny of the Bed Sea that 
J™ I'raelies were to go (Ex. xiii. 18). and that it wast 
the Ked Sea through which they passed (Ex. XT. 4). — Tb.J. 
7 



Israelites were on the march, assumed the form 
of motion [" a dark pillar of smoke rising 
towards heaven," Eeil], but, when the taberna- 
cle rested, " perhaps more the form of a round 
ball of cloud," It was the same fire, be says 
further, in which the Lord revealed Himself to 
Moses out of the bush (iii. 2), and afterwards 
descended upon Sinai amidst thunder and light- 
ning. He calls it the symbol of the divine fiery 
jealousy. Even the Prophets and Psalms are 
made to share in this literalness (Is. iv. 5 sq. ; 
xlix. 10; Ps. xci. 5 sq. ; cxxi. 6). A sort of 
solution is cited from Sartorius in hia Medita- 
tions, to the effect that God, by special ac'Jon on 
the earthly element, formed out of its sphere 
and atmosphere a body, which He then assumed 
and permeated, in order in it to reveal His real 
presence. But is not that Indian mythology as 
much as is the modern theological doctrine of 
the Khuaic ? We leave the mystery in its unique- 
ness suspended between this, world atid the 
other, only observing that the- problem will have 
to be solved, how, in later timies, the smoke of 
the ofi'ering which rose up from the tabernacle 
was related to the pillar of cloud. Likewise the 
question arises: What was the relation between 
the light of the perpetual lamp, or the late ex- 
piring and early kindling fire of the burnt-offer- 
ing, and the pillar of fire ? Vid. Ex. xxix. 89 ; 
Num. xxviii. 4. The burnt-offering derives its 
name from the notion of rising ; comp. especially 
Judg. xiii. 20. The ark, as the central object 
in the tabernacle, which generally preceded the 
host, retired in decisive moments behind the 
host, according to Josh. iv. 11 ; so the pillar of 
cloud here, xiv. 19. Rationalism finds nothing 
but a popular legend in the religious and sym- 
bolic contemplation of the guidance of the living 
God ; literalism seeks to paint the letters with 
fantastic, golden arabesques. Assumption (as- 
cension) of a cloud in the form of a ball whose 
interior consists of fire ! 

XIV. 2. Turn back and encamp before 
Pi-hahiroth.* — In Num. xxxiii. 8 Hahiroth; 
Pi is the Egyptian article. This camping-place 
is identified by many with the place named 
Ajrud or Agirud, " now a fortress with a well 
two hundred and fifty feet deep, which, how- 
ever, contains such bitter water that camels can 
hardly drink it, on the pilgrims' road from 
Cairo to Mecca, four hours' distance northwest 

* [The significance of the term 3^E^, used here and in 
Num. xxxiii. 7, is generally overlooked or unwarrantably 
modified by the commentators. Knobel (on ch. v. 22 and here) 
argues that It means here only to turn ; but the passages he 
adduci'S (among them one, Ps.xxxv.ll (P^alm xxxv. 13?), in 
which the word does not occur at all) are none of them in 
point. The word uniformly means to turn back, return, espe- 
cially when physical motion is intended. It merely turrdvg 
mide ha I been meaut, 1^0 or riJi) would have been used. 

TT 

The use of this word is conclusive againRt the hypothesis, 
that Etham lay on the west of the Bitter Lakes. Ewald 
(Hist, nf the People of Israrl, II. p. 68) argues that the use of it 
also disproves the more current view of Bobinson and others, 
that it lay south of the basin of these laki s. Possibly, how- 
ever, this is not necessary; for Etham, being in the "edge 
of toe wildern''S8," may have been just east of the line of the 
Gulf or canal (as Robinson snsgests); and if Pi-hahiroth is 
to bo found in the present Ajrud, the people may, indeed, in 
poing from Etham thither, have had to turn " back." Still 
there is no ronclusive evidence that Etham may not have 
been north or north-east of the Bitter Lakes, and that, in 
stead of pa"8ing down on the e«st side of the basin, they 
tnrnod hack, and went along the west side. So, among 
others, Canon Cook (in the Speaker's Commentary).— lE.j 



48 



EXODUS. 



of Suez, comp. Niebuhr, Eeiae I., p. 216 ; Burck- 
bardt, Syria, p. 626, and Robinson, Researches 
I , p. 68. From Ajrud there stretches out a 
plain, ten miles loog and as many broad, towards 
the sea west of Suez, and from the foot of the 
Atakah to the arm of the sea north of Suez 
(Robinson I., p. 65). This plain very probably 
served the Israelites as a oamping-place, so that 
they encamped before, i. e. east of Ajrud towards 
the sea. In the neighborhood of Hahiroth (Aj- 
rud) must be sought also the other places, of 
which thus far no trace has been discovered" 
(Keil). On Migdol and Baal-zephon, vid. Keil 
II., p. 43. Since the names Migdol and Baal- 
zephon are without doubt designed to mark the 
line of travel, it is natural to assume that they 
indicate the whence and the whither of the route. 
According to Robinson (I., p. 64) a rooky defile 
called Muntula leads to the region of Ajrud (Pi- 
hahiroth) on the left, and Suez on the right, on 
the Red Sea. Strauss {Sinai und Oolgotha, p. 
122) called the defile Muktala, and identifies 
Baal-zephon with Suez. The question about 
the passage of the Israelites through the Red 
Sea is obscured by theological bias in both 
directions. It is regarded as a natural event, 
raised by legendary tradition into a miracle, by 
Knobel, p, 135 sq., where the historical remarks 
on the Red Sea and the analogies of the passage 
are very noteworthy. Karl von Raumer, on the 
contrary (Paldstina, p. 478, under the head, 
Zug der laraeliten aus Egypten nach Kanaan), 
regards as rationalistic even the view of Nie- 
buhr, Robinson and others, that the passage 
took place at Suez or north of Suez, quoting the 
opinion of Wilson and o'her Americana (p. 480). 
He adopts the view of Schubert, Wilson and 
others, that the Israelites marched south of Spez 
by Bessantin to the Red Sea. Robinson's re- 
mark, that the hypothesis that the Israelites 
passed over from the plain of Bede (Wady Ta- 
warik) is overthrown by the circumstance that 
there the sea is twelve miles wide, and that the 
people did not have but two hours for the pas- 
sage, Von Raumer overthrows by means of a 
dictum of Luther s concerning the miraculous 
power of God. Von Raumer also will not hear 
to any natural event as the substratum of the 
miracle. "The Holy Scriptures," he says, 
" know nothing of a N. N. E. wind, but say that 
an east wind divided the waters, that they stood 
up on the right and the left like walls; there is 
nothing said about an ebb, hence the duration 
of the ebb is not to be taken into account." He 
seems even to be embarrassed by the fact that 
there is an alternation of ebb and flood in the 
Red Sea; and in places where others also, in 
individual cases, at the ebb-tide have ridden 
through, he holds that the passage could not 
have take place, e. g. where Napoleon in 1799 
crossed the ford near Suez, and thus endangered 
his life (Robinson I., p. 85). Even the co-ope- 
ration of the wind, he holds, can be taken into 
account only in the interest of the magnified 
miracle, although it is designated not only in 
ver. 21 as the cause of the drying of the sea, 
but the like fact is also referred to in Moses' 
song of praise (xv. 8 ; comp. Ps. cvi. 9 and 
other passages). Hence, too, he holds, the east 
wind must not be understood as being, more 



exactly, a north-east wind.* Similar biblical 
passages are given by Knobel, p. 139. The 
objection that north of Suez there is not water 
enough to have overwhelmed Pharaoh's host, is 
removed by the observation of Stickel and 
Kurtz, that, according to travellers, the Gulf of 
Suez formerly extended much farther north than 
now, and in course of time through theJ}lowing 
in of sand has become shorter, and hence also 
more shallow (Knobel, p. 140). Also Strauss 
(Sinai und Golgotha, p. 123) regards the hypo- 
tbesis that the passage took place as far south 
as below the mountain Atakah, where the sea 
is nearly twelve miles wide, as inadmissible, 
although he insists, on the other hand, that 
natural forces are insufficient to explain the 
event. While the subject has been very care- 
fully examined in this aspect, two principal fac- 
tors of the miracle have been too little regarded: 
(1) the assurance and foresightof the prophet that 
in the moment of the greatest need a miracle of 
deliverance would be performed ; (2) the mira- 
culously intensifitd natural phenomenon, corre- 
sponding to the harmonia prsestabiliia between the 
kingdom of God and the kingdom of nature, 
such that an extiaordinary ebb, by the aid of a 
continuous night-storm which blew against the 
current, laid bare the whole ford for the entire 
passage of all the people of Israel with their 
flocks, and that an equally violent wind from 
the opposite direction might have made the flood, 
hitherto restrained, a high tide, which must 
have buried Pharaoh. He who in all this sees 
only a natural occurrence will of course even 
press the letter of the symbolic expression, that 
tlie water stood up on both sides like a wall.-|- 

Ver. 3. For Pharaoh ■will say. — We must 
here remember the law regulating the writing 
of theooratic history, according to which, as the 
record of religious history, it puts foremost the 
divine purpose, and passes over the human mo- 
tives and calculations, by means of which this 
purpose was effected, yet without leaving, in 
t be spirit of an abstract Bupernaturalism, sueh 
motives out of the account. Here, accordingly, 
Moses cannot from the first have had the inten- 
tion, in marching to the Red Sea, of alluring 
Pharaoh to the extreme of obduracy, and thereby 
into destruction. But he may well have antici- 
pated that Pharaoh, pursuing him on the high- 
way around the sea, might be quite as danger- 
ous to him as a collision with the Philistines. 
As one long acquainted with the Red Sea, he 
saw only a single means of deliverance, viz., the 
taking advantage of the ebb for his people, who 
then by means of the returning flood could get 



* rHengstenbsrg also, Hvsbrry of the Kingdom of God, H. p. 
292, wliile agreeing with Roliinsou, against Wilson, Von Ball- 
mer, etc., in reg.ird to tlio place of tlie passage, rejects tbe 
tlie ry of au ebb tide, aided by a nortbeast wind, asserting 
that D^Tp never denotes anything but an east wind. — Tr.] 

t [This seems at first sight almost self-contradictory. 
Those who see in the events described only natural occur- 
rences would seem to be just those who, disbelieving in Hiiy- 
tliing supernatural, would not press, or would reject, tliB 
Biblical statement, that the water stood up as a wall on both 
sides. But probably Lange means that the literal, prosaiJ 
cast of mind which could not discern the supernatural elp- 
nient in the apparently natural phenomena, would also be 
unable to discern In the Biblical style the poetico-symbolio 
element, an'i sn, whether accepting the Biblical staicmenU 
or n' it, would under»taiid them only in their most literal, 
prosaic stnse. — Tk.J. 



CHAP. Xni. 17— XIV-81. 



49 



a long distance ahead of Pharaoh, in case he 
should follow them. So fur human calculation 
could reach ; but it received a splendid trans- 
formation through the Spirit of revelation, who 
disclosed to the prophet, together with the cer- 
tainty of deliverance, the ultimate object of this 
form of deliverance, viz , the finul judgment on 
Pharaoh, which was yet to be inflicted. — They 
are bewildered la the land. — The round- 
about way from Ethara to the sea might seem 
like an uncertain marching hither and thither. 
— The wilderness hath shut them in. — 
They cannot jjo through, and are held fast. The 
section vers. 1—4 is a comprehensive summary. 

Ver. 6. That the people fled.— This state- 
ment probably preceded Pharaoh's judgment, 
that the people wished to flee but wer« arrested. 
So much seemed to be proved, that they were 
not thinking only of a three days' journey in 
the wilderness in order to hold a festival. — The 
heart of Pharaoh . . . was turned. — Pha- 
raoh may have been stirred up alike by the 
thought of a fleeing host, and by that of one 
wandering about helplessly. For they seemed 
to be no longer a people of God protected by 
God's servants, but smitten at the outset, and 
doomed to slavery. But the king and his cour- 
tiers needed to use an imposing military force 
in order to bring them back, seeing they were 
at least concentrated and armed. All the more, 
inasmuch as his pledge, their right, and the con- 
sciousness of perjury, determined the tyrant to 
assume the appearance of carrying on war 
against them. Whatever distinction may in 
other cases be made between camping-places 
and days' journeys, the three stations, Succoth, 
Etham and Pi-hahiroth, doubtless designate 
both, that there may be also no doubt concern- 
ing Pharaoh's injustice.* Useless trouble has 
been takeu to determine when Pharaoh received 
the news, and pursued after the Israelites ; also 
where he received the news, whether in Tanis or 
elsewhere. According to Num. xxxiii. 7 they 
pitched in Pihahiroth; but this was probably not 
limited to an encampment for a night. Here then 
after three days' journey they were to celebrate a 
feast of Jehovah in the wilderness in a much 
highgr sense than they could before have ima- 
gined. 

Vers. 6, 7. And he made ready his cha- 
riot. — The grot.e><que preparations made by hea- 
then powers are described in detail, as if with 
a sort of irony. So the arming of Goliath, 1 
Sam. xvii., oomp. also 2 Chron. xxxii. ; Uan. iv. 
and V. Knobel, in a droll manner, puts together 
Pharaoh's army, from the several narratives of 

the Elohist and the Jehovist— D'ty'W, " Three 
men. " On the Assyrian chariots one and two 
persons are represented, but sometimes three 
(Layard, Nineveh, Fig. 19, 61)" [Knobel]. 

Ver. 8. And Jehovah hardened.— Not a 
repetition of ver. 4. There we have the sum- 
mary pre-announcement, here the history Itself. 

■" [I e. Pharaoh must he 8nppo=ieil to have set nut within 
the three days through which the furlough extended. But 
this is an unsafe and inconclusive mo-^e of reasoning. More- 
over, Pharanh may in any case tiave begun to make hs pre- 
parations for pnrsnit before the three days had expired, even 
though it may have heen longer than that before he actually 
pursued the fugltivs.— Tr.]. 



Over against Pharaoh's obdur^icy (which here 
also is represented as efi'ected by Jehovah, be- 
cause occasioned by Israel's seemingly bewil- 
dered flight, because Jeliovah by the appearance 
of the impotence of Israel brought this judgment 
of blindness upon him) is raised the high hand 
of Jehovah; the divine sovereignty, which Pha- 
raoh, to his own destruction, failed to recognize, 
has decided in favor of Israel's deliverance. 

Vers. 10-12. The children of Israel lifted 
up their eyes. — Tneir condition seemed to be 
desperate. On the east, the sea ; on the south, 
the mountains ; on the north-west, the host of 
Pharaoh. True, they cried unto the Lord; but 
the reproaches which they heap upon Moses 
show that the confidence of genuine prayer is 
wanting, or at least is disappearing. — No 
graves in Egypt.- As Egypt was so rich in 
sepulchral monuments and worship of the dead, 
this expression has a certain piquancy ; it also 
expresses the thought that they saw death before 
their eyes. — Is not this the word ? — Here he 
has the foretoken of all similar experiences 
which he is to encounter in leading the people. 
The exaggeration of their recollection of a 
doubt formerly expressed reaches the pitch of 
falsehood. 

Vers. 13, 14. Over against the despondent 
people Moses appears in all the heroic courage 
of his confidence. 

Ver. 15. Wherefore criest thou unto 
me ? — The Israelites cried to Jehovah, and 
Jehovah did not hear them. Moses outwardly 
was silent; but Jehovah heard how he inwardly 
cried to Him. The confidence, therefore, which 
he displayed to the people was founded on a 
fervent inward struggle of spirit. While there- 
fore Jehovah's word is no reproof, there is 
something of a contrast in what follows: Speak 
unto the children of Israel, etc. That is: No 
further continuance of the spiritual struggle ; 
forward into the Red Sea ! 

Ver. 16. And lift thou up thy rod.— The 
miraculous rod is for the present still the banner 
of the people. It marks the foresight of Moses, 
his confidence, and the sacramental union of the 
divine help with this sign. Or shall we take 
this also literally: "while Moses divides the 
water with his rod" (Keil)? 

Ver. 17. I will harden the hearts of the 
Egyptians. — The obduracy which spread from 
Pharaoh over the whole host was brought on by 
the strong fascination of overtaking a fugitive 
people and by the miraculous condition of things 
on the sea. — I ■will get me honor. — God's 
miraculous sway was to become manifest as His 
just judgment. 

Ver. 19. The angel of God. — He is the 
angel of Elohim for the Egyptian heathen. The 
invisible movement of the angel was recognized 
in the visible motion of the pillar of cloud. 

Ver. 20. Darkness, but it lightened the 
night. — What the pillar of cloud at other 
times was alternately, it was this time si- 
muHaneously: darkness for the one, light for 
the other. The direction of the smoke under 
the nnrth-east wind is not sufficient to explain 
the symbolically highly-significant phenomenon. 
That whioh gives light to the believers consti- 
tutes nocturnal darkness for the unbelievers; 



50 



EXODUS. 



and that is the irremovable barrier between 
the two. The Egyptians are unable for the 
whole night to find the Israelites ; all night long 
the east wind blows, and dries the sea, and in 
the same night the passage of the Israelites 
through the sea began, and was finished in the 
morning. 

Ver. 21. East Tvind. — The east wind, O'lp, 
under which term the south-east and north-east 
wind may be included, inasmuch as the Hebrew 
language has developed special terms only for 
the four cardinal points. The notion that a 
simple east wind could have divided the waters 
to the right and left, as Von Raiimer and Keil 
bold, implies that the wind itself was a simple 
product of miraculous power. A mere natural 
east wind would have driven the water which 
remained against the Israelites. And this all 
the more, the more the wind operated, as Keil 
says, "with omnipotent power:" but, apart 
from that, it would, merely as an opposite wind, 
alone have made it almost impossible for the 
Israelites lo proceed. The notion of such a 
wind enables us to hold fast the literal assertion 
that the water stood up on the north side also 
like a wall, although in regard to the phrase 
"like a wall" religious poetry and symbolism 
must be allowed to have a word. Keil's quota- 
tions from Tischendorf and Schubert point to 
tae natural substratum of the miracle. See also 
Knobel, p. Ii9. "How wide the gulf was in 
the places made bare, cannot be exaeily deter- 
mined. At the narrowest place above Suez it is 
now only two-thirds of a mile wide, or according 
to Niebuhr 3450 [German] feet, but was proba- 
bly formerly wider, and is also at present wider 
further up, opposite Tell Kolzum (Robinson, p. 
81 and 71). The place where the Israelites 
crossed must have been wider, since otherwise 
ttie Egyptian army with more than six hundred 
chariots and many horsemen could not have 
tieen overtaken and destroyed by the return of 
the water" (Keil). According to Tischendorf 
[Reise I., p. 183), it is the north-east wind which 
8' ill serves to increase the ebb-tide. When a 
Btrongnorth-west wind drives the floods south- 
ward, one can cross the gulf; but if the wind 
changes to the south-east, it drives the water 
northward, so that it then rises to a height of 
from six to nine feet (see Schubert, Reite II., p. 
269; Dobel, Wanderungen II., p. 12; Knobel, p. 
149). 

Vers. 24, 25. Out of the pillar of Cloud 
and fire. — Without this addition, we should have 
to understand the effect to be purely supernatu- 
ral. But since it is said: out of the pillar of 



eloud and fire, this must in some way have been 
made by Jehovah a token of terror to the Egypt- 
ians. It may be conjectured that, instead of 
cloudy darkness, the pillar of fire, when the fur- 
ther shore was reached, appeared to the Egypt- 
ians as a lofty body of light, and brought confu- 
sion into the Egyptian ranks, especially by its 
movement. So Keil. Josephus (Ant. II. 16, 3) 
and Rosenmiiller understand thunder and light- 
ning to be meant, according to Ps. Izxvii. 18. 
Keil regards a thunder-shower as something too 
slight in comparison with the fiery glance of 
Jehovah. But compare Ps. xviii. and Ps. xxix. 
Here, however, only the pillar of smoke and fire 
is spoken of. Fear now arises with the confu- 
sion, and with the fear new confusion, as so 
otten happened in the history of the enemies of 
Israel. Comp. Judg. vii. 21 sqq. ; 1 Sam. xiv. 
20; 2 Kings iii. 20 sqq. 

Ver. 26. Stretch out thy hand. — Again the 
prophetico-symbolio action, with an opposite re- 
sult. And again is the wind in league with Is- 
rael, this time to destroy the Egyptians. Vid. 
Ch. XV. 10. That can only mean that the wind, 
in accordance with God's sovereign control, 
changed to the south, in order miniculously to 
increase the flood now released. According to 
Keil, the wind now blew from the west. But if 
the east wind made a dry path for the Jews, 
without reference to the ebb, we should expect 
that the west wind would have made a path for 
the Egyptians. According to Keil, we are also 
to assume that the host perished " to the last 
man." But generally in this sphere of dynamic 
relations the important point is not that of abso- 
lute universality, but that of thorough efi'ective- 
ness. 

On the traces of the passage through the Red 
Sea in heathen legends and secular history, 
especially in Diodorus of Sicily (III. 39), in 
Justinus (xxxvi. 2), in Artapanus, quoted by 
Eusebius, see the monograph of K. H. Sack, 
"Die Lieder in den hiatorischen Biichem des Alien 
Testaments," p. 51.* 



* [" Diodorua of Sicily, who had been in Egypt BbortJy 
before thn birth of Christ, tella of a saying prevalf-nt amoug 
the Ichthyophagi, a people on the east of tLe Arabian Gnl^ 
to the elTecc ttiat the whole gulf once became diy, and that 
there tben followed a violent flood. Justinns, the Bomao 
historian, who drew from an older source, relates that the 
Egyptians pursued Moses and the Israelites, but were f jrced 
to return by a violent thunder-ehower. Eusebius, the t'hria- 
tian Church historian, in his Preparalio Evangelica ix. ^, 
quotes from Arttipanue, a Greek writer, who flourished some 
time before the birth of Christ, who reports that the prleBts 
at Memphis had a saying about Moses being acquainted witli 
the ebbs and floods, and that the priests at Heliopolie bad 
one aliout Moses miraculously smitine the watera with bis 
rod, and the consequent destruction of the Egyptians." Sack, 
I c— Tb.] 



CHAP. XV. 1-21. 51 



B.— THE SONG OF TRIUMPH. 
Chaptbb XV. 1-21.* 

1 Then sang Moses and the children of Israel this song unto Jehovah, and said; 

I will sing unto Jehovah, for he is highly exalted ;' 
The horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea. 

2 My strength and my song is Jah, aud he hath become my salvation. 
He is my God, and I will glorify him. 

My father's God, and I will exalt him. 

3 Jehovah is a man of war, Jehovah is his name. 

4 Pharaoh's chariots and his host hath he cast into the sea ; 
And his choicest captains were plunged into the Red Sea. 

5 The floods cover' them, they went down into the depths like a stone. 

6 Thy right hand, Jehovah, glorious in strength, 

Thy right hand, Jehovah, dasheth^ enemies ia pieces. 

7 And in the greatness of thy majesty thou overthrowest thy foes ; 
Thou sendest out thy wrath, it consumeth them as stubble. 

8 And with the blast of thy nostrils the waters were heaped up ; 
Fixed like a dam were the waters. 

The floods were congealed in the heart of the sea. 

9 Said the enemy : I will pursue, overtake, divide spoil ; 
My lust shall be sated with them ; 

I will draw my sword, my hand shall destroy them. 

10 Thou blewest with thy breath, the sea covered them ; 
They sank like lead into the mighty waters. 

11 Who is like unto thee, Jehovah, among the gods? 
Who is like unto thee, glorious in holiness, 
Fearful in praises, doing wonders? 

12 Thou stretchedst out thy right hand, the earth swalloweth them. 

13 Thou leddest forth in thy mercy the people that thou hast redeemed ; 
Thou guidedst them by thy power unto thy holy habitation. 

14 Peoples heard, they tremble ; 

Anguish took hold of the inhabitants of Philistia. 

15 Then the chiefs of Edom were dismayed ; 

The mighty ones of Moab — trembling taketh hold of them ; 
All the inhabitants of Canaan melted away. 

16 Fear and dread fall upon them ; 

By the greatness of thine arm they are still as a stone ; 

TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL. 

' [Ver. 1. There seems to be no warrant for the rendering of the A. V. ; "He hiith triumphed glorionsly." TMii, in 
the other three passages (Job viii. 11 ; x. 16 ; Ezek. xlyii. 5) in which it is used, has clearly the meaning " rise," " grow 
large." The adjective nXJ means "high," or "high-minded," "proud." The renderings of the LXX. and Vulg., are 
better than that of the A. V., viz., evS6(m ytlp ei'S6(a<rTM, and "glorioee enim maftnijlcaiut «i(."— Tn.]. 

' I Ver. 6. 1D'D3' ia » peculiar form, ID for 10 (only here), and 1'D3' tot ?DD". "» not unfrequently in pause. The 
A. v. here as in several caar-s afterwards in this chapter, quite nfglects the alternation of tenses. The Imperfect is best 
rendered by our present. — Tr.]. 

^ fVer. 6. Here too the force and life of the original require the present tense ; the statement is general rather than 
specific, 3 ix, being without the arJiele, may be understood collectively. — Ta.]. 

* [For convenience sake the translation of thii song ia given without Indicating in what particulars it differs fromi 
that of the A V.— lE.]. 



62 



EXODUS. 



Till thy people pass over, Jehovah, 

Till the people pass over whom thou hast purchased. 

Tt)0u shalt bring them in, and plant them iu the mouutain of thine inheritance, 

The place which thou hast made for thy dwelling, Jehovah, 

The sanctuary, Lord, which thy hands have established. 

Jehovah shall reign for ever and ever. 



17 



18 
19 



For the horse [horses] of Pharaoh went in with his chariots and with his horse- 
men into the sea, and Jehovah brought again [back] the waters of the sea upon 
them ; but the children of Israel went on dry laud in the midst of the sea. 

20 And Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aarou, took a [the] timbrel in her 

21 hand ; and all the women went out after her with timbrels and with dances. And 
Miriam answered [responded to] them, Sing ye to Jehovah, for he hath triumphed 
gloriously [is highly exalted] ; the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the 
sea. 



EXEGETIOAL AND CRITICAL. 

A list of treatises on this theme is given by 
Knobel, p. 152. To it may be added the ex- 
haustive monograph of K. H. Sack, Die Lieder 
in den historischen Buchern dea Alien Testaments, 
p. 41-64 

The passage through the Red Sea, as a funda- 
mental fact of the typical kingdom of God, 
reaches in its relations through all the Holy 
Scriptures, referring backwards to the deluge, 
and forwards to Christian baptism, and finally 
to the last judgment ; and so the echoes of this 
song of Moses extend through all the Scriptures. 
Preliminary to it are the poetic passages of 
Genesis and the blessing of Jacob; following it, 
after some epic passages, comes the parting song 
of Moses with his blessings, Deut. xxzii , xxxiii. 
Two grand companion-pieces, following this, 
Deborah's song of triumph, and David's song of 
deliverance (2 Sam. xxii. ; Ps. xviii.), introduce 
the poetry of the Psalms, in which the key-note, 
struck by Moses' song, is heard again. Comp. 
Ps. Ixxvii., Ixxviii., cv., cvi., cxiv. Finally 
mention is made again of the song of Moses at 
the close of the New Testament; its notes re- 
sound forward as the typical song of triumph of 
the people of God even into the next world, 
Rev. XV. 3. 

As to the historical originality of the song in 
this place, three opinions may be specified. Ac- 
cording to the older view, represented especially 
by Kurtz and Sack, the song is wholly Mosaic. 
According to the modern, critical view, repre- 
sented especially by Knobel (Bunsen regards the 
song of Moses and Miriam as including vers. 1-3 ; 
V. 2, p. 147), the song belongs to a later period. 
He says that, according to ver. 17, it cannot have 
originated before the times of David and Solo- 
mon, for which view he adduces also the phrase 
E'ntJ', ver. 4 ; but adds that in its peculiarity it 
certainly belongs to an old period. This state- 
ment involves a rather distinct contradiction. 
Bleek (Introd. I. p. 303) assumes that the song 
in its original form was genuinely Mosaic, i. e., 
" that a genuinely Mosaic song lies at the foun- 
dation, but later, as used by the people, received 
some addition, or was in general somewhat 
worked over." This assumption does not oou- 
< tradiot in principle the spirit of biblical theology ; 



for the collection of the Psalms shows that within 
the sphere of revelation such reconstructions 
have taken place. Vid. Ps. xiv. ; Ps. liii. Yet 
as to the facts in the case before us, we need to 
look more carefully. Even ver. 13, considered 
as a triumphant prophetic anticipation, may be 
regarded as original. The holy dwelling-place 
stands in Moses' mind all complete, after the 
further shore of the Red Sea has been happily 
reached ; whilst the scholastic spirit cannot see 
the holy dwelling-place till the tabernacle or 
even the temple is a finished fact. But letting 
this verse pass, without challenge, as an interpo- 
lation, and even also the second half of ver. 17, 
which as a whole seems even to contain contra- 
dictory elements, yet the following verses corre- 
spond excellently to the occasion. For fear of 
the Philistines the circuitous way through the 
Sinai tic desert was commanded; consequently it 
would accord with psychological laws that the 
Philistines next to the Egyptians should be first 
in the thoughts of the people. With this is con- 
nected the second thought. The direction now 
taken would bring them into collision with Edom 
and Moab, and finally with Canaan : to this fact 
corresponds the joyous presentiment that Jeho- 
vah, by this great fact, has prepared the way for 
the deliverance of His people to the end. It is 
characteristic that the scholastic spirit throws into 
the scale the questionable use of an archaeological 

term (itf'/ty), in opposition to the internal lead- 
ing features of the song, whioli every way 
suits the Mosaic period. Thus, here nothing is 
said of Jehovah's righteousness, but the idea of 
His holiness here for the first time comes dis- 
tinctly out, ver. 11. This accords with the de- 
mands of internal biblical sequence : first, the 
El-elyon [Most High God] of the primeval times 
and of Melchizedek; then the El-phaddai [Qod 
Almighty], the miracle-working God of Abra- 
ham; then Jehovah the Holy One in the age of 
Moses. Also the prayer in ver. 16 and, in part, 
ver. 17 [rendered by Lange jussively, " Let fear 
. . . fall, ' etc.}, prove that Israel was still on the 
journey. 

Analysis of the Song. — "The song may be di- 
vided into three strophes increasing successively 
in length, of which each one begins with (he 
praise of Jehovah and ends with a description of 
the overthrow of the Egyptian host, vers, 2-5, 6- 
10, and 11-18" (Keil). Knobel, however, makes 



CHAP. XV. 1-21. 



58 



*he first strophe consist of vers. 1-8 (Jehovah as 
the lofty hero) ; the second, vers. 4-11 (as the 
highest God) ; the third, vers. 12-18 (as the King 
of Israel). Sack divides still differently. The 
festive, subjective mood which produces the song 
(the introduction or foundation) is properly set 
off by itself in ver. 2. Also vers. 3-8 may be taken 
together as a magnifying of Jehovah's heroism 
(which here makes up for Israel's unfitness for 
warfare) as displayed against Pharaoh. Then 
comes the contrast presented in the enemy's da- 
fianoe and defeat, vers. 9 and 10. Thence fol- 
lows the conclusion, that Jehovah is Israel's God, 
exalted above all the gods (religions) of the hea- 
then, vers. 11-13. To this is appended the cele- 
bration of the terrifying effect of this achievement 
of Jehovah on the heathen people ; according to 
Sack, from ver. 14 to ver. 18. We regard vers. 
17-18 as a concluding prayer belonging by itself. 
Especially is to be noticed here the relation of 
the following words. Evidently Miriam here in- 
stitutes the antiphony, and that in the simplest 
and most natural form. This moment might be 
called the birth of the theocratic antiphony. It 
corresponds to the position of females, that the 
song is very short, the refrain of the song of 
Moses, but ennobled by the sound of timbrel and 
by the dance, in which Miriam is the represen- 
tative of the women, as Moses of the men. 

Vers. I. 2. Jehovah's exploit; IsraeVs song. tj>, 
"Strength, might; not praise and glory" (Keil). 
But that strength which the poet experiences, 
that which becomes in him a fountain of song, 
is his inspiration. Jah, concentration of the name 
Jehovah, perhaps a more familiar form of the 
awe-inspiring name. 

Vers. 3-8. Jehovah as a warlike hero in contrast 
with Pharaoh. — A man of war.— As such he 
had become Israel's consolation and reliance by 
his annihilation of Egypt's dreadful military 
power, which Israel alone could not have resisted. 
Thy right hand, Jehovah (ver. 6) does not 
form a contrast with what is said of Jehovah as 
a man of war, but is a further celebration of the 
warlike power of Jehovah as displayed against 
his foes. 

Vers. 9, 10. Pharaoh, Jehovah's enemy, as the 
persecutor of Bis people, in his arrogance, in con- 
trast with Jehovah. — I will pursue. — The spirit 
of the eager enemy is pictured in a masterly way 
by the incomplete sentences following one another 
without the copula. — They sank (plunged). 
^SSx is translated by Knobel : "they whirled." 
But lead falling upon water does anything but 
whirl around. Keil translates TTi here "sank 

~T 

into the depths," referring to TvlVi and n71J?D. 
the abyss of the sea, and alleging that lead oast 
into water can neither whii; nor whirl. Yet it 
might cause the peculiar sound of water desig- 
nated by the words dash, splash, etc. The ques- 
tion might be asked, whether a new picturesque 
expression would not be preferable to the repe- 
tition of the thought of ver. 5. But this is de- 
cided by the consideration that they did not fall 
upon the water, but the water came over them. 

Vers. 11-13. Jehovah therefore has shown Himself 
to be the Qod of Bis people Israel. — Who is like 



unto thee. — The germ of the name Michael. 
Jehovah appears here as the exalted God of 
God's people, before whom the god-s (the hea- 
then — and anti-Christian — forms of religion) 
cannot stand. — Who is like unto thee, again 
in fine repetition, for now Jehovah is celebrated 
as He who glorifies Himself (or is glorified) in 
holiness. He is made glorious by His holiness, by 
the august distinction of His personality from all 
hostile elements, of His people from the Egypt- 
ians by the waters of the Red Sea, of His ligl>t 
from darkness. The passage through the Bed 
Sea has made manifest the holiness of Jehovah, 
who henceforward through His revelation will 
sanctify His people, as was fii'St typically pro- 
mised by the deluge; comp. Ps. Ixxvii. 14 [13].* 
— Fearful in praises. — The obscure expression 

ribnri XII'J means not only summe venerandus, 
but also that "man, because God performs fear- 
ful miracles, can sing to Him praises worthy of 
his wonderful deeds only with fear and trem- 
bling" (Keil). But can one sing praises with 
fear and trembling ? Yet songs of praise them- 
selves may disseminate fear and terror in the 
kingdom of darkness ; at any rate, Jehovah can 
reveal His dreadfulness so as to call forth songs 
of praise from His people. — Doing wonders. 
— The notion of the miraculous likewise here 
first appears more marked, as that of something 
new and extraordinary, which through God's 
creative power transcends the extraordinary 
phenomena of the ancient natural world. — Only 
a stretching out of His hand, and the earth swal- 
lows them up. The words, says Keil, have no- 
thing more to do with the Egyptians, but with 
the enemies of the Lord in general, since the 
Egyptians were swallowed by the sea. But the 
contrast is between God's outstretched hand in 
heaven and the absolute subordination of the 
whole earth, which certainly includes the sea. — 
In thy mercy. — Here the notion of grace be- 
comes more definite in connection with the typi- 
cal deliverance. — Unto thy holy habitation. 
— See above. According to Knobel, this expres- 
sion indicates that the song was composed at a 
later period. Noticeable is the expression 

tynp nU. The Bed Sea being the boundary- 
line between Egypt and God's people, the region 
or pasture (HIJ) of holiness began on the other 
shore of the sea. Keil refers the phrase to Ca- 
naan, the leading of the people into that land 
being now pledged to them, so that .the expres- 
sion, like many others, would have to be under- 
stood in a prophetic sense. 

Vers. 14-16. The terrifying effect of this exploit 
of Jehovah among the heathen. — Even the singers 
at the Bed Sea could proclaim this effect as an 
accomplished fact. Burners of wars and victo- 
ries even in the East circulate rapidly, and the 
facts, through the reports, assume an imposing 
form. Vid. Josh. ii. 9 ; ix. 9. The ramification 
of this eff^ect is entirely in accordance with the 
plan of the journey, comp. Num. xx. 18 sqq. ; 
xxi. 4; Deut. ii. 3, 8. See above.— Still as 



* [Where EflpS, the same expresBino which in Ex. xv. 

11 is rendered "in holiness," is in the A. V. incorrectly 
rendered " in the sanctuary." — Ta.] 



f,4 



EXODUS. 



:i atone. — DDH may mean either to ttand still, 
or to be rigid and gilent. We regard the first 
sense as the more probable. As Israel must 
march among the stones of the wilderness, so he 
wishes also to march through the nations clean 
to his goal. To this refers also the two-fold 

nj^^-n;; ["pass over"], which Knobel refers 
to the crossing of the Jordan — a proof of the 
degree of senselessness to which modern criti- 
cism can attain in its prejudices. 

Vers. 17, 18. Concluding prayer and doxolngy. — 
A part of ver. 17, as an original conclusion, 
could not be at all dispensed with. — Thou shalt 
bring them in. — According to Knobel, the 
futures are preterites ( ! ) ; according to Keil, 
they should not be read as wishes, but as simple 
predictions. Predictions in reference to Jeho- 
vah's actions! — In the mountain of thine 
Inheritance. — According to Knobel, this is the 
mountain-region of Canaan ; according to Keil, 
the mountain which Jehovah had chosen, by the 
offering of Isaac (Gen. xxii.), as his dwelling- 
place, his sanctuary, Ps. Ixxviii. 54. There is 
no ground for regarding this expression as a 
vaticinium post eventum ; it seems, however, also 
very one-sided to refer the prophecy directly to 
the definite locality of the sanctuary on Moriah. 
How long the tabernacle first stood in Shiloh, 
how often the ark changed its place 1 In sym- 
bolical language a mountain is a secure height 
on which the people of Israel, Jehovah's posses- 
sion, gained a firm lodgment. The centre of 
this mountain is, on the one hand, the dwelling- 
place of Jehovah ; on the other, the sanctuary 
of the Lord C'J'IS) for His people. The brief 
concluding sentence forms a worthy close ; n. 
simple expression of unlimited conQdence : 
Jehovah shall reign for ever and ever. 



Vers. 19, 20. Transition to the antiphimy of 
Miriam. — The horses of Pharaoh. — Keil un- 
derstands that Pharaoh rode on his horse in 
front of the army. But this is neither ancient 
nor modern custom. Moreover, DO evidently 
refers to chariots and horsemen. — The pro- 
phetess. — "Not ob poeticam et musicam faculta- 
tern (Rosenmiiller), but on account of her pro- 
phetic gifts " (Keil). It is not well to distinguish 
the two kinds of endowment within the theocracy 
so sharply, in so far, that is, as the question of 
endowment is concerned. — The sister of 
Aaron. — So in Num. xii. 1-6, where, together 
with Aaron, she takes sides against Moses. 
According to Kurtz, she is so called because she 
was co-ordinate with Aaron, but subordinate to 
Moses. She stood, as the leader of Jewish wo- 
men, appropriately by the side of the future 
conductor of the religious service. According 
to the New Testament, it was also customary to 
name younger children after the older ones {e.g. 
Judas of James). — The timbrel in her hand. 
— The tabor, tambourine. — And ^ith dances. 
— Here first appears the religious dance, intro- 
duced by Miriam with religious festivities, but 
probably not without Aaron's influence. The 
frequent occurrence of this dance is seen from a 
concordance.* 

Ver. 21. Sing ye to Jehovah. — From this 
derives the antiphony in the Old Testament and 
New Testament, t. g. Judg. xi 34; 1 Sam. xviii. 
6; xxi. 11; xxix. 6. Is not the occasion great 
enough in itself, that the orgin of the antiphony 
should have been looked for in Egypt ? For the 
rest, vid. on the ancient Egyptian female dancers 
with tambourines, Keil, Archdologie, § 137, 
Note 8. 

* r According to some, tlie word here rendered "dances" 
really denotes a musical instrument used in connection with 
dances, bo, e.g.^ Pro£, Marks in Smith's BibU DiUionary^ 
Am. Ed., p. 638.— Tb. 1. 



FIFTH SECTION. 

The journey through the wilderness to Sinai. Want of water. Marah. Elim. The 
Wilderness of Sin. Quails. Manna. Rephidim (Massah and Meribah). The 
Amalekites. Jethro and his advice, a human prelude of the divine legislation. 

Chap. XV. 22— XVIII. 27. 

THE STATIONS AS FAR AS SINAI. 

1. Marah. 

Chapter XV. 22-26. 

22 So [And] Moses brought Israel from the Red Sea, and they went out into the 
■wilderness of Shur ; and they went three days in the wilderness, and found no 

23 water. And when they came to Marah, they could not drink of the [drink the] 
waters of Marah, for they were bitter ; therefore the name of it was called Marah. 

24, 25 And the people murmured against Moses, saying. What shall we drink? And 
he cried unto Jehovah, and Jehovah showed him a tree, which, when he had cast 
[and he cast it] into the waters, the [and the] waters were made sweet : there he 

26 made for them a statute and an ordinance, and there he proved [tried] them, And' 



CHAP. XV. 22— XV III. 27. 65 



said, If thou wilt diligently [indeed] hearken to the voice of Jehovah thy God, 
and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his command- 
ments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these [the] diseases upon thee, 
which I have brought [put] upon the Egyptians: for I am Jehovah that healeth 
thee. 

2. Elim. Chap. XV. 27. 
27 And they came to Elim, where were twelve wells [fountains] of water, and three- 
score and ten palm trees : and they encamped there by the waters. 

8. The Wilderness of Sin. [The Manna and the Quails.) 
Chapter XVI. 1-36. 

1 And they took their journey from Eliin, and all the congregation of the children 
of Israel came unto the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the 
fifteenth day of the second month after their departing out of the land of Egypt, 

2 And the whole congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and 

3 Aaron in the wilderness. And the children of Israel said unto them. Would to 
God [Would that] we had died by the hand of Jehovah in the land of Egypt, 
when we sat by the flesh-pots, and [flesh-pots,] when we did eat bread to the full ; 
for ye have brought us forth into this wilderness, to kill this whole assembly with 

4 hunger. Then said Jehovah [And Jehovah said] unto Moses, Behold, I will rain 
bread from heaven for you ; and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate 
[a daily portion] every day, that I may prove them, whether they will walk in my 

5 law, or no [not]. And it shall come to pass that on the sixth day they shall pre- 
pare that which they bring in ; and it shall be twice as much as they gather daily. 

6 And Moses and Aaron said unto all the children of Israel, At even, then shall ye 

7 know that Jehovah hath brought you out from the land of Egypt. And in the 
morning, then ye shall see the glory of Jehovah ; for that [since] he heareth your 
murmurings against Jehovah: and what are we, that ye murmur against us? 

8 And Moses said, This shall be, when [And Moses said. Since] Jehovah shall give 
you ia the evening flesh to eat, and in the morning bread to the full ; for that 
[since] Jehovah heareth your murmurings which ye murmur against him, and 
[against him,] what are we? your murmurings are not against us, but against 

9 Jehovah. And Moses spake [said] unto Aaron, Say unto all the congregation of 
the children of Israel, Come near before Jehovah : for he hath heard your mur- 

10 murings. And it came to pass, as Aaron spake unto the whole congregation of 
the children of Israel, that they looked toward the wilderness, and, behold, the 

11 glory of Jehovah appeared in the cloud. And Jehovah spake unto Moses, saying, 

12 I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel : speak unto them, saying, 
At even ye shall eat flesh, and in the morning ye shall be filled with bread; and 

13 ye shall know that I am Jehovah your God. And it came to pass that at even 
[at even that] the quails came up, and covered the camp : and in the morning the 

14 dew lay round about the host [camp]. And when the dew that lay [the layer of 
dew] was gone up, behold, upon the face of the wilderness there lay [the wilderness] 

15 a small round thing, as small aa the hoar frost on the ground. And when the 
children of Israel saw it, they said one to another, It is manna [What is this?],^ 
for they wist [knew] not what it was. And Moses said unto them. This is the 

16 bread which Jehovah hath given you to eat [for food]. This is the thing which 
Jehovah hath commanded. Gather of it every man according to his eating, an 
oraer for every man [a heafi], according to the number of your persons ; take ye 

17 every man for them, which [that] are in his tents [tent]. And the children of 

18 Israel did so, and gathered, some more, some less. And when they did mete [And 

TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL. 

• fXVI. IB. Nin I'D' Gosenius and Knobel derive |D from [JO. *o ajjporfion ; FUrst (Concordmce) from the San- 
Bcrit mani. But most scholars, following the evident implication of the narrative itself, regard ja as the Aramaic equiva- 
lent of nn. Even Furst so renders It in his " lauslrirtt Fraoht-Bibel." Comp. Michaelis, Supplemmta ai Umm Eebraiea, 
-Te.] 



56 EXODUS. 



they measured] it with an [the] omer, he [and he] that gathered much had no- 
thing over, and he that gathered little had no lack ; they gathered every m-an 

19 according to his eating. And Moses said [said unto them], Let no man leave of 

20 it till the morning. Notwithstanding [But] they hearkened not unto Moses ; but 
some of them [and some] left of it until the morning, and it bred worms,^ and 

21 stank : and Moses was wroth with them. And they gathered it every morning, 

22 every man according to his eating : and when the sun waxed hot, it melted. And 
it came to pass, that on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers 
for one man [each man] : and all the rulers of the congregation came and told 

23 Moses. And he said unto them, This is that which Jehovah hath spoken. To mor- 
row is the rest of the holy sabbath [is a day of rest, a holy sabbath] unto Jehovah : 
bake that which ye will bake to-day [bake], and seethe [boil] that [that which] ye 
will seethe [boil] ; and that which [all that] remaineth over lay up for you to be 

24 kept until the morning. And they laid it up till the morning, as Moses bade : and 

25 it did not stink, neither was there any worm therein. And Moses said. Eat that 
to-day ; for to-day is a sabbath unto Jehovah : to-day ye shall [will] not find it in 

26 the field. Six days ye shall gather it ; but on the seventh day, which is the [on 

27 the seventh day is a] sabbath, in [on] it there shall be none. And it came to pass, 
that there went out some of the people on the seventh day for to [day to] gather, 

28 and they found none. And Jehovah said unto Moses, How long refuse ye to keep 

29 my commandments and my laws ? See, for that Jehovah hath given you the sab- 
bath, therefore he giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two days; abide ye 

30 every man in his place, let no man go out of his place on the seventh day. So the 

31 people rested on the seventh day. And the house of Israel called the name thereof 
Manna : and it was like coriander seed, white ; and the taste of it was like wafers 

32 made [like cake] with honey. And Moses said. This is the thing which Jehovah 
commandeth, Fill an omer of it [An omer full of it] to be kept for [throughout] 
your generations ; that they may see the bread wherewith I have fed you in the 

33 wilderness, when I brought you forth from the land of Egypt. And Moses said 
unto Aaron, Take a pot [basket], and put an omer full of manna therein, and lay 

34 it up before Jehovah, to be kept for [throughout] your generations. As Jehovah 

35 commanded Moses, so Aaron laid it up before the Testimony, to be kept. And 
the children of Israel did eat manna [the manna] forty years, until they came to 
a land inhabited ; they did eat manna [the manna], until they came unto the bor- 

36 ders of the land of Canaan. Now an omer is the tenth part of an ephah. 

4. Rephidim. The place called Massah and Meribah. 
Chapter XVII. 1-7. 
XVII. 1 And all the congregation of the children of Israel journeyed from the 
wilderness of Sin, after their journeys [journey by journey], according to the com- 
mandment of Jehovah, and pitched in Rephidim : and there was no water for the 

2 people to drink. Wherefore [And] the people did chide with Moses, and said. 
Give us water, that we may drink. And Moses said unto them, Why chide ye 

3 with me ? wherefore do ye tempt Jehovah ? And the people thirsted there for 
water ; and the people murmured against Moses, and said. Wherefore is this that 
thou hast [Wherefore hast thou] brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our 

4 children and our cattle with thirst? And Moses cried unto Jehovah, saying, 
What shall I do unto this people? they be almost ready to [a little more, and tliey 

5 will] stone me. And Jehovah said unto Moses, Go on [Pass on] before the people, 
and take with thee of the elders of the people; and thy rod wherewith thou smotest 

« [XVI. 20. "And it bred worms;" D'JJ^l'JI D;1'1. T1"> Heb. word seems to be the Fut. of Dn defectively written, 
and therefore to mean : " rose up Into (or with) worma," Kalisch says, that the form QTil is used instead of D^'l *« 
(how that it comes from n:31 (DOT) in the sense of 2)!i/re/>. So Maurer and Ewttld (dr., § 281, (i). nut it is doubtfU 
whether DDT (assumed as the root from which comes HBT " worm ") really means putre/i/ at all. FUret defines it by 
" crawl." Moreover, it would be Inverting the natural order of things to say, that the manna herjime putrid with worms; 
the worms are the consequence, not the cause, of the piitridneas. Ro-enmllller, Filrst, Arnheim and others render by 
** swarm," •' abound," but probabh as a free rendering lor " rose up." De Wette : da wuchsen Wurmer The A Y ^onde^ 
ing may stand aa a subitantlally correct reproduction of the sense.— Tb.]. ' ' " 



CHAP. XV. 22— XVIII. 27. 57 



6 the river, take in thine [thy] hand, and go. Behold, I will stand before thee there 
upon the rock in Horeb ; and thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water 
out of it, that [and] the people may [shall] drink. Aad Moses did so in the sight 

7 of the elders of I-rael. And he called the name of the place Massah, and Meribah, 
because of the chiding of the children of Israel, and because they tempted Jehovah, 
saying, Is Jehovah among us, or not ? 

5. Amalek. The dark side of heathenism. 
Chaptek XVII. 8-16. 
8, 9 Then came Amalek, and fought with Israel in Rephidim. And Moses said 
unto Joshua, Choose us out men, and go out, fight with Amalek : to-morrow I will 

10 stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God in mine [my] hand. So [And] 
Joshua did as Moses had said to him, and fought with Amalek : and Moses, Aaron, 

11 and Hur went up to the top of the hill. And it came to pass, when Moses held 
up his hand, that Israel prevailed : and when he let down his hand, Amalek pre- 

12 vailed. But Moses' hands were heavy : and they took a stone, and put it under 
him, and he sat thereon; and Aaron and Hur stayed up his hands, the one on the 
one side, and the other on the other side; and his hands were steady until the going 

13 down of the sun. And Joshua discomfited Amalek and his people with the edge 

14 of the sword. And Jehovah said unto Moses, Write this for a memorial in a [the] 
book, and rehearse [lit. put] it in the ears of Joshua : for [that] I will utterly put 

15 [blot] out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven. And Moses built an 

16 altar, and called the name of it Jehovah-nissi : For [And] he said. Because Jehovah 
hath sworn that [For a hand is upon the throne of Jah ;'] Jehovah will have war 
with Amalek from generation to generation. 

6. Rephidim and Jethro. Tlie bright side of heathenism. 
Chapter XVIII. 1-27. 

1 When [Now] Jethro, the priest of Midian, heard of all that God had done for 
Moses, and for Israel his people, and [how] that Jehovah had brought Israel out 

2 of Egypt ; Then [And] Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, took Zipporah, Moses' wife, 

3 after he had sent her back [after she had been sent away]. And her two sons ; of 
which [whom] the name of the one was Gershom ; for he said, I have been an alien 

4 [a sojourner] in a strange land : And the name of the other wots Eliezer ; for the 
God of my father, said he, was mine [my] help, and delivered me from the sword 

5 of Pharaoh : And Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, came with his sons and his wife 
unto Moses into the wilderness, where he encamped [was encamped] at the mount 

6 of God : And he said unto Moses, I thy father-in-law Jethro am come unto thee, 

7 and thy wife, and her two sous with her. And Moses went out to meet his father- 
in-law, and did obeisance, and kissed him ; and they asked each other of their wel- 

8 fare ; and they came into the tent. And Moses told his father-in-law all that 
Jehovah had done unto Pharaoh and to the Egyptians for Israel's sake, and [sake] 
all the travail [trouble] that had come upon them by the way, and how Jehovah 

9 delivered them. And Jethro rejoiced for [over] all the goodness [good] which 
Jehovah had done to Israel whom he had delivered [in that he had delivered them] 

10 out of the hand of the Egyptians. And Jethro said. Blessed 6e Jehovah, who hath 

* fXVII. 16. We have giTen the most literal rendering of this difacult passage. But possibly ^3, instead of meaning 

"for" (or "because "), may (as on oftpn in Grf»ek) be the mere mark of a quotation, to be omitted in the translation. The 
meaning of the expression itself is very doubtful. The A. V., following some ancient a-ithorities, takes it as an oath; but 
for this there is little ground. Kelt interprets : "The hand rais-d to the throne of Jehovah in heaven; Juhovah's war 
aEalnst Amalek," i. e. the hands of the Israelites, like those of Moses, must be raised heavenward towafds Jehovah's 
throne, while they wage war against Amalek. Others interpret: " Recause a hand (viz. the hand of the Amalekites) is 
against the throne of Jab, the. efore Jehovah will torever have war with Amalek." This interpretation has the advantage 

over Eeil's of giving a more natural rendering to 7 V, which indeed in a few cases does mean " up to." but only when it 
is (ae ft is not here) connectud with a verb which requires the preposition to be so rendered. Others (perhaps tho miijority 
of modern exegetes) would read DJ ("banner"), instead of 03 ("throne"), and interpret: ' The hand upon Jehovah'a 
banner; Jehovah has war," ete. This conjecture is less objectionable than many attempted improvements of the text, 
inasmuch as the name of thealt»ir, " Jehovah-ni^si " ("Jehovah, my banner "), seems to require an explanation, and would 
receive it if the reading were QJ, instead of D3— Te.]. 



68 



EXODUS. 



delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians, and out of the hand of Pharaoh, 

11 who hath delivered the people from under the hand of the Egyptians. Now I 
know that Jehovah is greater than all [all the] gods : for [yea], in the thing 

12 wherein they dealt proudly he was above [dealt proudly against] them. And 
Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, took a burnt-offering and sacrifices for God: and 
Aaron came, and all the elders of Israel, to eat bread with Moses' father-in-law 

13 before God. And it came to pass on the morrow, that Moses sat to judge the peo- 

14 pie : and the people stood by Moses from the morning unto the evening. And 
when Moses' father-in-law saw all that he did to the people, he said. What is this 
thing that thou doest to the people? Why sittest thou thyself aloue, and all the 

15 people stand by thee from morning unto even? And Moses said unto his father- 

16 in-law, Because the people come unto me to inquire of God : When they have a 
matter, they come unto me; and I judge between one and another, and I do make 

17 [I make] them know the statutes of God, ^nd his laws. And Moses' father-in-law 

18 said unto him, The thing that thou doest is not good. Thou wilt surely wear 
away, both thou, and this people that is with thee : for this [the] thing is too 
heavy for thee ; thou art not able to perform it thyself [able to do it] alone. 

19 Hearken now unto my voice I will give thee counsel, and God shall be [God be] 
with thee : Be thou for the people to God-ward [before God], that thou mayest 

20 bring [and bring thou] the causes [matters] unto God : And thou shalt teach [And 
teach] them ordinances and laws [the statutes and the laws], and shalt shew [and 
shew] them the way wherein they must walk, and the work that they must do. 

21 Moreover [But] thou shalt provide out of all the people able men, such as fear 
God, men of truth, hating covetousness [unjust gain] ; and place siuih over them, 
to he [as] rulers of thousands, and [thousands,] rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, 

22 and rulers of tens: And let them judge the people at all seasons [times]: and it 
shall be, that every great matter they shall bring unto thee, but every small matter 
they [they themselves] shall judge : so shall it be [so make it] easier for thyself, 

23 and they shall [let them] bear the burden with thee. If thou shalt do this thing, 
and God command thee so, then thou shalt [wilt] be able to endure, and all this 

24 people shall also [people also will] go to their place in peace. So [And] Moses 

25 hearkened to the voice of his father in-law, and did all that he had said. And 
Moses chose able men out of all Israel, and made them heads over the people, 

26 rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens. And 
they judged the people at all seasons [times]: the hard causes [matters] they 

27 brought unto Moses, but every small matter they judged themselves. And Moses 
let his father-in-law depart ; and he went his way into his own land. 



EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL. 

General Survey of the Section. Israel's jour- 
ney from the shore of the Red Sea to Mt. Sinai. 
The host enters the wilderness of Shur (the same 
as the wilderness of Elham), and its first camp- 
ing-place is hy the bitter waters of Marah. The 
second is Elim. Next comes the encampment on 
the Red Sea recorded in Num. xxxiii. Still 
later the entrance into the wilderness of Sin, 
and the encampment in it. With this is con- 
nected the sending of the manna and of the 
quails. Then follows the stay in Rephidim with 
three leading event'C the water from the rock, 
the victory over Amalek, and Jethro's advice 
concerning an orderly judicial system. Accord- 
ing to Num. xxxiii. it must be assumed that the 
people encamped on the Red Sea just as they 
touched the wilderness of Sin; for it was not till 
after this that they entered the wilderness (ver. 
11 1, as they also at the first entered the wilder- 
derness of Shur, on the borders of which they 
found themselves at the Tery oatset. Between 



the encampment on the Red Sea and that in Re- 
phidim we find in the Book of Numbers Dophkah 
and Alush ; and it is said that they journeyed 
from the wilderness of Sin to Dophkah. Enobel 
observes that these two stations, not mentioned 
in Exodus, are omitted because nothing of his- 
torical importance is connected with them. Also 
about this journey from Ay un Musa to Sinai there 
has been an immense deal of discussion, as well 
as about the journey from Raemses to the Red 
Sea. Vid. Robinson I., p. 90, Bi'am, Israel's Wan- 
derung von Gosen bis zum Sinai (Elberfeld, 1859); 
Strauss, Sinai und Golgotha, p. 124; von Bau- 
mer, Palastina, p. 480; Tisohendorf, Aus dm 
heiligen L'mde, p. 23 ; Kurtz, History nf the Old 
Covenant III., p. 15sqq.; Bunsen V., 2, p. 155; 
and the commentaries. 

There is general agreement as to the locality 
of the first stations. It is assumed that Israel, 
after the passage of the sea, encamped at Ayun 
Musa (the Wells of Moses), opposite the high 
mountain Atakah, on the other side of the Red 
Sea. The next camping-place, Marah (Bitter- 
ness;, is found about sixteen and a half hours, or 



CHAP. XV. 22— XVm. 27. 



69 



a iiree days' journey beyond, by the well Howara 
or Hawara, of which Robinson says: "The basin 
is six or eight feet in diameter, and the water 
about two feet deep. Its taste is unpleasant, 
saltish, and somewhat bitter. . . . The Arabs .. . 
consider it as the worst water in all these re- 
gions" {Pal. H., p. 96). Cf. Seetzen III., p. 117, 
and Keil II., p. 58, who quotes divergent opinions 
of Ewald and Lepsius. — The next camping-place, 
EUm, is two and a half hours further south, in 
what is now the Wady Qhurundel, with a beau- 
tiful vegetation consisting in palms, tamarisks, 
acacias, and tall grass. — a prominent stopping- 
place on the way from Suez to Sinai. " The 
way from Howara to this place is short, but the 
camping-places of an army in march, lilce that of 
the Israelites, are always determined by the sup- 
ply of water" (Keil). The fourth stopping-place, 
called in Num. xxxiii. 10 the one on the Bed Sea, 
is found at the mouth of Wady Taiyibeh (Robin- 
son I., p. 105), eight hours beyond Wady Ghu- 
ruudi"l. From th'S point the route becomes less 
easy to fix. In Nam. xxxiii. 11 we read: "They 
removed from the Red Sea, and encamped in the 
wilderness of Sin." * Here in Exodus it is said 
that the wilderness lies between Elim and Sinai. 
This addition seems designed not only to give 
the general direction (since that would be quite 
Buperfluons), but to designate the middle point 
between EUm and Sinai. The chief question 
here is, whether the wilderness of Sin as tra- 
versed by the Israelites, is to be located further 
south on a sea coast, where the plain is for the 
most part a good hour wide, as is assumed by 
many (not aU, as Br'am says), or whether the 
high table land el Debbe, or Debbet en Nasb, 
with its red sand and sand-stones, is to be talsen 
for the Wilderness of Sin (Knobel). Accord- 
ingly, there are two principal routes, of which 
the first again branches into two. By the coast 
route one can go along the coast as fir as Tur 
(Gwald), and from that in a northeast direction 
come to, Sinai; or more directly (i. e., at first in 
an inland direction from the fountain Murkha) 
enter through the waJies Shellal and Badireh 
(Butera) into the wadies Mukatteb and Peirau, 
and reach Mt. Horeb (de la Borde, von Raumer, 
and others).-)- The other route, the mountain or 
highland route (Burckhardt and others) turns 
from Taiyibeh " suulheast through Wady Shu- 
beikah over a high table-land, with the mountain 
Sarbut el Jemel, then through Wady Ilumr upon 

* Inasm'ioh as P^tusium, as being a marshy city, is called 
S'W, an 1 S nai, heiiig a rocky moantain, is jnst tite opposite, 
the que^tiim arise-) : Wtiat is the common feature of a marshy 
wildomeas, and of a rocky mountain range? Possibly, the 
points and den'iculations of tlie thorn-bush. An old inter- 
pretation chUh Sinai itself a thorn-bush, fr tm the thorn-bush 
\T\i^) in which Jehovah revealed Himself to Moses. The 

Btony wilde-npsa may have the thorn-bush in common with 
the marshy fens. 

t f Lange omits another way which might have been taken, 
UK., fro-n el-Murkhah along the coast, and thence up Wady 
Feiran, instead of »he more direct way through the wadies 
Shellal and Mulcatteb into Wady Feiran. This is the course 
which the mnmbers of the Sinai Survey Expedition unani- 
mously decided ti be the mist probable, inasmuch as the 
road over the pass of Nagb Buderah, bitweon the wadi s Shel- 
lal and Mukatteb, must have lieen consrructed at a time pos- 
terior to the Exodus (B. H. Palmer: Tim Desert nfthe Exodus, 
p. 276), Robinson also mentions this route as at least eqnallv 
probable wiih the other (I., p. 107). Palmer is quite decided 
that no other route afforded facilities for a large caravan such 
afl that of the sraelites,— Tb.] 



the wide sandy plain el Debbe, or Debbet en 
Nasb " (Keil), and on through several wadies 
directly to Horeb. For and against each of these 
routes much may be said. Of Knobel, p. 162 
sqq. ; Keil II. p. 61. According to the latter 
view, advocated by Knobel and Keil, the camp- 
ing-place in the wilderness of Sin is to be sought 
in Wady Nasb, where among date-palms a well 
of ample and excellent water is to be found. 
The second seacoast route was taken by Strauss 
and Krafft {Sinai und Golgotha, p. 127). Also 
the last time by Tischendorf {Aus dtm hdligen 
Lande, p. 35). The same way is preferred by 
Bram in his work " Israel's Wanderung," etc. 
Likewise Robinson regards this as the course 
taken by the Israelites, though he himself took the 
one on the table-land. To decide is not easy, 
and is of little importance for our purpose. But 
the following observations may serve as guides: 
(1) If, as is most probable, the names Sin and 
Sinai are connected etymologically, this is an 
argument for the table-land route, especially as 
it also seems to lie more nearly midway between 
Elim and Sinai ; (2) the water seems here to be, 
though less abundant, yet better, than in most of 
the salty fountains on the seacoast, whose tur- 
bidness also is easily to be explained by its situ- 
ation on the coast {vid. Robinson, p. llO) ; (3) 
on the table-land, in the depressions of which ve- 
getation was everywhere found, there was cer- 
tainly better provision for the cattle than on the 
seacoast, where they were often entirely sepa- 
rated from pasture land by mountain barriers ; 
(4) if the encampment in the wilderness of Sin 
was also an encampment on the Red Sea, the 
preceding encampment could not, without causing 
confusion, be designated by the term " on the 
Red Sea." So much for the mountain route. 
Ritter has argued against the view that the jour- 
ney was made on the table-land through Wady 
Ntsb, in the Evangeliseher Kalender. Vid. Kurtz 
III., p. 61. For the rest, each way had its pecu- 
liar attractions as well as its peculiar difficulties. 
The mountain route allowed the host to spread 
itself, as there was much occasion for doing ; it 
presented grand views, and prepared the people 
for a long time beforehand for its destination, 
Sinai. It is distinguished by "the singular and 
mysterious monuments of Surabit el-^hadim" 
(Robinson I., p. 113; Niebuhr, p. 235). By the 
way which runs half on the seacoast, half 
through the mountains, we pass through the re- 
markable valley of inscriptions, Mukatteb, and 
through the grand valley Feiran, rich in tama- 
risks, in whose vicinity lies the lofty Serbal, re- 
garded by Lepsius as the mountain on which the 
law was given. On the inscriptions on the 
rocks and cliffs in the valley Mukatteb, see Ti- 
schendorf, "Ausdemh. Lande," p. 39 sqq.; Kurtz 
III., p. 64. By these they are ascribed for the 
most part to Nabatsean emigrants and to pilgrims 
going to attend heathen festivals. On the "rock 
of inscriptions" see also Ritter's reference to 
Wellsted and von Schubert, Vol. XIV., p 459. 
On the former city Faran in Feiran, see Tischen- 
dorf, p. 46. The camping-place in the wilder- 
ness of Sin is, as follows from the above, vari- 
ously fixed; according to some it is the plain on 
the sea south of Taiyibeh, which, however, must 
then be called the wilderness of Sin up to the 



60 



EXODUS. 



mountain range, if (he camping-place is to be 
distinguished from the one on the Red Sea; ac- 
cording to Bunsen and others, the camping-place 
was in the place called el Munkhah. According 
to others, it is the large table-land el Debbe or 
Debbet en Nasb. The camping-places in the wil- 
derness of Sin being indeterminate, so are also the 
two following ones at Dophkah and Alush (Num. 
xxsiii. 12). Conjectures respecting the two sta- 
tions beyond the wilderness of Sin are made by 
Knobel, p. 174, and Bunsen, p. 156. The last 
station before the host arrives at Sinai is Rephi- 
dim. This must have been at the foot of Horeb, 
for "Jehovah stood on the rook on Horeb, when 
He gave water to the people encamped in Rephi- 
dim (xvii. 6), and at the same place Moses was 
visited by Jethro, who came to him at the mount 
of God" (Knobel). This is a very important 
point fixed, inasmuch as it seems to result from 
it, that Serbal is to be looked for north of, or be- 
hind, Rephidim and Horeb, but the Mt. Sinai of 
the Horeb range in the south. * The great plain 
at the foot of Horeb, where the camp of the Is- 
raelites is sought, is called the plain er-Raha 
(Knobel derives D'TSI, "breadth," "surface," 
"plain," from 131, to be spread). | For a refu- 
tation of Lepsius, who finds Rephidim in Wady 
Feiran, and Sinai in Serbal, see Knobel, p. 174. 
On Serbal itself (Palm grove of Baal) vid. Kurtz 
III., p. 67. Between Serbal and the Horeb group 
lies Wady es-Sheikh. From the mouth of this 
wady towards Horeb the plain of Rephidim is 
thought to begin. Other assumptions : The de- 
file with Moses' seat, Mokad Seidna Musa, 
or the plain of Suweiri. Perhaps not very dif- 
ferent from the last mentioned [vid. Keilll., p. 79; 
Strauss, p. 131). The most improbable hypothesis 
identifies Rephidim with Wady Feiran (Lepsius). J 

1. Marah. Chap. xv. 22-26. 

On the wilderness of Shur, vid. Keil II., p. 57. 

Particulars about Howara [Hawara (Robinson), 

Hawwai-a (Palmer)], Knobel, p. 160. — The bitter 

salt water at Marah.^ The miracle here consists 

* fThii is not perspicuona. Inasmuch as Serbal is not 
mentioned in the Bible, no inference can be drawn from these 
eircumatancea respecting its location. Moreover, Serbal is 
not north of Sinai (Jebel Musa), bnt nearly east — a little 
north only. And why is "north" called "behind' ? The 
" hinder " region, according to Hebrew conceptions, is in the 
went. — Tr.] 

t [The theory that Rephidim is to be Bouffht in er-Raha 
(advocated by Knobel, Keil, Lange, and others), is certainly 
open to the objection that that plain is close by Mt. Sinai 
itself, and is in all probability the camping-place " before the 
mount," mentioned in xix. 1, 2, Palmer (p. 112) and Rob- 
inson (T., p. T55) are emphatic in the opinion that the plain 
of Set>ai' eh, south-east, of Jebel Musa, is quire insufjicient to 
have accommodated the Israelitish camp. Repliidim, there- 
fore, being (ac -ordmii to xix. 2) at least a day s march from 
the place whence Moses weot up to receive the law, cannot 
well have been er-Baha, Stanley (Sinai muL PaUsi'Tie, p. 40) 
and Palmer defend the old vit^w that it is to be looked for at 
Feiran, ne.ar Mt. Serhal, Palmer argues that the distance, 
apparently much too great to have been traversed in a single 
day, is no insuperable objection, provided that by "the wil 
dernesB of Sinai" we understand the mouth of Nagb Hawa, 
which may have been reached in a single day by the direct 
route from Teiran. — Tr.] 

t [On 1 his point see the last note. A good map of the whole 
peninsula is to be found in Smith and Grove's Atlas of Ancient 
Geography. — Tr.] 

§ "The Arabs call the well exitiimi, intAritua, probably in 
accordanr e with the nofiou rhat that which is bitter is deadly 
(2 Kings iv. 40)." Knobel. The Arabs may make humorous 
remarks about bad weils of water, like the Germans on bad 



in great part in the fact that Jehovah showed 
Moses a tree by which the water was made drink- 
able. That the tree itself was a natural tree is 
not denied by the strictest advocates of a literal 
interpretation. A part of the miracle is to be 
charged to the assurance of the prophetic act, 
and the trustful acceptance of it on the part of 
the people. Various explanations: The well was 
half emptied, so that pure water flowed in (Jo- 
sephus) ; the berries of the ghurlud shrub were 
thrown in (Burokhardt). According to Robin- 
son, the Beduins of the desert know no means of 
changing bitter salt water to sweet. ■' In Egypt," 
as Josephus relates, "bad water was once puri- 
fied by throwing in certain split sticks of wood" 
(Bram). This leads to the question, how far 
the salt water might have been made more 
drinkable by Moses' dipping into it a crisp, 
branchy shrub, as a sort of distilling agent. 
For this the numerous clumps of the ghurkud 
shrub which stand around the well, and whose 
berries Burokhardt wished to make use of, are 
very well suited. The distillation consists in 
the art of separating, in one way or another, 
salt, from water, especially by means of brush- 
wood; generally, for the purpose of getting 
salt; but it might be done for the opposite pur- 
pose of getting water. In proportion as a bunch 
of brushwood should become inerusted with the 
salt, the water would become more free from the 
salt. For the rest, Robinson observes, concern- 
ing the water of the fountain Hawara, "Its 
taste is unpleasant, saltish, and somewhat bitter; 
but we could not perceive that it was very much 
worse than that of Ayun Musa." It must fur- 
ther be considered that the Jews had the soft, 
agreBable Nile water in recollection. Kurtz has 
even found an antithesis in the fact that Moses 
made the undrinkable water at Marah drinkable, 
as he had made the sweet water of the Nile un- 
drinkable. We are here also to notice that the 
effect of Moses' act was not permanent, but con. 
siated only in the act itself, the sume as is true 
of the saving eflFect of the sacraments in relation 
to faith. Here, too, is another proof that Moses 
had a quite peculiar sense for the life of nature, 
a sense which Jehovah made an organ of His 
Spirit. With the curing of the well Jehovah 
connected a fundamental law, stating on what 
condition He would be the Saviour of the people. 
Bram (p. 114) points out, with reason, that the 
Israelites, in drinking salty water, which has a 
laxative effect, might well apprehend that the 
much-dreaded sicknesses of Egypt, the pesti- 
lence, the small-pox, the leprosy, and the inflam- 
mation of the eyes, caused by the heat and the 
fine dry sand, together with the intense reflection 
of light, might attack them here also in the wil- 
derness, the atmosphere of which otherwise haa 
a healing effect on many diseased constitutions. 
Therefore, in curing that well, Jehovah esta- 
blished the chief sanitary law for Israel. It is 
very definite, as if from the mouth of a very 
careful physician well acquainted with his case. 
General rule: perfect compliance with Jehovah's 
direction ! Explanation of it: if thou doest what 
is right in His eyes, and wilt give ear to His 
commandments, and keep all His statutes (in re- 



wines, in hyperbolical expressions wt.ioh are not to be taken 
literally. 



CHAP. XV. 22— XVIII. 27. 



61 



ference to the means of spiritual recovery, diet- 
etics), then I will put none of the diseases 
upon thee which I have put upon the 
Egyptians, for I am Jehovah, thy physi- 
cian. — But how can it be added, "and there he 
proved them?" The whole history has been a 
test of the question, whether the people would 
obey the directions of Jehovah given through 
Moses, and particularly whether, after the sin- 
gular means employed by Moses, they would 
drink in faith. Every test of faith is a tempta- 
tion for sinful man, because in his habituation to 
the common order of things lies an incitement 
not to believe in any extraordinary remedy, such 
as seems to contradict nature. But out of the 
actual temptation which the people had now 
passed through, proceeded this theocratic sani- 
tary law, as a temptation perpetually repeating 
itself. There is even still a temptation in the 
principle of the theocratic therapeutics, that ab- 
solute certainty of life lies in absolute obedience 
to God's commands and directions. According 
to Keil, the statute here spoken of does not con- 
sist in the divine utterance recorded in ver. 26, 
but in an allegorical significance of the fact 
itself: the leading of the Israelites to bitter 
water which the natural man cannot and will 
not drink, together with the making of this water 
Bweet and wholesome, is to be a pil, that is, a sta- 
tute and a law, showing how God at all times will 
lead and govern His people, and a BBU'D, that is, 
an ordinance, inasmuch as Israel may continu- 
ally depend on the divine help, etc. If this is so, 
then the text must receive an allegorical inter- 
pretation not obviously required. 

Furthermore, it is a question whether, after the 
tremendous excitements through which the peo- 
ple had passed, bitter and salty water like that 
at Marab, might not have been more beneficial 
than hurtful to (hem. Salt water restores the 
digestion when it has been disturbed by excite- 
ment. Notice, moreover, the stiff-neckedness or 
stubbornness peculiar to the disposition of slaves 
just made free, as it gradually makes its appear- 
ance and increases. It was in their distress at 
Pi-hahiroth that they first gave utterance to their 
moroseness; true, they cried to Jehovah, but 
quarrelled with Moses. They seemed to have 
forgotten the miracle of deliverance wrought in 
the night of Egypt's terror. Here they even 
murmur over water that is somewhat poorer than 
usual. The passage through the Red Sea and 
the song of praise seem to be forgotten. In the 
wilderness of Sin the whole congregation mur- 
murs against Moses and Aaron, i.e., theirdivinely 
appointed leaders, from fear of impending fa- 
mine, probably because the supplies brought 
from Egypt were running low ; — the ample re- 
freshment enjoyed at Elim seems to be forgotten. 
In Rephidim they murmur on account of want of 
water; — the miraculous supply of manna and 
quails seems to be forgotten. On the other hand, 
however, the wise augmentation of severity in the 
divine discipline becomes prominent. At Marah 
nothing is said of any rebuke uttered by Jeho- 
vah, as is done later. Num. xi. 14, 20. Espe- 
cially noticeable is the great difference between 
the altercation at Marah, in the wilderness of 
Sin, and the mutiny at Kadesh, J^um. zx. The 



altercation there is expressly called a striving 
with Jehovah, ver. 18. 

2. Mim. Chap. xv. 27. 
A fine contrast with Marah is afforded here, 
both in nature, and in the guidance of the peo- 
ple of God, and in (he history of the inner life. 
In Elim, IBaumgarten and Kurtz find a place 
expressly prepared for Israel, inasmuch as by 
the number of its wells and palm trees it bears in 
itself the seal of this people: every tribe having 
a well for man and beast, and the tent of each 
one of the elders of the people (xxiv. 9) having 
the shade (according to Baumgarten, the date.q) 
of a palm-tree. Even Keil finds this too su- 
pernaturalistic; at least, he observes that, while 
the number of the wells corresponds to the 
twelve tribes of Israel, yet the number of the 
palm trees does not correspond to that of the 
elders, whiib, according to xxiv. 9, was much 
(?) greater. On neither side is the possibility 
of a symbolical significance in the numbering 
thought of; without doubt, however, the em- 
phasis given to the number seventy is as signifi- 
cant as that given to the number twelve. Keil's 
allusion to the 23d Psalm is appropriate. See 
particulars about Elim in Knobel, p. 161 ; Tisch- 
endorf, p. 36.* 

3. The Wilderness of Sin. Chap. xvi. 1—36. 
Notice first the aggravated character of the 
murmuring. Now the whole congregation mur 
murs. And not against Moses alone, but against 
Moses and Aaron, so that the murmuring is more 
definitely directed against the divine commission 
of the two men, and so against the divine act of 
bringing them out of Egypt, .that is, against 
Jehovah Himself. Moreover, the expression of 
a longing after Egypt becomes more passionate 
and sensual. At first they longed resignedly 
for the graves of Egypt, in view of the danger 
of death in the desert. The next time, too, they 
say nothing about their hankering after the 
Nile water in view of the bitter water of Marah. 
But now the flesh-pots of Egypt and the Egyp- 
tian bread become prominent in their imagina- 
tion, because they conceive themselves to be 
threatened with famine. Corresponding to the 
aggravation of the murmuring are the beginnings 
of rebuke. Says Knobel, "What the congre- 
gation had brought with them from Egypt 
had been consumed in the thirty days which had 
elapsed since their exodus (ver. 1), although 
the cattle brought from Egypt (xii. 38) had not 
jet all been slaughtered or killed by thirst (?), 
since after their departure from the wilderness 
of Sin they still possessed cattle at Rephidim, 
which they wished to save from thirsting to 
death (xvii. 3). For the herds had not been 
taken merely to be at once slaughtered; and 
meat could not take the place of bread. In their 
vexation the people wish that they had died in 
Egypt, while filling themselves from the flesh- 
pots, 'by the hand of Jehovah,' i. e., in the last 
plague inflicted by Jehovah upon Egypt, rather 
than gradually to starve to death here in the 



* [Wilson, (Lands of the Bible, Tol. I., p. 174), would iden- 
tify with Elim, not Wady Ghurimdel, but Warty Waseit 
(IJseit), five or six miles Bouth of Wady Ghurundel.— TK.]. 



62 



EXODUS. 



wilderness." In the verb used (|n Niph.) is 
expressed a murmuring just passing over into 
contumacy. Yet here too Jehovah looks with 
compassion upon the hard situation of the peo- 
ple, and hence regards their wealtness with 
indulgence. 

The natural substratum of the double miracle 
of feeding, now announced and brought to pass, 
is found in the food furnished by the desert to 
nomadic emigrants. The manna is the miracu- 
lous representative of all vegetable food ; the 
quails denote the choicest of animal prey fur- 
nished by the desert. The first element in the 
miracle is here too the prophetic foresight and 
assurance of Moses. The second is the actual 
miraculous enhancement of natural phenomena ; 
the third is here also the trustful acceptance of 
it : the miracle of faith and the religious mani- 
festation answering to it. The ultra-superna- 
turalistio view, it is true, is not satisfied with 
this. It holds to a different manna from that 
provided by God in nature, and ought, in con- 
sistency, to distinguish the quails miraculously 
given from ordinary quails. 

In this case, too, the trial of faith was to be a 
temptation (ver. 4), to determine whether the 
people would appropriate the miraculous blessing 
to themselves in accordance with the divine pre- 
cept, and so recognize Jehovah as the giver, or 
whether they would go out without restraint 
and on their own responsibility to seize it, as if 
in a wild chase. Here, therefore, comes in the 
establishment of the fundamental law concerning 
the healing of life ; and this is done by the or- 
daining of the seventh day as a day of rest, the 
Sabbath. As man, when given over to a merely 
natural life, is inclined to seek health and re- 
cuperation without regarding the inner life and 
the commandments of God, so he is also inclined 
to yield himself passionately and without re- 
straint to the indulgence of the natural appetite 
fur food, and, in his collection of the meant) 
of nourishment, to lose self-collection, the self- 
possession of an interior life. As a token of this 
the Sabbath here comes in at the right point, 
and therefore points at once from the earthly 
manna to the heavenly manna, (tiirf. John vi. ).* 

The announcement of the miracle. I 'will lain. 
The first fundamental condition of the feeding: 
recognition of the Giver, comp. James i. 17. — 
From heaven. Though this in general might 
also be said of bread " from the earth," yet 
here a contrast is intended. From the sky 
above, i. e., as a direct gift. — The people shall 
go out and gather. A perpetual harvest, but 
limited by divine ordinance. — A daily portion 
every day. Reminding one of the petition, 
■"Give us this day,' etc. An injunction of con- 
tentment. — On the sixth day. They will 
find, on making their preparation of the food, 
that the blessing of this day ia sufficient also for 
the seventh. — At even. A gift of flesh was to 
precede the gift of manna. Thereby they are 
to understand that Jehovah has led them out of 
Egypt, that He has provided for them a substi- 
tute for the flesh-pots of Egypt. But on the next 



* Further on follows the fundamental law of warfare in B"If- 
defence ftirnlnat heathen enemies, as well a^ the fundamental 
law for the unhes ta'ing appropriation of heathen wisdom. 



morning they shall see the glory of Jehovah, i. e. 
they shall recognize the glorious presence of 
Jehovah in the fact that He has heard their mur- 
muring against Moses and Aaron, and has ap- 
plied it to Himself, in that He presents them the 
manna. — For -what are we ? Thus do the 
holy men retire and disappear behind Jehovah. — 
But the people also mubt come to this same con- 
viction, must repent of their murmurings, and 
feel that they have murmured against Jehovah, 
not against His servants. Thus with perfect 
propriety is a sanction of the sacred office inter- 
woven into the same history into which the his- 
tory of the Sabbath is interwoven. Hence it 
follows also that the true sacred office must au- 
thenticate itself by miraculous blessings. Both 
are sealed by a specially mysterious revelation. 
It is significant that in this connection Aaron 
must be the speaker (ver. 9), that he must sum- 
mon the people before Jehovah to bumble them- 
selves before His face on account of their mur- 
muring. Equally significant is it, that the con- 
gregation, while Aaron speaks, sees (he mani- 
festation of Jehovah's glory in the cloud. 
Especially significant, however, is it, that they 
see this glory rest over the wide wilderness, as 
they turn and look towards it. A most beauti- 
ful touch ! With the wilderness itself the way 
through the wilderness is transfigured at this 
moment. If we assume (with Keil) thai the 
summons to appear before Jehovah is equivalent 
to a summons to come out of the tents to the 
place where the cloud stood, then it must be 
further assumed, that the cloud suddenly changed 
its position, and removed to the wilderness, or 
else appeared in a double form. Neither thing 
can be admitted. Hereupon follows the last 
solemn announcement of the miraculous feeding, 
as the immediate announcement of Jehovah 
Himself. 

The double miracle itaelf. — The quails came 
up. — This narrative has its counterpart in the 
narrative of the quails in Num. xi. 4 sqq., just 
as the chiding on account of want of water at 
Rephidim has its counterpart in the .story of the 
water of strife (Meribah), distinctively so-called 
in Num. xx. The relation of the narratives to 
one another is important. The murmuring of 
the people in the beginning of their journey 
through the wilderness is treated with the 
greatest mildness, almost as a child's sickneiis; 
but their murmuring towards the end of the 
journey is regarded as a severe offence, and is 
severely punished; it is like the offence of a 
mature man, committed in view of many years' 
experience of God's miraculous help. At the 
water of strife even Moses himself is involved 
in the guilt, through his impatience; and the 
gift of quails in abundance is made a judgment 
on the people for their immoderate indulgence. 
Another difference corresponds to the natural 
features of the desert: the quails do not keep 
coming ; but the people find themselves accom- 
panied by the manna till they are tired of eating 
it. — Came up. — nSjf. The coming on of a host 
of locusts or birds has the optical appearance 
of a coming up. — l7t?n, " with the article of ft 
word used collectively of a class " (Keil). LXX. 



CHAP. XV. 22— XVIII. 27. 



63 



oprvyo/i^rpa, Vulg. cotumicei. Large quails, 
whose name in Arabic comes from their fatness 

— 17^, fat. SaysKnobel: "They become very 
fat, increase enormously, and in the spring mi- 
grate northward, in the autumn southward. 
Here we are to conceive of a spring migration. 
For the events described took place in the second 
month, i. e. about our May (xvi. 1 ; Num. x. 11), 
and the quails came to the Israelites from the 
gouth-east, from the Arabian Gulf (Ps. Ixxviii. 
26 sq. ; Num. xi. 31). In his journey from 
Sinai to Edomitis in March, Schubert (II., p. 
860 sq.) saw whole clouds of migratory birds, 
of such extent and denseness as never before ; 
they came from their southern winter quarters, 
and were hastening toward the sea-coast (?). 
Probably they were quails, at lenst in part." 
Further particulars on the abundance of quails 
in those regions, see in Knohel (p. 1G6) and 
Keil {XI., p. 66). " They are sometimes so 
exhausted that they can be caught with the 
hand" (Keil). Some identify the fowl with the 
kata of the Arabs [a sort of partridge]. Of course 
it must be assumed that the Israelites in the wil- 
derness were no more confined to the quails for 
meat than to the manna for bread. 

The mama. Vers. 13, 14. A layer of dew. 
A deposit or fall of dew. — A dust, i. e. an 
abundance of small kernels. If the OTraf Tie-/. 
DSippn is explaiaed simply according to the 
verb*'iDn, to peal off, scale off, we get the no- 
tion of scaly or leaf-shaped kernels, but not that 
of coagulated kernels. But perhaps the notion 
of shelled kernels of grain is transferred, in ac- 
cordance with appearance, to these kernels. 
"According to ver. 31 and Num. xi. 7," says 
Knobel, " the manna resembled in appearance 
the white coriander seeds (small, round kernels 
of dull white or yellowish green color) and the 
bdellium (resin)." Again he says: "According 
to the Old Testament, the dew comes from hea- 
ven (Deut. xxxiii. 13, 28; Prov. iii. 20; Zeoh. 
viii. 12; Hag. i. 10); with it the manna de- 
scended (Num. xi. 9) ; this seems therefore like 
bread rained down from heaven, and is called 
'corn of heaven,' ' bread of heaven ' (Ps. Ixxviii. 
24; cv. 40)," Further on Knobel relates that 
the ancients also supposed, that honey rained 
down from the air ; hence he should more 
exactly distinguish between the notions of at- 
mosphere and of heaven as the dwelling-place 
of God, comp. John vi. 31, 32.— Man hu.— The 
explanation that JD is to be derived from [JO. 
to apportion, and that this expression therefore 
means: "a present is that" (Kimchi, Luther, 
Gesenius, Knobel. Kurtz), does not suit the con- 
text, which would make Moses repeat what the 
people had said before him, to say nothing of 
the fact that the derivation of the notion " pre- 
sent" from the verb is disputed. On the con- 
trary, the interpretation of the LXX., Keil and 
others, ri iari tovto, perfectly accords with the 
connection. They said: "What is that?" be- 
cause they did not know what it was. " ]n for 
riD belongs to the popular language, and is pre- 
served in Chaldee and Ethiopic, so that it is 
indisputably to be regarded as an old Shemitic 
form" (Keil). 
8 



The natural mnnna and the miraculous manna. — 
Comp. the articles in the Bible UictioBarics. 
Keil says: "This bread of heaven was given by 
Jehovah to His people for the first time at a sea- 
son and in a place where natural manna is still 
found. The natural manna is now found in the 
peninsula of Sinai usually in June and .luly, 
often even as early as in May, most abundantly 
in the vicinity of Mt. Sinai, in Wady Feiran and 
Es-sheikh, but also jn Wady Ghurundel and 
Tayibeh (Seetzen, Reisen, III., p. 76, 129), and 
some valleys south-east of Mt. Sinai (Bitter, 
XIV., p. 676), where it in warm weather oozes 
by night out of the branches of the tarfa-tree, a 
sort of tamarisk, and in the form of small glo- 
bules falls down upon the dry leaves, branches, 
and thorns which lie under the trees, and is 
gathered before sunrise, but melts in the heat 
of the sun. In years when rain is abundant, it 
falls more plentifully for six weeks; in many 
years it is entirely wanting. It has the appear- 
ance of gum, and has a sweet, honey-like taste, 
and when copiously used, is said to be a gentle 
laxative (Burokhardt, Si/ria, p. 600 ; Wellsted in 
Bitter, p. 674). There are thus presented some 
striking points of resemblance between the man- 
na of the Bible and the tamarisk manna. Not 
only is the place where the Israelites first re- 
ceived manna the same as that in which it is 
obtained now, but the time of the year is the 
same, inasmuch as the 15th day of the seco d 
month (ver. 1) falls in the middle of our May, 
01? even still later. Also in color, form and ap- 
pearance the resemblance is unmistakable, since 
the tamarisk manna, though of a dull yellow 
color, jet when it falls upon stones is described 
as white ; the resemblance is likewise seen in 
the fact, that it falls in kernels upon the earth, 
is gathered in the morning, melts in the sun, 
and tastes like honey. While these points of 
agreement indubitably point to a connection be- 
tween the natural and the Biblical manna, yet 
the differences which run parallel with all of 
the resemblances indicate no less clearly the 
miraculous character of the heavenly bread." 
Thus Keil leaves the matter, without reconciling 
the two positions. The miraculous manna, he 
says, was enjoyed by the Israelites forty years 
long everywhere in the wilderness and at all 
seasons of the year in quantity equal to the 
wants of the very numerous people. Hengsten- 
berg's theory {Oeschichte des Bileam, p. 280) that 
the natural manna which is formed on the leaves 
of the tarfa-bush by the sting of an insect 
(according to a discovery of Ehrenberg's), is 
the natural substratum of the miraculous abun- 
dance of manna, is combated by Kurtz III , p. 
84. Kurtz can conceive that the people lived at 
Kadesh thirty-seven years in apostasy, and that 
nevertheless during all this time they received 
regularly their portion of manna for every man. 
By this method of distinguishing the miraculous 
from the natural manna, we come to the hypo- 
thesis, that the people of Israel were fed with 
two kinds of manna ; for it will certainly not be 
assumed that the natural fall of manna during 
all this time was supernaturally suspended, as 
in a similar manner Keil on xvi. 10 makes out 
two pillars of cloud. Von Raumer and Kurtz, 
we may remark, go as much beyond Keil, 



64 



EXODUS. 



as Keil does beyond Hengstenberg. Vid 
Keil, p. 72, and the note on the same page. 
Between the baldly literal interpretation and 
the embellishments of wonder-loving legends the 
view above described recognizes nothing higher; 
it does not understand the symbolic language of 
the theocratic religion, nor see how an under- 
standing of this lifts us as much above the mythi- 
cal as the literal interpretation. The defect of 
the latter consists, as to substance, in the circum- 
stance that it identifies the conception of nature 
with that of the common external world raised by 
a Providential government only a little above a 
material system: as to form, it is defective in 
that it identifies the word and the letter, and can- 
not understand and appreciate the specific dif- 
ference between the heathen myth and the sym- 
bolical expression of the theocratic spirit as it 
blends together ideas and facts. Kurtz refers 
to the miracle in John ii., without clearly appre- 
hending that this miracle would be the merest 
trifle, if his notion of the miracle of the manna 
is the correct one, to say nothing of the evident 
conflict of this with John vi. 32. Knobel, whose 
learned disquisition on the manna (p. 171 egg.) 
should be consulted, thus states the distinctive 
features of the miraculous manna, which he re- 
gards as a legendary thing: (a) The manna, ac- 
cording to the Biblical account, "comes with the 
mist and dew from heaven (xvi. 14) ;" — so Kurtz 
III., p. 28 But since the mist does not come 
down from the throne of God, the meaning is 
simply that it comes from above, not from below, 
(b) " It falls in such immense abundnnce that 
every person of the very numerous people daily 
receives an omer (vers. 16, 36)." The omer, 
however, is a very moderate hand measure, the 
tenth part of an ephah, originally hardly a defi- 
nite quantity, vid. Keil II., p. 74. (o) Further- 
more, " those who gather the manna collect al- 
ways only just what they need, no more and no 
less." This is clearly to be symbolically ex- 
plained of contentedness and community, (d) 
" The manna fills only on the six working-days, 
not on the seventh day, it being the Sabbath 
(ver. 26 sq.)." On this is to be observed that this 
exlraordinaryfaot was needed only once, in order 
to sanction the Sabbath; the fact may also be 
explained by the circumstance that on the day 
before an extraordinary, double fall of manna 
took place, (e) "The manna which is kept over 
from one working-day to another becomes wormy 
and offensive (ver. 2 )), whilst that preserved 
from the sixth day to the seventh keeps good 
(ver. 24), for which reason, except on the sixth 
day, the manna must always be eaten on the day 
when it is gathered." This too is a singular, 
enigmatical fiot; but it is cleared up by looking 
at it in its rich i leal light. The supply which 
heathen providence lieaps up breeds worms, de- 
cays, and smells offensively: not so the supply 
required by the Sabbath rest, sacred festivities, 
and divine service, (f ) " It is ground in the 
hand-mill, crushed in the moriar, and cooked by 
baking or boiling, made e. g. into c:ikes (ver. 23, 
Num. xi. 8). (g) It appears in general as a sort 
of bread, tasting like baked food (ver. 31, Num. 

xi. 8), and is always called DnS. even ]J1 (vid. 
ver. 15), to say nothing of the miraculous dou- 



bling of the quantity (vers. 5, 22)." This latter 
feature comes at once to nothing, if we assume 
that on the sixth day there was a double fall of 
manna.* How far the manna, which contains no 
farinaceous elements, but only glucose, was min- 
gled with farinaceous elements, in order to be 
used after the manner of farinaceous food, we 
need not inquire; at all events the Israelites 
could not afterwards have said, of a properly 
farinaceous substance, and that too of a superior 
kind, " Our soul loatheth this light food." The 
splendor with which faith, wonder, and grati- 
tude had invested the enjoyment of the miracu- 
lous food had vanished. According to Keil, the 
connection of the natural manna with the miracu- 
lous manna is not to be denied, but we are also not 
to conceive of a mere augmentation, but the om- 
nipotence of God created from the natural sub- 
stance a new one, " which in quality and quan- 
tity as far transcends the products of nature as 
the kingdom of grace and glory outshines the 
kingdoms of nature." But Christ, in John vi., 
speaks of a manna in the kingdom of grace and 
glory, in contrast with the Mosaic manna. — Ac- 
cording to Kurtz, who, especially in opposition 
to Karl Ritter, follows the opinion of Schubert, 
the manna was prepared by a miracle of omnipo- 
tence in the atmosphere; according to Schubert, 
that "tendency to the production of manna which 
at the right time permeated the vitalizing air, 
and with it all the vital forces of the land, has 
propagated itself still, at least in the living 
thickets of the manna-tamarisks." The natural 
manna, then, is a descendant of the Biblical 
manna, but a degenerate sort, developed by the 
puncture made by the cochineal insect in the 
branches of the tarfa-shrubl 

We are specially to consider further (1) the 
preservation of a pot, containing an omer of 
manna, in the sanctuary; (2) the specification of 
the time during which the use of manna by the 
Israelites lasted. As to the first point, the ob- 
ject was to preserve the manna as a religious me- 
morial; hence the expression of the LLX., OTiji- 
voQ ;|;pi;aot)f, is exegetical. "The historian here 
evidently anticipates the later execution of the 
charge now given. Comp. Hengstenberg, Pen- 
tateuch II., p. 169 sqq." (Kurtz). As to the se- 
cond point, it is expressively said that Israel had 
no lack of the miraculous manna so long as they 
were going through the wilderness; but Kurtz 
infers from Josh. v. 11, 12, that the Jews did not 
cease to eat manna till after the passover in Gil- 
gal, though they had other food besides The 
correct view is presented in the Commentary oa 
Joshua, oh. v. 12, where stress is laid on the con- 
trast between Jehovah's immediate preservation 
of the food of the wilderness, on the one hand, 
and the historical development that took the 
place of this, on the other hand, i. c, the natural 
order of things which belongs to civilized life; 
corresponding to the fact that the ark took the 
place of the pillar of cloud and fire, as leader of 
the people. 

The question whether in this narrative the 



fThis reply, apparently not very rlpav, is the same »! 
the on« made abnvo to epecificatioii (d) of Knobd. L .iigo 
distinguishes between a miraeid ms liill and an extraaraiaary 
fill, and supposes Ijesldes that theoxtraordiuar.i (double) foil 
may ha\ e been limiied to one occnsion.— Te.] 



CHAP. XV. 22— XVIII. 27. 



65 



Sabbath is instituted for the first time (Heng- 
Blenberg), or again renewed (Liebetrut), is thus 
«ccided by Kurtz (III., p. 42): The observance 
of the Sabbath was instituted before the law, 
nay even in Paradise, but " the law of the Sab- 
bath first received a legal character through the 
revelation on Sinai, and lost it again through the 
love whioh is the fulfilling of the law, in the new 
covenant (Col. 11. 16, 17)." In the fulfilment 
nothing indeed is lost, but every law becomes a 
liberating principle. It is noticeable how in the 
history of Moses, patriarchal customs, to which 
also probably the Sabbath belonged, are sanc- 
tiooed by miraculous events and receive a legal 
character ; as has already been seen in various 
instances (festivals, worship, sanitary laws, offi- 
cial ranic, the Sabbath). 



a. Bephidim and the place called Temptation 
and Strife. 

Following the route of the mountain road the 
Israelites now came out of the region of the red 
sandstone into that of porphyry and granite 
(Knobel, p. 174). They came thither " accord- 
ing to their day's journeys," i. e., after several 
day's journeys. In ^um. xxxiii. 12 the two sta- 
tions Dophkah and Alush are mentioned. On 
the conjecture of Knobel (p. 174) concerning 
these places, vid. Keil II., p. 76. 

According to Knobel (p. 176), "popular tra- 
dition transfers the occurrence here mentioned 
tu Eadesb, therefore to a later time, (Num. zx. 
8)." It is a universal characteristic of modern 
scientists that, not being free from the propen- 
»ly to give predominant weight to sensible 
things, they are easily carried away with exter- 
nal resemblances, hence with allegories, and so 
may disregard the greatest internal differences 
0f things. Thus as the external resemblance of 
man to the monkey is more impressive to the 
naturalist than the immense inward contrast, so 
Biblical criticism often becomes entangled in this 
modern allegorizing ; even Hengstenberg pays 
tribute to it in identifying the Simon of Bethany 
with the Pharisee Simon on the Lake of Galilee, 
and so, the Mary of Bethany with the sinful 
woman who anointed Jesus. 

As the sending of the quails in Num. xi. 5 
eqq., forms a companion-piece to that in Ex. xvi., 
so the water of strife in Num. xx. 2 sqq., to the 
water of strife in Rephidim. There is a resem- 
blance even in the sounds of the names of the 
deserts Sin (pD thorn?), and Zin (|S low palm). 
So also the want of water and the murmurs of 
the people, ami in consequence of this the seem- 
ingly identical designation of the place; also the 
giving of water out of the rock. Aside from the 
difference of time and place, the internal features 
"t the two histories are also very different ; even 
the difference in the designations is to be ob- 
served, the place Massah and Meribah (temp- 
tation and strife), and the water Meribah, over 
which the children of Israel strove with Jehovah, 
and He was sanctified (shown to be holy) among 
them. In the first account Jehovah is only 
tempted by the people ; in the second. He is 
almost denied. In the one, Moses is said to 
amite the rock, away from the people, in the 



presence of the ciders; in the other, he and 
Aaron are said to speak with the rock before all 
the people. Also the summary description of 
the journey in Dent. i. 37, leaves no doubt that 
the second incident is entirely different from the 
first. Likewise in Deut. xxxiil. 8, two different 
things are mentioned, and the temptation at 
Massah is distinguished from the strife at the 
water of strife, (oomp. Ps. xcv. 8). It lies in 
the nature of the case that the religious mind 
would celebrate in » comprehensive way its 
recollection of the most essential thing in the 
two events, viz., the miraculous help of Jehovah, 
Deut. viii. 15, Is. xlviii. 21, Ps. Ixxviii. 15, 20, cv. 
41, cxiv. 8, Neh. ix. 15. Why chide ye with 
me? — The true significance of this chiding with 
him Moses at once characterizes : it is a tempt- 
ing of Jehovah. This he could do after what he 
had affirmed in xvi. 8, 9. After the giving of 
the quails and the manna, designed to confirm 
the divine mission of Moses and Aaron, they 
had now to do with Jehovah, when they quar- 
relled with Moses. But how far did they tempt 
Jehovah? Not simply "by unbelieving doubt 
of the gracious presence of the Lord" (Keil). 
They sinfully tested the question whether Jeho- 
vah would again stand by Moses, or would this 
time forsake him. Hence their reproach against 
Moses reaches the point of complaining that he 
is to blame for their impending ruin — a com- 
plaint which might well have been followed by 
stoning. Jehovah's command corresponds with 
this state of things. Moses is to go confidently 
away from the people to the still distant Horeb, 
but to take with him the elders of the people as 
witnesses, and there to smite the rook with his 
rod. But Jehovah is to stand there before him 
on the rock. Does this mean, as Keil represents, 
that God humbles Himself like a servant before 
his master ? He rather appears as Moses' visible 
representative, who rent the rock and produced 
the miraculous spring The rock that followed 
them, says Paul, was Christ (1 Cor. x. 4). 
Thence again is seen the divine human nature 
of the miracle, a mysterious synthesis of natural 
feeling and prophecy of grace. On Tacitus' in- 
vidious narrative of Moses' having discovered a 
spring of water by means of a drove of wild 
asses, see Kurtz III., p. 48. 

b. Rephidim and Amalek. Hostile Heathen- 
dom. 

As in the account of Amalek we see typically 
presented the relation of the people of God to the 
irreconcilably hostile heathendom; so in that 
of Jethro their relation to heathendom as mani- 
festing a kindly disposition towards the theo- 
cracy. 

Exhaustive treatises on the Amalekites may 
be found in the dictionaries and commentaries, 
especially also in Hengstenberg (Pentateuch 
IL,p. 247sqq., and Kurtz IIL, p. 48). In the way 
nations used to be formed, Amalek, a grandson 
of Esau, might quite well have become a nation 
by Moses' time {vid.. Gen. xxxvi.),_ Edomite 
leaders forming a nucleus around which a con- 
glomerate multitude gathered. The Edomite ten- 
dency to barbarism was perpetuated in Amalek, 
and so in his descendants was developed a nation 
of Bedouin robbers, who might have spread from 



EXODUS. 



Idumea to Sinai, and perhaps in their capacity 
as waylayers had come to give name to a moun- 
tion of the Amalekitea in the tribe of Ephraim 
(Judg. xii. 15). Thua might a little people, 
which was kindred to Israel in the same way as 
Edom was, after Israel was regenerated to be 
the people of God, be the first to throw them- 
selves hostilely in their way, and thus become 
the representative of all hostile heathendom, as 
opposed to the people and kingdom of God. In 
accordance with this was shaped the theocratic 
method of warfare against Amalek. and the 
typical law of war (see Keil II., p. 77). It is 
significant that the Midianites in the branch 
represented by Jethro should present heathen- 
dom on friendly terms with Israel, although the 
relationship was much less close. On the denial 
of the identity between the Amalekites and the 
above-mentioned descendants of Esau, see Kurtz 
III., p. 49. The descendant of Esau might, how- 
ever, have received his name Amalek by transfer 
from the Bedouin horde which became subser- 
vient to him. 

Then came Amalek. According to Dent. 
XXV. 18, the attack of the Amalekites was a des- 
picable surprise of the feeble stragglers of the 
Israelites. " We have to conceive the order of 
the events to be about as follows: The murmur- 
ing on account of want of water and the relief 
of that want took place immediately after the 
arrival at Rephidim of the main part of the host 
which had hurried forward, whilst the rear, 
whose arrival had been delayed by fatigue, was 
still on the way. These were atiacked by the 
Amalekites" (Kurtz). The several features in 
the contest now beginning are these: Joshua 
with his chosen men ; Moses on the mountain ; 
the victory; the memorial of the fight; the altar 
Nissi and its typical significance — eternal war 
against Amalek! 

Joshua. Jehovah is help, or salvation. Thus, 
according to Num. xiil. 16, his former name, 
ffoshea {help, or salvation) was enriched; and 
perhaps the present war and victory occasioned 
the change. — Choose us out men. It was 
the first war which the people of God had to 
wage, and it was against a wild and insidious 
foe. Hence no troops of doubtful courage could 
be sent against the enemy, but a select company 
must fight the battle, with Joshua at the head, 
whose heroic spirit Moses had already discovered. 
Precipitancy also was avoided. They let the enemy 
remain secure until the following day. The host 
of warriors, however, had to be supported by the 
host of spirits in the congregation interceding 
and blessing, as represented by Moses in con- 
junction with Aaron and Hur. See my pamphlet 
" Vom Krieg undvom Sieg." 

The completed victory was to be immortalized 
by the military annals (" the book ") and by the 
living recollections of the host ("in the ears of 
Joshua"). — The altar JV/ssj (Jehovah my banner), 
however, was to serve the purpose of inaugura- 
ting the consecration of war by means of right 
military religious service. Accordingly, the two 
essential conditions of the war were, first, Jeho- 
vah's summoning the people to the sacred work 
of defense, secondly, Jehovah's own help. And 
also the war against Amalek is perpetuated until 
he is utterly destroyed only in the sense that 



Amalek typically represents malicious hostility 
to the people and kingdom of God. 

" Hur comes repeatedly before us (xxiv. 14, 
xxxi. 2) as a. man of high repute, and as an as- 
sistant of Moses. Josephus [Ant. III. 2, 4), fol- 
lowing a Jewish tradition, of the correctness of 
which there is much probability, calls him the 
husband of Miriam, Moses' sister" (Kurtz). 
According to xxxi. 2, he was the grandfather of 
Bezaleel, the architect of the tabernacle, of the 
tribe of Judah, and the son of Caleb (Chron. 
i. 17.) 

It is clear that the transaction with the rod of 
Moses was in this case too a symbolic and pro- 
phetic, a divine and human, assurance of victory. 
Therefore the rod must be held on high, and in- 
asmuch as Moses' hands cannot permanently 
hold it up, they must be supported by Aaron and 
Hur. In the holy war the priesthood and no- 
bility must support the prophetical ruler. Thus 
is produced an immovable confidence in Jehovah 
Nissi, afterw.ards called Jehovah Sabaoth (of 
hosts). From His throne, through Moses' hand, 
victorious power and confidence flow into the host 
of warriors. The book begun by Moses, in which 
the victory over Amalek is recorded, is important 
in reference to the question concerning the autho- 
rity of the Bible. " When Jehovah further com- 
mands Hoses to intrust to Joshua the future ex- 
tirpation of Amalek, it becomes evident eT*n 
now that he is destined to be Moses' successor" 
(Kurtz). A conjecture about the hill where 
Moses stood may be found in Knobel, p. 177; 
Keil, II., p. 79. Subsequent wars waged against 
Amalek by Saul and David are narrated in 1 Sam. 
XV., xxvii.,xxx. Kurtz regards the elevated hand 
of Moses not as a symbol of prayer to Jehovah, but 
only of victorious confidence derived from Jeho- 
vah, III., p. 51. Keil rightly opposes the sepa- 
ration of the bestowment of victory from prayer, 
p. 79, but goes to the other extreme when he 
says, " The elevated rod was a sign not for the 
fighting Israelites, since it cannot even be made 
out that they, in the confusion of battle, could 
see it, but for Jehovah." In all human acts of 
benediction prayer and the impartatiou of the 
blessing are united. 

c. Jethro, and heathendom as friendly to the 
people of God. 

Inasmuch as chap. xix. records the establish- 
ment of the theocracy, or of the typical kingdom 
of God, it is in the highest degree significant that 
the two preceding sections fix the relation and 
bearing of the people of God towards heathen- 
dom. Out of one principle are to flow two op- 
posing ones, in accordance with the twofold 
bearing of heathendom. The heathen, repre- 
sented by Amalek, who are persistently hostile, 
wage war against Jehovah Himself; on them de- 
struction is eventually to be visited. The hea- 
ihen, however, represented by Jethro, who aie 
humane and cherish friendship towards the peo- 
ple of God, sustain towards Christianity, as it 
were, the relation of catechumens. The people 
of God enter into commercial and social inter- 
course with then] under the impulse of religion 
and humanity ; similarly James defines the rela- 
tion of Christianity to Judaism. [There is no- 
thing about this in his E[ istle. Is the reference 
to Acts XV. 20, 21 ?— Tr.] 



CHAP. XIX. 1-25. 



(i.) The pious heathen as guest, relative, and 
protector of Moses' family, and as gu-ardian of 
the spiritual treasures of Israel. Vers. 1-4. 

It seems like too legal a conception, when Keil 
calls Jethro the "first-fruits among the heathen 
that seek the living God," and incidentally ad- 
duces his descent from Abraham. Jethro did 
not become a Jevr, but remained a priest in 
Midian, just as John the Baptist did not become, 
properly speaking, a Christian, but remained a 
Jew. It is more correct, when Keil says that 
Amalek and Jethro typify and represent the two- 
fold attitude of the heathen world towards the 
kingdom of God. In opposition to the special 
conjectures of Eurtz and Banke, especially also 
the assumption that there was not time enough in 
Bephidim for this new incident, see Keil, II. p. 84.* 
fii.) The pious heathen as sympathetic friend 
of Moses and of the people of God in their victo- 
ries. Vers. 5-9. 

Notice the delicate discretion which both men 
observe, with all their friendship towards each 
other. Jethro does not rush impetuously for- 
ward; he sends word of his approach. Moses 
receives him with appropriate reverence, but first 
leads him into his tent; for whether and how he 
may introduce him to his people, is yet to be de- 
termined. 

(iii.) Religious song and thank-oflfering of the 
pious heathen. Vers. 10-12. 

The lyrical,! festive recognition of the great- 
ness of Jehovah in His mode of bringing the 
Egyptians to confusion through their very arro- 
gance does not involve conversion to Judaism ; 

* [Kurtz's conjecture is that what led Jethro to visit Moses 
was the report of the victory of the Ismelites over Amaielc ; 
to which the reply is that uotbing is sai I of this, hut, on t'^e 
contrary, that it was the report of the deliverance fr m 
Dgypt that occasioned the visit. Banke's conjecture is that 
Jethro'B visit took place after the giving of the law, on the 
ground that the stay at Bephidim wa^ too short; to which it 
is replied that, if (as is assumed from xvi. 1 and xix. 1) half a 
month intervened between the arrival at the wilderness of 
Sin and the arrival at the wilderness of Sioai, ample time is 
afforded for all that is recorded in chap, xviii. — Te.] 

f [Lauge regards xviit 10, IL as poetic In form. — Is.] 



neither does the burnt-offering and the I hank- 
offering: but they do indicate ideal spiritual fel- 
lowship, aside from social intercourse. 

(iv.) The religious and social fellowship of the 
people of God, even of Aaron the priest, and of 
the elders, with the pious heathen. Ver. 12. 

A proof that the religious spirit of the Israelites- 
was as yet free from the fanaticism of the later 
Judaism is seen in the fact that Aaron and the 
elders could take part in a sacrificial feast with 
Jethro. Common participation in the Passover 
meal would have been conditioned on circum- 
cision. 

( V. ) The political wisdom and organizing talent 
of the pious heathen thankfully recognized andl 
humbly used by the great prophet himself. Vers.. 
13-26. 

Jethro' s advice given to Moses, like political 
institutions and political wisdom, is not a gift of 
immediate revelation, but a fruit of the sensus 
communis. But observe that Jethro acknowledges 
the prophetic vocation of Moses, and Jehovah's 
revelation in regard to all great matters (ques- 
tions of principle), just as Moses acknowledges 
the piety of his political wisdom. Moses and 
Jethro came nearer together than the mediaeval 
church and ordinary liberalism. Vers. 17 and 
18 contain very important utterances conoerning 
the consequences of such a hierarchy. On the 
distribution of the people according to the deci- 
mal system, see Keil, II., p. 87. The decimal 
numbers are supposed by him to designate ap- 
proximately the natural ramifications of the people 
[ten being assumed to represent the average size 
of a family]. A further development of the in- 
stitution (comp. Deut. i. 9) took place later, ac- 
cording to Num. xi. 16. 

(vi.) Distinct economies on a friendly footing 
with each other. Ver. 27. 

Analogous to this occurrence is the covenant 
of Abraham with Abimelech; the friendly rela- 
tions maintained by David and Solomon with 
Hiram, king of Tyre, the queen of Sheba, etc. 



SECOND DIVISION: MOSES AND SINAI. 



FOUNDATION IN THE LAEGER SENSE. 
Chapters XIX.— XXXI. 

FIRST SECTION. 

The Anival at Sinai and the Preparation for the Giving of the Law. The Covenant 

People and Covenant Kingdom. Institution of the Covenant. 

Chap. XIX. 1-25. 

1 In the third month when [after] the children of Israel were gone forth out of 

2 the land of Egypt, the same day came they into the wilderness of Sinai. For they 
were departed [And they journeyed] from Rephidim, and were come [and came] 
to the desert of Sinai, and had pitched [and encamped] in the wilderness, and there 

3 Israel camped [was encamped] before the mount. And Moses went up unto God, 
and Jehovah called unto him out of [from] the mountain, saying, Thus shalt thou 



68 EXODUS. 



4 say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel : Ye have seen what I did 
unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles' wings, and brought you unto 

6 myself. Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenent, 
then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people [peoples] : for ail the 

6 earth is mine : And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an [a] holy nation. 

7 These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel. And 
Moses came and called for the elders of the people, and laid before their faces 

8 [before them] all these words which Jehovah commanded him. And all the people 
answered together, and said. All that Jehovah hath spoken we will do. And Moses 

9 returned [brought back] the words of the people unto Jehovah. And Jehovah 
said unto Moses, Lo, I come unto thee in a thick cloud, that the people may hear 
when I speak with thee and believe [trust] thee for ever. And Moses tuld the 

10 words of the people unto Jehovah. And Jehovah said unto Moses, Go unto the 
people, and sanctify them to-day and to-morrow, and let them wash their clothes, 

11 And be ready against the third day: for [for on] the third day Jehovah will come 

12 down in the sight of all the people upon mount Sinai. And thou shalt set bounds 
unto the people round about, saying, Take heed to yourselves, that ye go not up 
[Beware of going up] into the mount, or touch [touching] the border of it : whoso- 

13 ever toucheth the mount shall be surely [surely be] put to death. There shall not 
an [no] hand touch it [him],' but he shall surely be stoned, or shot through; whe- 
ther it be beast or man, it [he] shall not live : when the trumpet soundeth long, they 

14 shall come up to the mount. And Moses went down from the mount unto the peo- 

15 pie, and sanctified the people ; and they washed their clothes. And he said unto 
the people. Be ready against the third day: come not at your wives [near a woman]. 

16 And it came to pass on the third day, in the morning [when morning came], 
that there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mount, and 
the voice of the [a] trumpet exceeding loud ; so that [and] all the people that was 

17 [were] in the camp trembled. And Moses brought forth the people out of the 
camp to meet with [to meet] God ; and they stood at the nether part [the foot] of 

18 the mount. And mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke [all mount Sinai smoked], 
because Jehovah descended upon it in fire ; and the smoke thereof ascended as the 

19 smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly. And when the voice of 
the trumpet sounded long, and waxed louder and louder [And the voice of the trum- 
pet waxed louder and louder], Moses spake [speaking] and God answered [answer- 

20 ing] him by a voice.^ And Jehovah came down upon mount Sinai, on [to] the top 
of the mount ; and Jehovah called Moses up to the top of the mount ; and Moses went 

21 up. And Jehovah said unto Moses, Go down, charge the people, lest they break 

22 through unto Jehovah to gaze [behold], and many of them perish. And let the 
priests also, which [who] come near to Jehovah, sanctify themselves, lest Jehovah 

23 break forth upon them. And Moses said unto Jehovah, The people cannot come 
up to mount Sinai : for thou chargedst [hast charged] us, saying, bet bounds about 

24 the mount, and sanctify it. And Jehovah said unto him. Away [Go], get thee 
down ; and thou shalt come up, thou, and Aaron with thee : but let not the priests 
and the people break through to come up unto Jehovah, lest he break forth upon 

25 them. So Moses went down unto the people, and spake unto [told] them. 

TEXTUAL AND GEAMMATICAL. 
^ [Ver. 13. The repetition of the word " touch " (J,* J J) naturally suggestfl the thought th.it the olyect la the same as In 
the preceding veree, viz., " mount." But this cannot be the case. For (1) if this were so, it is not probaMe that the wori 
" hand " would be used, espscially after the more general prohibition. The second prohibition would be weaker than tbo 
first, for one would most naturally touch the mountain with the foot, not the hand. But (2) more decisive still is the con- 
Bideration that the conjunction ^2 does not admit of this construction. It can here only have tike meaning "but" in the 

sense of the German " sondern," i. e, " but on the contrary." As the verse stands in A. V., a reader would most naturally 
unders'and '* but" to be equivalent to " but that," and the meaning to b", " N > hand shall touch it without his bein)? 
stoned," t-tc., which, however, cannot have been the meaning of the translators, and certainly not of the Hebrew author. 
On the other hand, it makes no sense to say, "No hand shall touch the m'^untain, but on the contrarv he shall be stoned." 
The meaning must be : " No hand shall touch him," t. «., the offender ; " but he shall be killed without such contact by 
being stoned or shot." — Tr.]. 

^ [The last two verbs in this verae are in the Imperfect tense, and hence express continued action. The Hebrew does 
not say, " when the voice .... waxed louder and louder, [then] Moses spake," etc., especially not, if " when " is under- 
stood to be equivalent to " after." We have endeavored to give the true sense by the participial rendering. — TB.] 



CHAP. XIX. 1-25. 



69 



EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL. 

1. Sinai and the Arrival there. 

A full geographical treatise on the whole Ho- 
reb group, and especially Sinai, is given by Ritter 
VIII. 2, p. 627 sqq.; Robinson, 1., p. 140 sqq.; 
■ Tisohendorf, Aus dem heiligen Lande. p. 61 sqq.; 
Strauss, p. 133 sqq. See also the lexicons and 
commentaries. We quote from Zeller's Biblisches 
Worterbuch, II., p. 482: "A few remarks on the 
question respecting the scene of the giving of the 
law. There are two different localiiies which 
have their advocates. Some find the place in 
Sinai proper, .Tebel Musa and tUe plain es-Se- 
baiyeh lying south of it; others, in the north- 
ern terrace of Sinai, that which is now called 
Horeb, especially the peak of Ras es-Safsafeh, 
with the plain er-Rahah. which stretches out 
before it in the north. Both plains would be in 
themselves suitable for the purpose; for they are 
about equally large, and furnish room for the 
marshalling of a lirge multitude. Each is so 
shiirply distinguished from the mountain rising 
up from it that the latter might in the most literal 
sense be said to be touched by one in the plain; — 
which gives an excellent illustration of the ex- 
pression used by Moses (Ex. xi?. 12): 'whoso- 
ever touclielh the mount,' etc. Yet perhaps the 
weight of the evidence is in favor of the southern 
plain, es-Sebaiyeh. For (1) the mountains within 
which the plain reposes, like a secluded asylum, 
rise up from it in an amphitheatrical form and 
very gradually, and therefore its slopes ooul I 
have been used for the marshalling of the people 
if at any time there was not quite space enough 
in the plain itself; whereas the mountains bor- 
dering on the plain er-Rahah are so abrupt and 
steep that they could not have been used for this 
purpose. (2) TnepIainer-Rahahhasawater-shed 
from which the ground to the north falls away 
more and more, so that to the view of those stand- 
ing there, Ras es-Safsafeh must have become 
less and less prominent, whereas the plain es- 
Sebaiyeh rises higher and higher towards the 
south, and Jebel Musa or Sinai becomes more 
and more majestic in appearance. (3) The 
view on the south side of Sinai, where this moun- 
tain towers up perpendicularly nearly 2000 feet, 
like an immense altar, is decidedly more grand, 
(4) In Ex xix. 17 it is said that Moses brought 
the people out of the camp to meet Qod. Now 
we can hardly conceive a place better fitted for 
a camping-place than the plain er-R#hah with 
the valleys and pastures of the environs, espe- 
cially the wady es-Sheikh closely adjoining it. 
But if this was the camping place, and at the 
same time the place where the people were drawn 
up at the time of the giving of the law, how 
are we to conceive of that bringing forth out of 
the camp? This expression would have no mean- 
ing. Whereas this expression becomes full of 
appositeness, if we assume the plain er-Rahah on 
the north of Horeb to be the camping-place, but 
the plain es-Sebaiyeh south of Jebel Musa to be 
the standing-place of the people when the law 
was given. From that northern plain 600,000 
men (for children and minors, as well as women 
and old men doubtless remained behind in the 
aamp) might well have gone in the course of a 



day through the short wadies es-Sebaiyeh and 
Shoeib into the southern plain, and back again 
into the camp ; for the distance is only a short 
hour's journey." — On the difficulties attending 
the combination of both places, see Eeil, II., p. 
91. The expression, "Israel camped before the 
mount" (ver. 2), is certainly opposed to the as- 
sumption of two camps over against two moun- 
tains. Comp. the graphic description in Strauss. 
On the relation between the names Sinai and 
Horeb, oomp. Knobel, p. 188. Note: (1) that 
the whole region is named, after the mountain 
where the law was given, sometimes Sinai, some- 
times Horeb; (2) that Horeb, being reached while 
the people were in Rephidim, may include Sinai; 
(3) that Horeb, as a separate mountain, lies to 
the north of Sinai, and therefore was first reached 
by the Israelites. See also Keil, p, 90, and Phi- 
lippson, p. 403. — This group of lofiy granite 
mountains cannot primarily be designed to serve 
as a terror to sinners; it rather represents the 
majesty and immovable fixedness of God's moral 
revelation, of His law, in a physical form; it is 
therefore a positive, imposing fact, which disse- 
minates no life, yet on which the sinner's false life 
may bedashed to destructijn. — "Lepsius' hypo- 
thesis, that Sinai or Hoieb is to be looked for in 
Mt. Serbal, has rightly met no approval. In op- 
position to it consult Dieterici, Reisehilder, II., p. 
53 sqq.; Ritter, ^/-f^Aunrfe, XIV., p. 738 sqq.; and 
Kurtz, History, etc., 111., p. 93" (Keil). 

The Arrival at Sinai. — In the third month. 
Two months then have passed thus far, of which 
probably the greater part belongs to the encamp- 
ment in Elim and Rephidim. The same day. — 
Aocording to the Jewish tradition this means on 
the first day of the third month, but grammati- 
cally it may be taken more indefinitely =j " at this 
time." 

2. Jehovah's Proposal of a Covenant, and the 
Assent of the People. Vers. 3-8. 

And Moses ■went up. — On Sinai Moses re- 
ceived his commission from Jehovah to lead out 
the people. Therefore he must now again appear 
before Jehovah on Sinai, to complete his first 
mission, and receive Jehovah's further com- 
mands. It is a characteristic feature of the fol- 
lowing transaction concerning the covenant, that 
Jehovah calls out to Moses as he goes up. A 
covenant is a coming together of two parties. It 
has been said indeed, that iT'lS, (5iai?^/o/, testa- 
mentum, means, not covenant, but institution. It 
is true, the divine institution is the starting- 
point and foundation, but the product of this in- 
stitution is the covenant. This is true of all the 
covenants throughout the Bible. They every- 
where presuppose personal relations, recipro- 
city, freedom ; i. e., free self-determination. 

So here the people are induced by Jehovah's 
proposal to declare their voluntary adoption of 
the covenant (ver. 8), After this general adop- 
tion of the covenant, there follows a special adop- 
tion of the covenant law, xxiv. 8. Not till after 
this does the solemn covenant transaction take 
place, in which the people again avow their as- 
sent, their free subjection to the law of Jehovah 
(xxiv, 7). This relation is so far from being an 
absolute enslavement of the human individuality 



70 



EXODUS. 



by .the majesty of the divine personality, as He- 
gel imagines (Vol. xi. 2, 4B), that on tlie basis 
of this relation the notion of a bridal and conju- 
gal relation between Jehovah and His people 
gradually comes to view. But the characteristic 
feature of the law is, that it rests, in general, on 
B, germ of idealiiy, of knowledge, of redemption, 
but, in particular, everywhere requires an un- 
conditional, and even blind, obedience. Hence 
it may be said: In general it ia doctrine (Thorah), 
in particular it is statute. The ideal and empiri- 
cal basis is the typical redemption : I am Jeho- 
vah, thy God, that have brought thee out of 
Egypt, Ktc, as a fact of divine goodness and 
grace ; and the spirit of it is expressed in the 
rhythmically solemn form in which the covenant 
is proclaimed in vers. 3-6. The parallel phrases, 
"House of Jacob," and "Children of Israel," 
pi-eseut in conjunction the natural descent of the 
people, and the spiritual blessings allotted to 
them. Ye have seen. — A certain degree of 
religious experience is essential in order to be 
able to enter into covenant relations with Jeho- 
vah. This experience is specifically an experience 
of the sway of His justice over His enemies, and 
of His grace over His chosen people. Eagles' 
vrings. — " The eagle's wings are an image of the 
strong and affectionate care of God ; for the eagle 
cherishes and fosters her young very carefully; 
she flies under them, when she takes them out of the 
nest, in order that they may not fall down upon 
rocks and injure themselves or perish. Comp. Deut. 
xxxii. 11, and illustrations from profane writers, 
in Bochart, Hieroz. II., pp. 762, 765 sqq." (Keil).— 
And brought you unto myself. — Knobel: 
to the dwelling-place on Sinai. Keil; unto my 
protection and care. It probably means ; to the 
revelation of myself in the form of law, symbol- 
ized indeed by the sanctuary of the lawgiver, viz., 
Sinai. But that is a very outward conception of 
Keil's, that the pillar of cloud probably retired 
to mount Sinai. No^y therefore, if ye Twill 
obey my voice indeed. — According to Keil 
the promise precedes the requirement, " for God's 
grace always anticipates man's action; it de- 
mands nothing before it has given." But here 
evidently the requirement precedes the promise ; 
and this is appropriate to the legal religion 
of Moses in tlie narrower sense. In the pa- 
triarchal religion of Abraham the promise pre- 
cedes the requirement; under Moses the require- 
ment precedes the promise, but not till after the 
fulfilment of a former patriarchal promise, an 
act of redemption, had preceded the requirement. 
Tlie requirement is very definite and decided, 
accordant with the law. — The promise is, first: 
fe shall be a peculiar treasure unto me. — 
Keil says : H^JD signifies not possession in gene- 
ral, but a prec\ou3 possession, which one saves, 
lays up ( 'JD), hence treasure of gold and silver, 
1 Chron. xxix. 3, etc. Ckao^ irepiovaiog, etc. Mai. 
iii. 17; Tit. ii. 14; 1 Pet. ii. 9). We translate, 
"above all people," not, "out of all people," in 
accordance with the tollowing words: for all 
the earth is mine. — "This reason for choosing 
Israel at once guards against the exolusiveness 
which would regard Jehovah as merely a national 
God" (Keil). It may be observed that the peo- 
ple are to be as distinctively the lot [Kkijpnc;) of 



Jehovah, as Jehovah desires to be the lot of His 
people. — In the second place, the first promise, 
or the n^Jp, is explained: "Ye shall be unto 
me a kingdom of priests. — The LXX. trans- 
late, paalTiUov IspaTev/ia ; so Peter, 1 Pet. ii. 9. 
Onkelos: "kings, priests." Jonathan: "crowned 
kings, ministering priests." According to the 
Hebrew text, the kingdom as a unit, or the realm 
as a body of citizens, is a nation of priests. The 
individuals are priests ; the unity of their com- 
monwealth is a kingdom, whose king is Jehovah. 
It is therefore a kingdom whose royal authority 
operates every way to liberate and ennoble, to 
sanctify and dignify ; the priests are related to 
the king; in their totality under the king they 
constitute the priesthood, but only under the 
condition that they offer sacrifice as priests. 
The N. T. term, "a royal priesthood," derived 
from the LXX., merges the several priests in the 
higher unity of a single priesthood, whose attri- 
bute, "royal," expresses the truth that the king, 
through his royal spirit, has incorporated him- 
self into the midst of his people. All this, now, 
the Israelites are to be, in their general attitude, 
first in the typical sense, which points forward 
to the actual fulfilment, and prophetically in- • 
eludes it. Keil, therefore, is wrong in saying 
that " the notion of theocracy or divine rule (re- 
ferring to the preceding explanations, II., p. 97), 
as founded by the establishment of the Sinaitic 

covenant, does not at all lie in the phrase r\yTOn 

D'Jn3 ['kingdom of priests']. The theocracy 
established by the formation of the covenant 
(chap, xxiv.) is only the means by which Jeho- 
vah designs to make His chosen people a king- 
dom of priests." Whilst here the theocracy is 
made not even a type, but only the medium 
of a type, of the New Testament kingdom 
of heaven, the people of Israel are raised 
high above their typical significance (p. 98), 
much as is done in the Judaizing theories of 
Hofmann and others. The relations are rather 
quite homogeneous: a typical people, atypical 
kingdom of God, a typical law, a typical sacri- 
fice, etc. On the other hand, Keil's sentiment, 
that Israel, as a nation of priests, has a part to 
act in behalf of other people, is every way acctvd- 
ant with the Old Testament prophecy and with 
the New Testament. (Isa. xlii. ; Rom. xi. 16; 
XV. 16.) And a holy nation. — The notion of 
the holiness of Jehovah first appears in chap. xv. 
Here the Aotion of a holy people. The holiness 
of Jehovah is the originating cause of the crea- 
tion of a holy people. On the various explana- 
tions of the notion of holiness, vid. Keil, p. 99. 
Neither the notion of newness or brilliancy, nor 
that of purity or clearness satisfies the concrete 
import of holiness. Jehovah keeps Himself 7 nvt 
in His personality. He protects His glory by Uis 
purity. His universality by His particularity — 
thus is He the Holy One. And so He creates for 
Himself a holy people that in a peculiar sense 
exist for Him, separated from the ungodly world, 
as He in a peculiar sense exists for them, and 
keeps Himself aloof from notions and forms of 
worship that conflict with true views of His per- 
sonality. The opposite of E'np is Sh, itoiviic, 



CHAP. XIX. 1-25. 



71 



jtrofanua" (Keil). See the passages 1 Pet, i. 15; 
somp. Lev. xi. 44 ; xix. 2. — And all the people 
nns'wered together. Thus a historical, posi- 
1176, consciouii obligation is entered into, rest- 
iug, it is true, on an obligation inherent in the 
nature of things. 

3. ProvUiona for the Negotiation of the Covenant, 
Vera. 9-13. 

First : JehoYah will reveal Himself to Moses in 
the thick cloud. The people are to listen while He 
t'llks with Moses. Keil seems to assume that the 
people also are to hear with their own ears the 
words of the fundamental law. But vers. 16-19 
show what is meant by the people's hearing. 
The sound of thunder and of the trumpet which 
the people hear sanctions the words which Moses 
hears. In consequence of this the people are to 
believe him for ever. The perpetual belief in 
Moses is the perpetual belief in the revelation 
and authority of the law. What follows shows 
that mediately the people did hear the words. 

Secondly : The people, in order to receive the 
law, are to be sanctified for three days, i. e., are 
to dispose themselves to give exclusive attention 
to it. The symbolical expression for this con- 
sists in their washing their garments, ceremo- 
'nially purifying them. It shows a want of ap- 
preciation of propriety to include, as Keil does, 
the explanatory precept of ver. 15 among the im- 
mediate requirements of Jehovah. 

Thirdly : The people are to be kept back by a 
fence enclosing the mountain. That is, the re- 
straining of the people from profaning the moun- 
tain as the throne of legislation serves to protect 
tliem; comp. the significance of the parables in 
Matt. xiii. The transgressor is exposed to capital 
punishment ; but inasmuch as his transgression 
fiads him on the other side of the limit, no one 
could seize him without himself becoming guilty 
of the transgression ; hence the direction that 
he should be killed from a distance with stones 
or darts.* Consistency requires that the same 
should be done with beasts that break through. 
Reverence for the law is thus to be cultivated by 
the most terrifying and rigorous means. When 

the trumpet. 'ja'D, S^'n pp^isW. "To draw 
out the horn [as the Hebrew expresses it] is the 
same as to blow the horn in prolonged notes" 
( Keil). Vid. Winer, Realworterbuch, Art. Musilca- 
liscke Inatrumente. It is a question when the pro- 
hibition to come near the mountain was to be 
terminated. According to Keil, a signal was to 
be given summoning the people to approach, and 
that then the people, as represented by the elders, 
were to ascend the mountain. But nothing is 
anywhere said of such » signal. It is simpler, 
with Knobel, thus to understand the direction : 
"When at the close of the divine appearances 
and communications an alarm is sounded, and so 
the people are summoned to start, to separate. "f 
When the tabernacle was finished, this became 
the sacred meeting-place of the people, to which 
they were called. , Soon afterwards the trumpets 



* This is perhaps in general the reason for stoning. 

t [There aefms to be no iiiooosistency between Knobel's 
view and that of Keil. Tne latt-^r understands the S'mad of 
tlifi trumpet (ver. 13) to be the signal, and so does Knobel, And 
bo'h assume that the signal wa^ to follow the promulgation 
of the liiw.— Ta.]. 



summoned them to set forth, perhaps re-enforced, 
on account of the importance of the occasion, by 
the jubilee horn, or itself identified with it. 

4. The Preparation of the People. Vers. 14, 15. 
The direction given by Jehovah respecting the 

sanctiflcation of the people is further explained 
by Moses. The distinction between the divine 
revelation and the human expansion of it appears 
here as in 1 Cor. vii. 

5. The Signa accompanying the Appearance of 
Jehovah, the Lawgiver, on Sinai. Vers. 16-19. 

And it came to pass on the third day. 
Here is another prominent element in the mira- 
cle of Sinai, that is generally overlooked, vii., 
the fact that Moses through divine illumination 
80 definitely predicted that the miraculous occur- 
rence would take place in three days. By iden- 
tifying him all along with God's revelation the 
miraculous mystery of his inner life is oblite- 
rated. That there were thunders and light- 
nings. — All this animated description of the 
miraculous event Keil takes literally, and follow- 
ing Dent. iv. 11, v. 20 (23), expands the account, 
although if the mountain was burning in the 
literal sense of the word so that its flame as- 
cended up to heaven, there would be no place for 
clouds and cloudy darkness. In a thunder-storm 
are united both nocturnal darkness and fiaming 
light. Keil quotes various conjectures concern- 
ing the trumpet sound. No reference is had 
to the trumpet sound made by the voice of 
God in the ghostly sphere of the remorseful con- 
science of a whole people. But comp. John xii. 
29. That the darkness indicates the invisibility 
and unapproachableness of the holy God who 
veils Himself from mortals even when He dis- 
closes Himself, is evident from all the analogies 
of clouds up to the sacred one in which Christ 
ascended. Fire has a twofold side, according to 
man's attitude towards the divine government ; 
it is therefore, as Keil says, at once the fire of the 
zeal of anger and the zeal of love. To unite both 
ideas in one, it is the fire of the power that sanc- 
tifies, which therefore purges, transforms, vivi- 
fies, and draws upward, as is shown by the as- 
cension of Elijah and the phenomena of the day 
of Pentecost. The same is true of thunder. 
Since the law is now given for the first time, this 
can have nothing to do with the thunder of the 
last judgment. Vid. on Revelation, p. 197. — 
All the people trembled. While in this mood 
they are led by Moses out of the camp to the foot 
of the mountain. It is, lo be sure, tiardly to be 
supposed that this denotes a march from the plain 
of Rahah into that of Sebaiyeh. " The people, 
i.e., the men," says Keil, — a limitation for which 
there is little reason. — And all mount Sinai 
smoked. — The view of the scene is renewed 
and intensified, the nearer the people come to the 
foot of the mountain. Moses speaking, and 
God ans'wering. — Glorious definition of the 
nature of law 1 All of God's commands are, 
BO to speak, answers to the commands and ques- 
tions of God's chosen servant; they grow out of 
a reciprocal action of God and the inmost heart 
of humanity. 

6. The Calling of Mosea alone up to the Mount, 
etc. Vers. 20-25. 

And Jehovah said unto Moses.— There 
muit be some significance in the fajt that Mosea 



EXODUS. 



is required again to descend from Sinai, in order 
repeatedly to charge the people not to cross the 
limit in order to gaze, because by this sin many 
might perish. This direction is now even extended 
to the priests; and in accordance with their posi- 
tion they are exposed to the sentence of death even 
in the camp unless they sanctify themselves; only 
Aaron is permitted to go up in company with 
Moses. So sharp a distinction is made between 
the theocratic life of the people, between the 
sphere of eacerdo'al ordinances (which, there- 
fore, already exist), and the sphere of revelation, 
of which Moses is the organ. That Aaron is al- 
lowed to acco'upany him when the first oral reve- 
la'ion of the law is made, indicates that in and 
with him the priests, and gradually also the 
whole priestly nation, which begins to assume 
a priestly relation to mankind in the near pre- 
sence of the law, are to be lifted up into the light 
of revelation. Various views of this passage, 
especially a discussion of Kurtz's opinion, are to 
be found in Keil. Knobel finds here "an interpo- 
lation of the Jehovist." 

Inasmuch now as the narrative makes the law 
of the ten commandments follow immediately, 
whilst Moses seems to be standing below with 
the people, a literal interpretation concludes that 



Jehovah communicated the ten commandments 
down from Mt. Sinai immediately to the people, 
and so " the fundamental law of the theocracy 
has a precedence over all others" (Knobel; see 
also Keil, p. 106). The fact that Jehovah has 
already given answer to Moses on the mountain, 
is overlooked; as also the passages xxiv. 16 sqq. ; 
xxxiv. ; Dent. v. 5, xxxiii. 4, to say nothing of 
Gal. iii. and other passages. It is true, the re- 
presentation here is designed to make the im- 
pression that the law of the ten commandments, 
although mediated by Moses, has yet the same 
authority as if Jehovah had spoken it directly to 
the people from Sinai ; and no less does il ex- 
press the pre-eminent importance of the ten 
commandments. The following distinclions are 
marked : As oral (or spiritual) words Moses re- 
ceives the divine answers on the mountain (xix. 
19), Then God addresses the same words from 
Sinai in the voices of thunder to the people at 
the foot of the mountain; and Moses who stands 
below with the people, is the interpreter of these 
voices, as is clearly shown by Deut. v. 5. This 
oral, spiritual law of principle?, which is echoed 
in the conscience of all the people, as if Jehovah 
were directly talking with them, is the founda- 
tion for the establishment and enforcement of the- 
written law engraved on the stone tablets. 



SECOND SECTION. 

The Threefold Law of the Covenant for the Covenant People on the Basis of the 
Prophetic, Ethico-religious Divine Law of the Ten Commandments. Histo- 
rical Prophecy. 

Chapters XX.— XXXI. 

A.— THE TEN WORDS, OR THE ETHICAL LAW; AND THE TERRIFIED PEOPLE, 
OR THE RISE OF THE NEED OF SACRIFICIAL RITES. 

Chapter XX. 1-21. 
1, 2 And God spake all these words, saving, I am Jehovah thy God, which [who] 

3 have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou 

4 shalt have no other gods before me [over against me].^ Thou shalt not make unto 
thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or 

TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL. 
1 [The exact meaning of ' JjJ-Sj? here and In Dent. v. 7 is disputed. Tlie rendering " Ijefore me " was donbt ess meant 
by our Translators to convey the notion, "in my presence" = ■'ish- Perhaps the ordinary reader is apt to understand it 
- to mean, " in preference to me." Luther, Kalisch, Gedde-, Keil, Kno'hel, 'Bunsen, and Eiggs {Suggeslpd Emend(ama\ follow- 
ing thu LXX. (irAijr e^oO), translate, " besides me." De Wette, Rosenmailer, Maurer, Philippson, FUrst, Arnheim, Bush, 
Murphy, Cook (in Spealier's Commentaty), and Lange, following the Vulgate (" coram me "), translate " before me," ». e., in 
my presence. In order to a satisfactory settlement of the question, it is necessary to investigate the use of the phrase 
'Af '.!? '° general. An examination of all the passages in which it occurs yields the following result : The phrase, fol- 
lowed by a Genitive or a Pronominal Suffix, occurs 210 times. In 125 of these cases, it has its I itnral si-a'K nf " upon the fice 
(or surface) of:" at, e.g., % Sam. xvii, 19, " The woman took and spread a covering over the well's mouth ;' Gen. 1. 1, " Joaepb 
fell upon his father's face j" or It is merely a longer form for the simpler ^7^ (upon) ; as, e. g.. Job T. 10, " Who . . . seudetli 
waters upon the fields." The remaining 85 cases are divided as follows: (1) 28 times 'JS-Sj? is used in describing the 
rOaUan of locaJitiei In e.ach other. R g., Judg. xvi. 3, " Samson .... carried them up to the top of an hill that is before He- 
bron." Sometim»s (and more properly) in such cases the phrase is rendered "over against" In the A. V. The other pas- 



CHAP. XX. 1-21. 



5 that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. Thou 
shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I Jehovah thy God 
am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto [upon] 

6 the third and [and upon the] fourth generation of them that hate me ; And show- 

7 ing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my command- 
ments. Thou shalt uot take the name of Jehovah thy God in vain ; for Jehovah 

sages in which 'J3-74? is thns used are Gen. xxiii. 19 ; xxt. 9, 18; xlix. 30; 1. 13; Num. xxi. 11; xxxiii. 7 ; Deut. xxxii. 
49 J xxxiv. 1 i Josh. xiii. 3, 25 ; xv. 8 ; xvii 7 ; xvfH. 14, 1 6 ; xix. U ; 1 Sam. xt. 7 ; xxti. 1, 3 ; 2 Sam. ii. 24 ; 1 Kings xi. 7 ; 
xTii. 3, 16 ;, 2 Kings xxiii. 13 ; Ezck. xlviii 10, 21 ; Zech. xiv. 4. It is a mistake to suppose, as some do, that in thi'So con- 
nections ' jg-^^ means " to the east of," according to the Hebrew mode of conceiving of the cardinal points. For in Josh. 
XTiii. 14 we read of " the hill that lietb before ('']3-'7_J?) Beth-horon smithuiard;" and in Josh. xv. 8, of " the top of the 
mountain that lieth before the valley of Hinnom westward." We are rather to suppose that the phrase indicates such a re- 
lation of two places as is expressed by *' over against," the physical conformation of the localities naturally suggesting such 
a description/— (2) We observe, next, that 13 times ''JS-'?^? is used of the position of Odngi in relation to buildings. E. g., 

1 Kings vi. 3, " the porch before the temple.'* In the same verse 'J3~ 7^* occurs twice more in the same sense. The other 
passages are 1 Kings vii. 6 (bis) ; viii. 8 ; 2 Chron. Hi. 4 (bis), 8, 17 ; v. 9 ; Ezek. xl. 15 j xlii. 8. In these cases the meaning is 
obvious : " on the front of," " confronting."— (3) Six times ' J 3-'7_J? is used in the sense of " towards " or " down upon " after 

verbs of looking, or (once) of going. E.g., Gen. xviii. 16, "The men looked toward CiS'h^, down upon) 

Sodom." So Gen. xix. 28 (bis), Num. xxi. 20; xxiii. 28; 2 Sam. xv. 23. Here 'JS-Sj^ may be regarded as a fuller form 
of 7j; as sometimes used after verbs of motion. — (4) Five times it is used after verbs signifying " pass by," and is rendered 
" before." Kg ,'Ex. xxxiii. 19, " I will make all my goodness pass before thee." So Ex. xxxiv. 6 ; Gen. xxxii. 22 (21) ; 

2 Sam. XV. 18 ; Job iv. 15. In these passages ^J3~7 V differs from ''JB 7 as used, e. g., in 2 Kings iv. 31, *' Gehazi 
passed on before them;" where ^^37 indicates that Gehazi went on tnadvaTic? of the others; whereas, «. g., in 2 Sam. xv. 18, 
the meaning is that the king stopped, and the others went by him. — (5) In 12 passages '*J3~7J7D is used after verbs meaning 
to "cast out," and is usually rendered "from the presence (or sight) of." They are 1 Kings ix. 7; 2 Kings xiii. 23; 
xvii. 18, 23 ; xxiv. 3, 20 ; 2 Chron. vii. 20 ; Jer. vii. 16 ; xv. 1 ; xxiii. 39 ; xxxii. 31 ; lii. 3. Possibly also Gen. xxiii. 3, "Abraham 
stood up from b^ore his dead," i. e., went away from the presence of; but we may understand it more literally, viz., " stood 
up from upon the fiice of." There is a manifest difference between *J3"7J^D and ^J370. The former is used of a remo- 
val from a state of juxtaposition or opposition. The latter is used in the stricter sense of " from before." E. g., in Deut. ix. 

4, "For the wickedness of these nations the Lord doth drive them out from before thee (?T^J37D)." Here it is not mfant 

' VT : • 
that the relation between the Jews and the other nations was to be broken up, but rather that it was nevpr to be formed ; 
whereas, «. g., in Jer. vii. 15, " I will cast you out of my sight," the implication is that the people had been near Jehovah, 
but were now to be banished. — (6) Pour times " J3-7J? is nsed with the meaning, " to the fece of." E. g.. Is. Ixv. 3, "A 
people that provoketh me to anger continually to my face." So Job 1. 11 (parallel with ii. 6, where ']3-7N is used) ; vi. 
28 (as correctly rendered); xxi. 31. Here the notion of hostiliii/, often expressed by the simple 7J?, is involved — Similar to 
these are (7) the three passages, Ezek. xxxii. 10, Nah. ii. 2 (1), and Ps. xxi. 13 (12), where ■" J3~7J? is used after verbs descrip- 
tive of hostile demonstrations, and means either, literally, " against the face of," or " over against," in defiance.— (8) In Ex. 
XX. 20, where the A. V. renders, " that his fear may be before your faces," the meaning clearly is the same as in such ex- 
pressions as Ex. XV. 16, where the simple Sj' i« used. So Deut. il. 26.— (9) In one case, Ps. xviii. 43 (42), ''iS'l^ is used 
of the dust " before " the wind, just as 'JB^ is nsed in Job xxi. 18, " They are as stubble before the wind. '—(10) The pas- 
sage, Job xvi. 14, " He breaketh me with breach upon ("J3~7J?) breach," has no precise parallel. But here, too. it is most 
natural to understand ' JB-Sj? as a fuller, poetic form for ^p. Comp. Gen. xxxii. 12 (11), " the mother with (7^) the chil- 
dren;" Amos iii. 15, "I will smite the winter-honse with (7J,', i. e., together with, in addition to) the summer-house."— (11) 
There are three passages (possibly four), in which '33-*7J? has a pecnliar meaning, as denoting the relation of two persona 
to each other. Haran, we are told, Gen. xi. 28, " died' before OiQ-hy) his iather Terah." This seems to mean, "died before 
his iather did." But though such a priority is implied, it is not directly expressed. 'J37 is sometimes used to denote such 
priority in time, «. J., Gen. xxx. 30; Ex. x. 14; Josh. ji. 14; but "jg-^iMs nowhere clearly used in this sense, so that it is 
mot« natural to understand it (as the commentators do) here to mean either "in the presence of," or "during the life-time 
of The next passage. Num. iii. 4, illustrates the meaning: "Bleazar and Ithamar ministered in the priest's office in the 
Bight of Cjg-Sj?) Aaron their father." It is hardly possible that pains would be taken to lay stress on the fact that Aaron 
•aw them acting the part of priests, especially as the verb [HS hardly means anything more than " to be priest." Not more 
admisBibl.! is the interpretation of Gesenius and others, who here translate ' J3~7;^ " under the supervision of." There is 
not the fcintest analogy for such a meaning of the phrase At the same time, It is hardly supposable that it can be lite- 
rally translated, " during the life-time of." The notion of physical presence, or nearness, is so uniformly involved in ' J3"7J7 
that we must, in strictness, here understand it to mean, " over against," " in view of," the point of the expression, boweve-, 
not consisting in the circumstance that Aaron watched them in their ministrations, but that they performed theia over 
against him, i. e., as coupled with him, together with him, (and so) during his life-time. Here belongs also probably Deut. 



74 EXODUS. 



8 will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain. Remember the eab- 

9 bath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work; 

10 But the seventh day is the sabbath of [a sabbath unto] Jehovah thy God : in it 
thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy man-servant, 

11 nor thy maid-servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For 
in six days Jehovah made heaven and earth, the sea and all that in them is, and 
rested the seventh day : wherefore Jehovah blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it. 

xxi. 16 " He may not make the son of the beloTed flrst-bom before ('JS-^J?) the son of the hated." One might natDrallj 
xmderatand "before" here to mean, " in preference to ;'' and this certainly would yield an appropriate sense— a sense cer- 
tainly involved, yet probably not directly expressed. At least there is no clear analogy for such a meaning, unless we find 
it in the passages now under consideration, «*., Ex. xx. 3 and Dent. v. 7. The best commentators understand 'ip'lp In 
Dent. xxi. 16, to mean " during the life-time of." An analogous use of 'JST is found in Ps. Ixxii. 6, where it is said of the king, 
"They shall fear thee as long as the sun and moon endure," literally "before CJS/) ^^^ ™o ^'^^ moon." Similarly ver. 
17.— The other of the fonr passages above mentioned is Gen. xxv. 18. Thor» we read : " He (i. e., Ishmael) died (literally, fell) 
in the presence of CJiJ^Sj?) his brethren." There is now, however, general unanimity in translating 733 here "settled" 
rather than "died," so that the paspage is to bei-eckoned in the following class, in which also the relation of persons in 
each other is expressed, but in a somewhat different sense.— (12) Knobel explains 'JS'^J.^ In Gen. xxv. 18 as = " to the 
east of." So Del., Lange, Keil, Manrer, De W., and others. Bnt, as we have already seen, "33-7^? does not have this meaning. 
This passage is to be explained by the parallel one, Gen. xvi. 12, where it is also said of Ishmael, " He shall dwell in the presence 
of 033~Sy) all his brethren." Here the context is, " His hand will be against every man, and every man's hand against 
him ; and he shall dwell ''J3~^J? all his brethren." Keil and Lange are nnable to satisfy themselves with the interpreta- 
tion " east of" here ; and it is clear that that would not be a statement at all in place here, even if '*}2~J)J ordinarily 
had the meaning " east of." Evidently the angel expresses the fact that the Ishmaelites were to dwell ot-er against their 
brethren as an independent, defiant, nation. If so, then xxv. 18 is to be understood in the same way, as a statement of the 
fulfilment of the prophecy here made. In addition to these two passages there are three others in which the relation of 
persons to each other is expressed. They are Lev. x. 3, Ps. ix. 20 (19), and Jer. vi. 7. In the first we read that Jehovah 
■aid, "Before {'^2~/V) ^H the people I will be glorified;" this is preceded by the statement, "I will be sanctified in them 
that come nigh me." The verse follows the account of the dpstrnction of Nadab and Abihu. To render " in view of," or 
" in the presence of," would makw good and appropriate sens^' ; and certainly it is implied that by the summary punirhment 
of the presumptuous priests Jehovah intended to glorify Himself in the sight of His people. Yet, while men are frequently 
represented as being or acting before CJS/) Jehovah, it is extremely unusual to speak of Jehovah as being or doing anything 
before (in the sight of) men. And since, if that were here meant, ^J37 would probably have been used, it is much better 
here to understand the meaning to be " over against," implying separation and contrast. Likewise Ps. ix. 20 (19) : '' Let 
the heathen be judged in thy sight (T33~7,Jt)." Certainly the meaning cannot simply be : Let the heathen be judged, 
while God looks on as a spectator, God is Himself the judge ; and the heathen are to be judged oticr against Him ; L «., in 
such a way &>* to exhibit the contrast between them and Him. There remains only Jer, vi. 7, " Before me Ci3~lV) con- 

-" T T 

tinually is prief and wounds." The context describes the prospective destruction of .Terusalem. Her wickedness is described 
in ver, 7: "As a fountain castetb out her waters, so she casteth out her wickedness ; violence and spoil is heard in her; 
before me continually is grief and wounds (sickness and blows)." Undoubtedly this implies that the manifestations of the 
wickedness of the people were in Jehovah's sight; but here, too, there Is implied the notion that these things are over against 
Him : on the one side, Jehovah in His holiness ; on the other, Jerusalem in her wickedness. This conception is naturally 
suggested by the representation that Jehovah is about to make wnr upon her. 

Having now given a complete exhibition of the use of *J3*S>* in all the other passages, we are prepared to consider 
what It means In the first commandment. Several things may be regarded as established : (i) ^J3-^l? is fer from being 
synonymons with '33 7- The latter is used hundreds of times in the simple sense of " before " in reference U persons ; the 
former is used most frequently of places, and in all cases Sj? has more or less of its ordinary meaning, " upon," or " against " 
(over against), (ii) The phrase has nowhere unequivocally the meaning " besides." The nearest approach to this is in Job 
xvi. 14, under (10), where 'J3~7J? may be rendered " in addition to." But this is not quite the same as " besides," and 
the phrase has there evidently a poetic use. A solitary ra»e like- tlii", where too not person", bnt things, are spoken of, is 
altog ther insufiiciBnt to establish the hypothesis that '33-7j; in the first commandment means " besides." (ill) The most 
general notion conveyed by the phrase In question Is that'of one object cmfrnnUng another. Leaving out of account, as of 
no special pertinency, those instances in which it verges npon the literal sense of " upon (or against) the face of," and those 
in which the meaning of S;? predominates, (iiti., classes (3), (6), (7), (8), (10), we find that all others are sufliciently expluinsd 
by this generic notion of crmfrmtting. Thus, in all the cases where places are spoken of as 'JB-^^y one another, class (l)i 
where objects are described as in front of buildings, class (2) ; and where persons are spoken of 'as passing in fhint of othen, 
clam (4).— So, too, in the cases in which 'JB-Sj^O is used, class (6), in every instance It follows a verb which implies a pie- 

Tl n" state of hottiWy ; men are to be removed from being mar against Jehovah, from cmfrrmting Him with their ofrensiv" 
deede,-So the instance In Ps xviii. 43 (42), class (9) ; the dust before the wind Is compared with God's enemies dostrojoil 



CHAP. XX. 1-21. 



75 



12 Honor thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which 
13, 14 Jehovah thy God give'th thee. Thou shalt not kill. Thou shalt not commit 
15, 16 adultery. Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy 

17 neighbor. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house, thoa shalt not covet thy 
neighbor's wife, nor his man-servant, nor his maid-servant, nor his ox, nor his ass, 

18 nor anything that is thy neighbor's. And all the people saw the thunderings, aud 
the lightnings, and the noise of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking: and when 

19 the people saw it, they removed [reeled backward], and stood afar off. And thev 
said unto Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear: but let not God speak with 

20 us, lest we die. And Moses said unto the people, Fear not; for God is come to 
prove you, and that his fear may be before your faces [upon you], that ye sin not. 

21 And the people stood afar off, and Moses drew near unto the thick darkness where 
God was. 

by Him ; the dust confronting the wind illnstrates the powerlessnesB of men bonfronting an angry God. — So the examplpa 
nnder (12). The translation "over against" satisfies all of the ca^es. A relation of contrast and opposition is impl'ed. — 
Likewise, also, the three paflaages under (11). The eon of the beloved wife (Deut. xxi. 16) is not to be invested with tlie 
lighiB of pvimogevituT6 over against the sou of the hated one, z.e., in contrast with, distluction from, the other one, while yet by 
natural right the latter is entitled to the privilege. The phrase 'JSJ-Sj? may here, therefore, be understood to mean "in 
preference to," or " In the life-time of," hut neither one nor the other literally and directly, yet both one aud the other by 
Implication, In Num. iii. 4 Aaron^s sons are represented as being priests aver against their father, i. e., not succeydieg him, 
but together with him, as two hills, instead of being distant from one another, are, as It were, companions, confronting each 
other. So In Gen. xl. 28 Haran is said to have died over agaimt his &ther. In his death he confronted his father, i. '., did 
not, as most naturally happens, die after him, when his father would have been taken away from being with him By thus 
anticipating his father in his decease he, as it were, passed in front of him, confronted him, so that this case is quite ana'o- 
gous to those under class (4). In this case, therefore, as in some others, the meaning of \33~7J? closely borders upon that 
of ^J37, yet is not the same. 

The application of this discussion to Ex. xx. 3 and Deut. v. T is obvious. Israel is to have no other gods " over against " 
Jehovah. The simple meaning " before," i. e., in the presence of, would have little point and force, and besides would have 
been expressed by 'JsS- The meaning "besides" would have been expressed by n.J^Sa, 'flSu, or some other of the 
phroaes having that m^eanlng. The meaning " over against," the usual meaning of the phrase, is perfectly appropriate here. 
All false gods are opposed to the true God. The worship of them is incompatible with the worship of Jehovah. The com- 
mand therefore is, " Thou shalt have no other gods to confront me," to be set up as rival objects of service and adoration. 
All that is pertinent in the other two renderings is Involved here. Gods that are set up over against Jehovah may be said 
to be before Him, in His sight ; that they are gods besides, in addition to, Him, is a matter of course : but, more than this, 
they are gods opposed to Him. — Ta.J, 

Tbia first legislation, the law or book of the 
covenant in the narrower sense, is evidently the 
outline of the whole legislation. The presenta- 
tion of the piophetico-ethioal law is found in 
the ten commandments (xx. 1-17); the outline 
of the ceremonial law and the reasons for it fol- 
low on (vers. 18-26); in conclusion comes the 
third part, the outline of the social laws of the 
Israelites (xxi -xxiii.). 

Three questions are here to be settled: (l) 
How are the several acts of legislation related to 
the history? (2) How are the several groups of 
laws related to each other? (3) How is there 
indicated in this relation a gradual development 
of legislation? 

As to the ten commandments in particular we 
are to consider: (1) the form of the promulga- 
tion- (2) the relation of the law in lixodus to 
the phase it presents in Deuteronomy; (3) the 
analysis of th« ten commandments themselves. 

That the laws are not artificially introducn,! 
into the history of Israel, as e. g. Bertheau as- 
sumes, is shown by their definite connection witii 
the historical occasions of them. Thus, e. <?., the 
law of the ten commandments is occasioned by 
the vow of covenant obedience made beforehand 
bv the people. The ceremonial law as a lavf ot 
atonement is occasioned by the fright and flight 
of the people at the thunders of Sinai (chap, xx 
21). Thus the ho'y nation is established; and 



EXEGETICAL AND CKITICAL. 

Analysis. — The whole Mosaic legislation is 
typical and Messianic. Typical, as is evident 
from the existence of Deuteronomy, inasmuch as 
this presents the first instance of an interpreta- 
tion which gives to the law a more profound and 
spiritual meaning. Messianic, for the ten com- 
mandments contain a description of Christ's ac- 
tive obedience, whilst the sacrificial rites contain 
the leading features of His passive obedience. 
Everywhere in the three books are shadowed 
forth the three otBcea of the Messiah. The first 
book comprises, together with the prophetico- 
ethical covenant law of the ten commandments, 
also the outlines of the ceremonial and socLil 
(civil) law, because those two subjects of legis- 
lation flow as consequences out of the ethical 
law. The priesthood (or the church) and the 
slate depend, in their unity as well as in their 
diversity, on the ethioo-religious legislation of 
the life of the God-man. 

The first form of elemental ethico-religious, 
but therefore all-embracing legislation, com- 
prises the law, the festivals, and the house, of the 
covenant (chaps, xx.-xxxi.). It is different from 
the second form of the legislation (chaps, xxxii.- 
xxxiv. sqq ) on account of the breaking of the 
covenant. 



EXODUS. 



not till now is there occasion for the theocratico- 
Bocial legislation, according to which every indi- 
vidual is to be recognised as a worthy member of 
this nation. The setting up of the golden calf fur- 
nished historical occasion for special precepts. 
The gradually progressive legislation recorded 
in the Book of Numbers moat markedly illus- 
trates the influence of historical events. We 
have before become acquainted with similar in- 
stances. This is true in a general way of the 
Passover and the unleavened bread. The com- 
mands concerning the sanctification of the first- 
born and concerning the reckoning of time refer 
to the exodus from Egypt. The hallowing of the 
seventh day is connected with the gift of manna ; 
the bitter water occasions the fundamental law 
of hygienics, ch. xv. The attack of Amalek is 
the actual foundation of the ordinance concern- 
ing holy wars. So in earlier times the Noachian 
command (Gen. ix.) was a law which looked back 
to the godless violence of the perished genera- 
tion; it connected the command to reverence 
God with the precept to hold human life sacred. 
So the fundamental command of the covenant 
with Abraham, the command of circumcision, as 
a symbol of generation consecrated with refer- 
ence to regeneration, appears after the history 
of the expulsion of Ishmael, who was born accord- 
ing to the flesh (comp. Gen. xvii. with Gen. xvi.). 
But that the book of Deuteronomy — according to 
the memorabilia on which it is founded — grew out 
of the danger tbat Israel might be led by the giving 
of the law to decline into observance of the mere 
letter, we have already elsewhere noticed. It 
may be remarked by the way that the Song of 
Moses and Moses' Blessing at the close of Deu- 
teronomy seem like the heart's blood of the whole 
book, a song of cursing, and a song of blessing ; 
in the Psalter and prophetic books scarcely any- 
thing similar can be found. 

How are the individual groups of laws related 
to one another? That they essentially and un- 
conditionally require one ano'her, and that ac- 
cordingly they could not have appeared sepa- 
rately, is not hard to show. The decalogue, 
taken by itself, would lead into scholastic casu- 
istry i the system of sacrifice, taken by itself, 
into magic rites; the political marshalling of the 
host, into despotism or greed of conquest. Com- 
pare Schleiermacher's argument in his "Dogma- 
tik," to show that the three offices of Christ re- 
quire each o'her. 

From what has been said it follows also that 
the development of the legislation was gradual. 
We may distinguish four stages in the Mosaic 
period: (1) The Passover as the foundation of 
the whole legislation, and the several special laws 
up to the arrival at Sinai (primogeniture, reck- 
oning of time, sanitary regulation, Sabbath) ; (2) 
the covenant law, or book of the covenant, before 
the covenant was broken by the erecting of the 
golden calf; (3) the expansion and modification 
of the law, on account of the breach of the cove- 
nant, in the direction of the hierarchy, the ritual, 
and the beginning of the proclamation of grace 
in the name of Jehovah; (4) the deeper and more 
inward meaning given to the law in Deuteronomy, 
as an introJuotion to the ago of the Psalms and 
Prophets. 



The Form of the Promulgation of the Decalogut. 
We assume that this form is indicated in xix, 
19. The passage. Dent. v. 4, "Jehovah talked 
with you face to face in the mount," is defined 
by ver. 5, "I stood between Jehovah and you at 
that time, to show you the word of Jehovah." In 
spite of this declaration and the mysterious pas- 
sages. Acts vii. 53, Gal. iii. 19, Heb. ii. 2, the no- 
tion has arisen, not only among the Jews, but also 
within the sphere of Christian scholastic theolo- 
gy, that God spoke audibly from Mt. Sinai to the 
wholepeople. Fid. Keil,II. p. 106sqq. Buxt.:''Bc. 
brseorum interpretfs adunum psene omnes : de.umverba 
deealogi per ee immediate locutum esse, dei nempepo- 
tentia, non autem angelorum opera ac mim'sterio voces 
in acre formatas fuisse." The interpolation of spi- 
rits of nature by von Hofmann [vid. Keil, p. 108) 
must be as far from the reality as from the literal 
meaning of the language. It must not be forgot' 
ten that Moses, at the head of his people in the 
breadless and waterless desert, moves, as it were, 
on the border region of this world. A sort of sym- 
bolical element is without doubt to be found even 
in the Rabbinical tradition, that God spoke from 
Sinai in a language which divided itself into all 
the languages of the seventy nations, and ex- 
tended audibly over all the earth ; — evidently a 
symbol of the fact that the language of the ten 
commandments gave expression to the language 
of the conscience of all mankind. 

The Relation of the Law in Exodus to the Form of 
it in Deuteronomy, 

First of all is to be noticed that in the most 
literal part of the Holy Scriptures, where every- 
thing seems to depend on the most exact phrase- 
ology, viz., in the statement of the law, there is 
yet not a perfect agreement between the two state- 
ments; just asis the casein theN.T. with the Lord's 
Prayer, and in church history with the ecumenical 
symbols, which, moreover, have failed to agree on 
a seven-fold division of it. Keil rightlymnkes the 
text in Exodus the original one ; whilst Kurtz, in 
a manner hazardous for his standpoint, inverts 
the relation, making the form in Deuteronomy 
the original one. Both of them overlook the 
fact that according to the spirit of the letter the 
one edition is as original as the other. We have 
already (Genesis, p. 92) attempted to explain the 
reason of the discrepancies which Keil in note I, 
II., p. 105, has cited. In the repetition of the 
Sabbath law the ethical and humane bearing of 
it is unmistakably made prominent (Deut. v. 
15), as in relation to the tenth commandment the 
wife is put before the house. In the form of the 
command to honor father and mother, the bless- 
ing of prosperity is made more emphatic. The 
expressions KlBf 1;? for 'IpEf •\^_, HWriri for the 
repetition of ionf) (in the second part of the 
tenth commandment) savor also of a spiritual- 
izing tendency. By the copula 1, moreover, the 
commandment, "Thou shalt not kill," and the 
following ones are, so to speak, united into oiu 
commandment. 

Furthermore is to be noticed the difference 
between the first oral proclamation of the law 
through the mediation of Mnses and the engraved 
inscription of it on two tablets. This begins after 



CHAP. XX. 1-21. 



77 



the solemn ratification of the covenant, xxiv. 15, 
xxxi. 18, xxxii. 19, xxxiv. 1. Thus at this point 
also in the giving of the law the oral revelation 
precedes the written, althongh at the same point 
the revealed word and the written word blend 
intimately together, in order typically to ex- 
hibit the intimate relation between the two 
throughout the Holy Scriptures. A positive 
command of Holy Scripture has already been 
made. xvii. 14: eternal war against Amalek, in 
a typical sense. The fact also is of permanent 
significance, that Aaron the priest was making 
the golden calf for the people at the same time 
that Moses on the mount was receiving the tables 
of the law. That the ten commandments were 
written on the two tables, that therefore the 
ethico-religious law of the covenant is divided 
into ten commandments, is affirmed in Ex. xxxiv. 
28, and Deut. x. 4. But on the question, how 
they are to be counted, and how divided between 
the two tables, opinions differ. Says Keil: " The 
words of the covenant, or the ten commandments, 
were written by God on two tables of stone (xxxi. 
18), and, as being the sum and kernel of the law, 
are called as early as in xxiv. 12 niXQni minn 
[the law and the commandment]. But as to their 
number, and their twofold division, the Biblical 
text furnishes neither positive statements nor 
certain indications — a clear proof that these 
points are of less importance than dogmatic zeal 
has often attached to them. In the course of the 
centuries two leading views have been developed. 
Some divide the commandments into two divisions 
of five each, and assign to the first table the com- 
mandmens respecting (1) other gods, (2) images, 
(3) the name of God, (4) the Sabbath, and (5) 
parents; to the second those concerning (1) mur- 
der, (2) adultery, (3) stealing, (4| false witness, 
and (5) oovetousness. Others assign to the first 
table three commandments, and to the second, 
seven. They specify, as the first three, the com- 
mandments concerning (1) other gods, (2) the 
name of God, (3) the Sabbath; which three com- 
prise the duties owed to God : and, as the seven 
of the second table, those concerning (1) parenis, 
(2) murder, (3) adultery, (4) stealing, (6) false 
witness, (6) coveting one's neighbor's house, (7) 
coveting a neighbor's wife, servants, cattle, and 
other possessions; as comprising the duties owed 
to one's neighbor. — The first opinion, with the 
division iuto two tables of five commandments 
each, is found ia Josephus (Ant. III., 5, 8) and 
Philo (Quis rer. divin. haer. g 35, De Decal. § 12 
et al.). It is unanimously approved by the 
church fathc-s of the first four centuries, and 
has been retained by the Oriental and Reformed 
ohurciies to this day. The later Jews also agree 
with this, so far as that they assume only one 
commandment respecting oovetousness, but dis- 
sent from it in that they unite the prohibition of 
images with the prohibition of strange gods, but 
regard the introductory sentence, " I am Jeho- 
vah, thy God," as the first commandment. This 
method of enumeration, of which the first traces 
are found in Julian, the Apostate, quoted by 
fiyril of Alexandria, adv. Julianum, Lib. V. init., 
and in a casual remark of Jerome on Hos. x. 10, 
is certainly of later origin, and perhaps pro- 
pounded only from opposition to the Christians ; 
but it still prevails among the modern Jews. 



The second leading view was brought into fa- 
vor by Augustine; and before him no one is 
known to have advocated it. In Quxst. 71 in 
Exod., Augustine expresses himself on the ques- 
tion how the ten commandments are to be di- 
vided : (" Ulrum quatmr sint usque ad prseceptum de 
Sabbatho, qua ad ipium Dcum pertinent, sex auicm 
reliqua quorum pHmum : Honora patrem et matrem, 
qua ad Itominem pertinent: an potius ilia tria sint et 
ista septem") after a further presentation of the 
two views, as follows: '■^Mihi tamen videntur con- 
gruentius accipi ilia tria et ista septem, quoniam Tri- 
nitatem videntur ilia quse ad Dtum pertinent, insinu- 
are diligentius intuentibm ;" and he then aims to 
show, further, that by the prohiMtiou of images 
the prohibition of other gods is only explained 
"per/ectius," while the prohibition of oovetous- 
ness, although " concupiscentia uxoris alienee et eon- 
cupiscenfia domus alienm tantum in peccando dif- 
ferant," is divided by the repetition of the "non 
concupisces " into two commandments. In this 
division Augustine, following the text of Deuter- 
onomy, generally reckoned the command not to 
covet one's neighbor's wife as the ninth, though 
in individual passages, following the text of Ex- 
odus, he puts the one concerning the neighbor's 
house first (vid. GeSken, Veber die verschiedene 
Eintheilung des Dekalogs, Hamburg, 1888, p. 174). 
Through Augustine's great influence this divi- 
sion of the commandments became the prevalent 
one in the Western church, and was also adopted 
by Luther and the Lutheran church, with the 
difference, however, that the Catholic and Lu- 
theran churches, following Exodus, made the 
ninth commandment refer to the house, while only 
a few, with Augustine, gave the preference to the 
order as found in Deuteronomy.* 

We have the more readily borrowed the lan- 
guage of a decided Luiheran on this question, in- 
asmuch as be, in distinction from some otiiers 
who seem to regard adherence to the mediaeval 
division as essential to Lutheran orthodoxy, dis- 
plays a commendable impartiality. The leading 
reasons for the ancient, theocratic division are 
the following: (1) The transposition of the first 
object of oovetousness in Exodus and Deuterono- 
my, "thy neighbor's house," "thy neighbor's 
wife." The advocates of the ecclesiastical view 
would here rather assume a corruption of the 



* In modem dlecns^iona of this subject, the Angustinian 
division is defended by Sonntag, in tlae Thml. S^ien und 
KrUVcm, 1836, p. 61 sqq. and 1837, p. 243 eqq., and by Kurtz 
in his HUUyry of the Old Covenant, III., p. 123 sqq., and in the 
Kirchl. Zdtschrift of Kliefoth and Meier, 1835, parti 4-6. The 
Lutlieran view, by C. W. Otto, Dp^calng. Tjniermchungen, Halle, 
1857. The Beformed view, as the original one, and the one 
borne out by the text, by ZUIliGr, in ihe Theol Studien wnd 
KrUiken, 1837, p. 47 sqq. ; J. Gefrkf n, in the above-mentioned 
treatise, which fully treats the historical teitimony; Ber- 
thean, Die 7 Grwppen mosaischar Gesetzc, GOttingen, 1840, p. 
10 sqq. ; Oehler, in Herzog^s Jtealencyhlop'ddie, Art. Dflcahg ; 
hv anonymous writers in the Evang. Kirchemeiiung, 1857, No. 
62 sq., and in the Erlanger Zeitschrift fUr ProUtUmlismm, 
Vol. 33, parts 1 and 2 ; finally, by F. W. Schultz, in a full, 
thorough, and candid treatment of the question in Bndelbach 
and Quericke's Zritgclirifl, 1858, part 1, and in his Comm. on 
Deut. T. 6 sqq.— E. in the Erianffer ZeitscKHfl, Vol. 36, part 4, 
p. 298 sqq. ; and Knobel on Ex, XX., enter the lists tor the 
Babbinical view. Finally, E. Meier, Die ur^priingliche Form 
den Dekalogs (Mannheim, 1836) launches out into arbil;rary 
conjectures " (Keil). See more on Rabbini al and Catholic di- 
visions in Keil II., p. Ill, and Bertheau, p. 13. [Corap. also 
Stanley, Jewish Oharr-h, Leot. VII., and the Article Ten Cam- 
mandmmts in Smith's Bi'}le DicliTnary, and Decalogue in 
Eitto's Cgclopedia.—tli.] 



78 



J5X0DUS. 



text, even in the tables of the law, (liau see in 
this transposition a weaving of the two precepts 
into one commandment. (2) The difference, am- 
ply established by sacred history, as well as by 
the history of religion in general, between the 
worship of symbolic images, and the worship of 
mythological deities: in accordance with which 
distinction the two pi-ohibitions are not to be 
blended into one commandment. (3) Of very 
special importance is the brief explanation of the 
law given by Paul in Rom. vii. 7 with the words, 
"Thou shalt not covet." According to this ex- 
planation, the emphasis rests on the prohibition 
of covetousness, and the expansion "thy neigh- 
bor's house," etc., serves merely to exemplify it. 
But when the commandment is divided into two, 
the chief force of the prohibition rests on the 
several objects of desire, so that these two last 
commandments would lead one to make the law 
consist in the vague prohibition of external 
things, and need to be supplemented by a great 
"etc. ;" whereas the emphasizing of covetousness 
as an important point leads one to refer the law to 
the inward life, and, so understood, looks back 
to the spiritual foundation of the whole law in 
the first commandment, whilst a kindred element 
of spirituality is found in the middle of the law, 
connected with the precept to honor father and 
mother. — As to the distribution of the law into 
two ideal tables, the division into two groups of 
five commandments each is favored especially by 
the fact that all the commandments of the second 
table from the sixth commandment on are con- 
nected by the conjunction 1 ["and;" in the A. V. 
rendered, together with the negative, ''neither"] 
in Deuteronomy (ver. 17, etc). Moreover, in fa- 
vor of the same division is the consideration that 
parents in the fifth commandment stand as repre- 
sentatives of the Deity and of the divine rule. As 
the first commandment expresses the law of true 
religion, and the second, the requirement to make 
one's religious conceptions spiritual and to keep 
them pure ; so the three following commandments 
evidently designate ramifications of religious con- 
duct: the duty of maintaining the sanctity of reli- 
gious knowledge and doctrine; of religious hu- 
manity (or of worship), ^nd of the most original 
nursery of religion, the household, and of its most 
original form, piety. Nevertheless, when one 
would divide the ten commandments between the 
two actual tables of Moses, he fails to find dis- 
tinct indications; hardly, however, can the as- 
sumption be established that only the precepts 
themselves stood on the tables, but not the rea- 
sons that are given for some of them. 

As to the whole system of the Mosaic legisla- 
tion, we are to consider the arrangement which 
Bertheau has made in his work "Vie aieben Orup- 
pen moaaischer Geselze in den drei mittleren Biichem 
des Pentateucha" (Gottingen, 1840). According to 
him, the number 7, multiplied by 10, taken seven 
times, lies at the foundation of the arrangement. 
We have already observed that we do not regard 
as well grounded the dissolution of the Mosaic 
code of laws from history as its basis. Moreover, 
a clear carrying out of the system would show 
that we could regard the origin of it only as in- 
stinctive, not as the conscious work of Rabbinic 
design. The ten commandments, Ex. xx. 1-17, 
form the introduction of this arrangement. But 



the ritual law follows immediately, beginning 
with a group, not of ten, but of four laws, xx. 
23 sqq. 

1. The Lawgiver. That Jehovah is the lawgiver 
does not exclude the mediation mentioned Qal. 
iii. 19 and elsewhere. Comp. Comm. on Genesis, 
vi. 18. Quite as little, however, does this me- 
diation obscure the name of the lawgiver, Jeho- 
vah. Keil (II. p. 114) inconclusively opposes 
the view of Knobel, who takes the first words, 
" I am Jehovah," as a confession, or as the foun- 
dation of the whole theocratic law. Just because 
the words have this force, are they also the foun- 
dation of the obligation of the people to keep the 
theocratic commandments. For the lawgiver 
puts the people under the highest obligation by 
their recognising him as benefactor and libera- 
tor. An absolute despot as such is no lawgiver, 
Israel's law is based on his typical liberation, 
and his obedience to the law on faith in that 
liberation. The law itself is the objective form 
in which for educational purposes the obligations 
are expressed, which are involved in its founda- 
tion. 

2. The first Commandment. The absolute nega- 
tion SO stands significantly at the beginning. 
So further on. Antithetic to it is the absolute 

'D3N ["I"] of Jehovah at the opening of His 
commandments. — D'il/X iTil], the gods becomr^ 
spring up gradually in the conceptions of the sin- 
ful people, hence 'JT D""'.nx in connection with 
D'ri/!* is to be explained as = irepot (according 
to Gal. i. 6) with the LXX. and the Vulgate 
{alieni, foreign), not = alii, other. ^i^S^ may 
mean before my face, over against my face, againtt 
my face, besides my face, beyond it. The central 
feature of the thought may be : beyond my per- 
sonal, revealed form, and in opposition to it — re- 
cognizing, together with the error a remnant of 
religiosity in the worship of the gods. — The "m- 
ram me" of the Vulgate expresses ote factor of 
the notion, as Luther's "neben mir" ["by my 
side"] does another. [Firf. under "Textual and 
Grammatical"]. 

8. The Prohibition of Image Worship, vers. 4-6. 

Image, 7D3, from 7D3, to hew wood or stone. 
It therefore denotes primarily a plastic image. 
njlDD does not signify an image made by man, 
but only a form which appears to him. Num. 
xii. 8, Dent. iv. 12, 15 sqq.. Job iv. 16, Psalm 
xvii. 15. In Deut. v. 8 (comp. iv. 16) we find 

nj?Dri"73 7p3, "image of any form." Accord- 
ingly njinil-TOl is here to be taken as explana- 
tory of 7D3, and ) as explicative, "even any 
form" (Keil). "Image" is therefore used ab- 
solutely in the sense of religious representa- 
tion of the Deity, and the various forms are con- 
ceived as the forms of the image. Comp. Deut. 
iv. 16, " for ye saw no manner of similitude [no 
form] on the day that Jehovah spake unto you 
in Horeb." The medium of legislation therefore 
continued to be a miracle of hearing; it became 
a miracle of sight only in the accompanying 
phenomena given for the purpose of perpetually 



preventing every kind of image-worsliip. — In 
heaven. Keilsays: " on the lieaven," explain- 
ing it as referring to tiie birds, and not the an- 
gels, at the most, according to Deut. iv. 19, as 
perhaps including the stars. The angels proper 
oould not possibly have been meant as copies of 
Jehovah, since they themselves appear only in 
visions; and even if the constellations were spe- 
cially meant, yet they too were for the most part 
piotorially represented [and in this sense only is 
the v^orship of them here prohibited]. The wor- 
ship of stars as such is covered by the first com- 
mandment. Comp. Rom. i. — Under the eatth. 
Beneath, under the level of the solid land, lower 
than it. Marine creatures are therefore meant. 
This commandment deals throughout only with 
religious conduct. The bowing down designates 
the act of adoration ; the terving denotes the sys- 
tem of worship. Keil quotes from Calvin : " qw^d 
atulte quidam putarunt, hie damnari sculpiuras etpic- 
iuiraa quasHbel, refutaiione non indiget," Still it is 
clear from Rom. i. that the gradual transition from 
the over-estimate of the symbolical image to the 
superstitious reverence for it Is included. 

According to Keil the threat and promise fol- 
lowing the second commandment refer to the two 
first as being embraced in a higher unity. But 
this higher unity is resolvable in this way, that the 
sin against the second commandment is to be re- 
garded as the source of the sin against the first. 
With image worship, or the deification of sym- 
bols idolatry begins. Hence image worship Is 
oondemned as being the germ of the whole suc- 
ceeding development of sin. That which in the 
classical writings of the Greeks and Romans is 
signified by v^imq, the fatal beginning of a con- 
nected series of crimes which come to a conclusion 
only in one or more tragic catastrophes, is sig- 
nified in the theocratic sphere by j V, perversion, 
penersenesa. The evil-doing of the fathers has 
a genealogical succession which cannot be broken 
till the third or fourth generations (grandchil- 
dren and great-grandchildren) are visited. This 
is shown also by the Greek tragedy, and the third 
and fourth generation is still to be traced in the 
five acts of the modern tragedy. Now the image- 
worshipper is worse than the idolater in that he 
makes this fatal beginning. But as the v/3pic 
proceeds from an insolence towards the gods 
which may be called hatred, so also image-wor- 
ship arises out of an insolent apostasy from the 
active control of the pure conception of God, 
from the control of the Spirit. In the Old Tes- 
tament, it is the golden calves of Jeroboam at 
Dan and Beersheba which are followed by such 
catastrophes in Israel. It may also be asked: 
What has the mediseval image-worship cost cer- 
tain European nations in particular ? That the 
hereditary guilt thus contracted forms no abso- 
lute fatality, is shown by the addition, " of them 
that hate me." This is a condition, or limita- 
tion, which is echoed in the e^' 1} iravrec ^//oprov 
of Rom. V. 12. But the condition cannot be made 
the foundation, as is done by Keil, who says that 

by the words 'KOt?^ and '?n«'? [" °^ *1"^™ ^^^^ 
hate me" and "of them tuat love me"] the 
punishment and the grace are traced back to 
their ultimate ground. This would vitiate the 
force of what he afterwards says of the organic 
9 



CHAP. 7X.V2I. 



79 



relation^f humanity. The organic hereditary 
oonditiows of guilt, of which even the heathen 
know hoV to speak (vid. Keil, p. 117), are lim- 
ited by mtrally guilty actions. Because refer- 
ence is herb made to organic consequences, the 
fathers themselves are not mentioned. Because 
the transmission of the curse is hindered by the 
counter Influence of ethical forces and natures, 
checks grow up as early as between the third 
and fourth generations. The sovereignty of 
grace is concerned in this, as also in the oppo- 
site parallel, "unto the thousands," i. e., unto 
a thousand generations. This wonderfully sub- 
tle and profound doctrine of original sin is not 
Augustinian, inasmuch as it assumes special cases 
of sin and individual and generic counteracting 
influences within the sphere of the general con- 
dition of sin. It is, however, still less Pelagian; 
yet, as compared with the notion of guUt embo- 
died in the Greek tragedians, it is exceedingly 
mild. The hereditary descendants of such a 
guilty parentage fill up the measure of the guilt 
of their fathers. Matt, xxiii. 82. In this passage 
also the notion of guilt, as distinguished from 
that of sin, is brought out. Guilt is the organic 
side of sin ; sin is ihe ethical side of guilt. The 
whole judicial economy, moreover, is founded on 
the jealousy of God; i. e., as being the absolute 
personality. He insists that persons shall not dis- 
solve the bond of personal communion with Him, 
that they shall not descend from the sphere of 
love into that of sensuous conceptions, 

4. The third commandment. The sin against the 
first commandment banishes the name of Jeho- 
vah by means of idol names ; the sin against the 
second obscures and disfigures it; the sin against 
this third one abuses it. Here then the name, 
the right apprehension, or at least knowledge 
and confession, of the name, are presupposed ; 
but the correctness of the apprehension' is hypo- 
critically employed by the transgressor of this 
commandment in the interest of selfishness and 
vice. According to Keil DW HJifi does not mean 
"to utter the name," and i^U does not mean 

: T 

"lie." But to lift up a name must surely mean 
to lift it up by uttering it, though doubtless in a 
solemn way; and though i^)ld signifies wasteness 
and emptiness, yet it is here to be understood of 
wasteness and emptiness in speech. The moral 
culmination of this sin is perjury, Lev. xix. 12 ; 
hypocrisy in the application of sacred things to 
criminal uses, especially also sorcery in all forms. 
— Here the punitive retribution is put imme- 
diately upon the person who sins, as an una- 
voidable one which surely finds its object, and 
whose law rests on the nature of Jehovah Himself. 

5. Vers. 9-11. Here is to be considered: (1) 
The significance of the law of the Sabbath; (2) the 
institution of the Sabbath; (3) the ordinance of the 
Sabbath; (i) the reason for the Sabbath. The idea 
of the Sabbath will never be rightly apprehended, 
unless it is seen to be a union of two laws. The 
first is the ethical law Of humanity, which here 
predominates ; the second is the strictly religious 
law, which is made prominent in Lev. xxiii. 
The law of the Sabbath would not stand in the 
decalogue, if it did not have a moral principle to 
establish as much as the commandments not to 
kill, commit adultery, or steal. The physical 



80 



'EXODUS, 



nature shall no', be worn out, disho^jBed, and 
slowly murdered by restless occupation: Hence 
the specification: "No kind of work or busi- 
ness ;" and that, not only in reference to son 
and daughter, man-servant and muid-servant, 
but also in reference to the beasto themselves 
and the stranger within the gates of Israel (i. e., 
in their cities and villages, not in the houses of 
the stranger), as the foreigner might imagine 
that he could publicly emancipate himself from 
this sacred humaue ordinance. This point is 
brought out in Deut. v. 14, 15 ; Ex. xxiii. 12. 
It is seen further on, in the sabbatical year and 
in the great year of jubilee. Reference is made 
to it in Deut. xvi. 11. — That there existed already 
a tradition of the Sabbath rest, may be inferred 
from the tradition of the days of creation ; so 
also circumcision as a custom prevailed before 
the institution of it as a sacrament. But that 
circumcision, as a patriarchal law, symbolically 
comprehending all the ten commandments, con- 
tinued to outrank the Mosaic law of the Sabbath, 
which was not till now raised to the rank of one 
of the chief ethical commandments, is shown by 
the Jewish custom as indicated iu Christ's decla- 
ration, John vii. 22, 23. — The ordinance of the 
Sabbath first specifies the subjects of the com- 
mand: " Those who are to rest are divided into 
two classes by the omission of the conjunction 1 
before ■'l^^j;" (Keil). Next, the degree of rest: 
"n3X7D, business (comp. Gen. ii. 2), in distinc- 
tion from rn3J7, labor, means not so much the 
lighter work (Schultz) as rather, in general, the 
accomplishment of any task, whether hard or 
easy; m3^ is the execution of a particular work, 
whether agricultural (Ps. civ. 23), or mechani- 
cal (Ex. xxxix. 32), or sacerdotal, including both 
the priestly service and the labor necessary for 
the performance of the ritual (Ex. xii. 25 sq.. 
Num. iv. 47). On the Sabbath, as also on the 
day of atonement (Lev. xxiii. 28, 81) every em- 
ployment was to cease ; on the other feast-days, 
only laborious occupations, mi^ HDJAID (Lev. 
xxiii. 7 sqq.), i.e., occupations which come under 
the head of toilsome labor, civil business, and 
the prosecution of one's trade" (Keil). — The 
reason: "for in six days," etc. "This implies 
that God blessed and hallowed the seventh day 
because He rested on it" (Keil). According to 
Schultz man should, in a degree, make the pul- 
sations of the divine life his own. So much is 
certainly true, that the rhythmical antithesis 
between labor and rest in the divine creation 
should be not only the prototype, but also the 
rule for human activity. All the more, inas- 
much as not only human nature, but nature in 
general, needs intervals of rest to keep it from 
being consumed with disquietude. Hence the 
commandment contains an ethical principle, a 
law designed to secure vigor of life, as the sixth 
commandment protects life itself, xxiii. 12, Deut. 
V. 14 sq. Furthermore is to be considered that 
the seventh day of God has u, beginning, but 
no end ; accordingly man's d.ay of rest should 
have its issue, not in time, but in eternity (vid. 
Heb. iv. 10, Rev. xiv. 13). Keil would here make 



a distinction between the labor of Paradise and 
labor after the fall ; but the typical days of cre- 
ation preceded the fall. The positive side of the 
day of rest, the solemn celebration, first appears 
in the form of the ritual law of the Sabbath. 
The ritual makes the day of rest a festival. Ami, 
inasmuch as the festival is the soul of the day 
of rest, a day in which man should rest, and keep 
holy day in God, as on that day God rests and 
keeps holy day in man, it could also be trans- 
formed from the Jewish Sabbath into the Chris- 
tian Sunday. 

6. Ver. 12. l%e fifth commandment. This con- 
cludes the first table, and forms at the same time 
a transition to the second. " In the requisition 
of honor to parents it lays the foundation for the 
sanctification of all social life, in that it teaches 
us to recognise a divine authority in it" (Oehler, 
in Herzog' B Real-Enct/clopadie, under "Dehalog"), 
In the parental house the distinction between 
the dynamical majority that is to train and go- 
vern, and the numerical majority which is to be 
subject to the other, becomes conspicuous: one 
pair of parents, and perhaps two, three, or four 
times as many children. Here the government 
of an absolute majority would be an absolute ab- 
surdity. On the fifth commandment vid. Eeil, 
p. 122. 

7. The sixth commandment. The protection of 
life in its existence. It is at the same time 
the basis of all the following commandments. 
Lev. xix. 18, " Thou sbalt love thy neighbor 
as thyself." Hence killing, when permitted or 
even commanded, is to be regarded as in prin- 
ciple a consequence of the duty of the preserva- 
tion of life in the higher sense. So the seventh 
commandment serves to protect marriage as the 
source of life and the means of keeping it pure; 
the eighth commandment, to protect properly and 
equity, as the condition of the dignity of life; the 
ninth commandment, to protect truth and the ju- 
diciary against falsehood and slander, as being 
the spiritual vitiation of life; the tenth com- 
mandment, to guard the issues of life from within 
outwards. The progress from violence to seduc- 
tion, and thence on to fraud, prepares the way 
for the transition to the chief sin of the tongue 
and the chief sin of the thought, primarily as 
related to one's neighbor. On this "mirum el 
aptum oTdinem," as Luther calls it, see Keil II., 
p. 123. Thus the circle is formed ; the law re- 
turns to the beginning: only by the sanctifica- 
tion of the heart according to the tenth com- 
mandment can the worship of God according to 
the first commandment be secured. — Not kill. 
Every thing belonging here is taught in the cate- 
chism ; vid. also Keil, p. 123 (comp. Gen. ix. 6). 
In the exposition, suicide, the killing of beasts, 
etc., are to be considered. By the omission of 
the object the emphasis lying on the notion of 
killing is strengthened. In so far as the beast 
has no complete life, it cannot be killed in ths 
same sense as a man can be. But every form of 
cruelty to beasts is an offence against the image 
of human life. 

8. Not commit adultery. This command- 
ment holds the same relation to the sixth as the 
second to the first. Idolatry proper corresponds 
with the murder of one's neighbor, the latter 
being an offence against the divine in man. Im- 



CHAP. XX. 22-26. 



&1 



age-worship, however, oorreeponds with adul- 
tery, as this too rests on a subtle deification of 
the image of man; it is spiritual idolatry, as 
image-worship is spiritual adultery. Lev. xx. 10. 
Here observe also the expansion of the thought 
in the catechism, according to which simple 
whoredom too in all its forms, as well as unchas- 
tity, is included. 

9. Not steal. Vid. the expansion, ch. xxi. 
!<Z, xxii. 18, xxiii. 4, 5, Deut. xxii. 1-4. The 
correspondence between this commandment and 
tbe misuse of the name of God, which robs God 
of His honor, is also not to be overlooked. In 
the case of false oaths in business the two offences 
coalesce. 

10 Bear false ^xrltness against thy neigh- 
bor. IpEf n;;., Deut. »)& "[}!_, an intensification 
of the expression. "Not only every lying, but 
in general every untrue and unfounded, testi- 
mony is forbidden ; also not only testimony be- 
fore the judge, but in general every untrue tes- 
timony" (Eeil). Aside from the fact that the 
judicial oaths in court form a sort of religious 
ceremony, which reminds one of the law of the 
Sabbath, it is also the office of the Sabbath to 
suppress the false excitements of the week of la- 
bor, out of which sins of the tongue, especially 
also false testimony, proceed. 

11. Thou Shalt not covet. The emphasis 
lies on coveting, not on the several objects of co- 
veting. This emphasis of the inward state is 
made secure by reckoning the commandment as 

one. " The repetition of nbnn tO ['thonshalt 
not covet'] no more proves that the words form 
ttro distinct commandments than the substitution 

of nwnn ['desire'] forlonn ['covet'] in Deut. 
Y. 18(21)'! (Keil). The repetition in Exodus gives 
prominence to the thought that the house, the sum 
total of domestic life, as a unit, is superior to the 
individual; in Deut., that the wife, ideally con- 
sidered, is superior to the house (Prov. xii. 4, 
xxxi. 10). Vid. Keil's note in reply to Kurtz, 
wtio regards the text in Exodus as corrupt.* The 



* [The note is not given in the Enpcliah edition. Enrtz 
argues that lusting after one's neighl>or'8 wife, and coveting 
his possessions, are two quite distinct sins; hence he regards 
th« use of two distinct verbs for the two sins in Deuteronomy 
as the most accurate fonu of the cmnmandzaents, and there- 



relation between the fifth and the tenth com- 
mandment is less marked, yet it may be said : a 
genuine pupil of a pious house will not covet his 
neighbor's house. The house of God in the pious 
family keeps peace with the house of the neigh- 
bor. Every house is to the pious man a house 
consecrated by justice, like a house of God. 

The Effect. 
Vers. 18-21; Deut. v. 23-33. According to 
Keil, the frightful phenomena under which the 
Lord manifested His majesty made the designed 
impression on the people. It was indeed de- 
signed that the people should be penetrated with 
the fear of God, in order that they might not sin ; 
but not that in their fear they should stand off 
and beg Moses as their mediator to talk with 
God. Hence it is said, "God is come to try 
you." A trial is always a test, which, through 
the influence of false notions, may occasion a 
twofold view of it. That; the Jews as sinners 
should be startled by the p^henomena of the ma- 
jesty of God, was the ihteotiof this revelation ; but 
that they should retire trembling and desire a 
mediator, was a misundferatanding occasioned by 
their carnal fear and spiritual sluggishness. 
Here, therefore, is the.- key to the understanding 
of the hierarchy. The ftzy feeling of the people 
desired a media,t\Tig grieathood, which the person 
of Moses first had to represent. For the priest 
is the man who can dare to approach God with- 
out being overwhelmed with the fear of death 
(Jer. XXX. 21). The people now, although they 
have found out by experience that men can hear 
God speak without dying, yet yield to the fear 
that they will be destroyed by fire when in im- 
mediate intercourse with God (Deut. v. 24, 26). 
And because this is now their attitude of soul, 
Jehovah complies with it (Deut. v. 28), just as 
He afterwards gave to the people a kiog. This 
origin of the Old Testament hierarchy explains 
why immediately afterwards mention is made of 
altars. In consequence of that arrangement, 
therefore, the people now stood henceforth afar 
off: Moses had for the present assumed the 
whole mediatorship. 

fore conjectures that through some copyist the text of Exo- 
dus has been changed. He confesBes, however, that there is 
no external evidence of any weight in favor of the conjec- 
ture.— Tb.] 



B.— THE FIRST COMPENDIOUS LAW OF SACRIFICE. 
Chapter XX. 22-26. 

22 And Jehovah said unto Moses, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel 

23 Ye have sesn that I have talked with you from heaven. Ye shall not make with 

24 me gods of silver, neither shall ye make unto you gods of gold.' An altar of earth 

TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL. 

• fTer. 23. If we follow the Ma^oretio punctuation, the literal translation would be : " Te shall not ™»''^„^''^.„^? ' 
gods of silver and gods of gold y,i shall not make unto you." With this dvviaion of the verse un obj.-ct must »" suPP"™ in 
the first clause, e. g., " Te shall not make anything," i. e., any Rods, " with me," t. e., to be ob.iecr8 of worship together with 
me. In fiiTor of tfiis construction ulso is the consideration that in Ih- renderina: of the A. V. an ""™'J™*™ f'™?";^^^^ 
seems to be made between " gods of silver " and " gods of gold." On the other hand, however the paluUehsm of the o auses 
favors the rendering of the AT V. The latter 14 adopted by LXX. (where, however, we find v/iij. instead of av^ .^o.; ana 
Vulg. (Where 'flX is left entirely untranslated). But the majority of sob lars prefer the other division.— in., 



82 



EXODUS. 



thou shalt make unto me, and shalt sacrifice thereon thy burnt-offerings, and thy 
peace-offerings, thy sheep, and thine oxen : in all places where I record my name I 

25 will come unto thee, and I will bless thee. And if thou wilt make [thou make] me 
"an altar of stone, thou shalt not build it of hewn stone ; for if thou lift up thy tool 

26 upon it, thou hast polluted it. Neither shalt thou go up by steps unto mine altar, 
that thy nakedness be not discovered thereon. 



EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL. 

■We have to do here with an altogether peculiar 
seotion, the germ of all Leviticus, or even of the 
whole ritual law. This is too little recognized 
when Keil gives as one division: chaps, xx. 22- 
xxiv. 2, under the title, " Leading Features in 
the Covenant Constitution," and then makes the 
suhdivisiou: (1) The general form of Israel's 
worship of God ; (2) The laws of Israel. Knobel 
has observed the turning-point in one respect at 
all events: "The frightful phenomena amidst 
which .Jehovah announces the fundamental law 
of the theocracy, fill the people with terror ; 
hence another mode of revelation is employed for 
the further divine disclosures. They beg that 
Moses rather than God should speak with them, 
inasmuch as they are filled with mortal diead 
and fear for their lives. In this way the author 
explains why Jehovah revealed the other laws to 
Moses, and through him brought them to the 
people, whereas He had addressed the ten com- 
mandments immediately to the people." How 
little more was needed in order to discern the 
genesis of the hierarchical mediatorship. 

Vers. 22, 23. Have talked with you from 
heaven. — This is the b.isis for the negative part 
of the theocratic ritual, and at the same time the 
explanation of the worship of images and idols. 
This rests on the fancy that Jehovah cannot ap- 
proach men from heaven, and that man cannot 
hear the word of Jehovah from heaven ; that 
therefore images of gods and heavenly objects 
are necessary as media between the Deity and 
mankind. It is to be inferred from the forego- 
ing that this prohibition does not exclude the 
mediatorship of Moses, still less the mediatorship 
of Christ in the New Covenant, for it is through 
this real mediation that heaven is to be brought 
to earth, and humanity united in the Holy Ghost. 
Furthermore, it is to be noticed that this prohibit 
tion la given here as a law respecting worship 
wliereas in the decalogue it has a fundamental 
ethical significance. Hence we read here: ''Ye 
shall not make "nN, with me," by which is desig- 
nated the adoration of images in religious ser- 
vices, as involving the germ of idolatry. It Is 
here incidentally suggested that images are pro- 
hibited because Jehovah was veiled in a cloud, 
and, " as a heavenly being, can be pictured by no 
earthly material." (Keil.) 

Ver. 24. The positive law of worship. Regard- 
ing it as certain that there had been already a 
traditional service of God, connected with sacri- 
ficial rites, we cannot fiiil to discern here a design 
to counteract extravagances, and to present in 
the simplest pc^sible form this ritual devoted to 
theocratic worship. It may be taken as signifi- 
cant for the service of the Church also, that this 
fundamental, simple regulation did not exclude 
further developments, or even modifications. Of 



course the modifications of this outward mani- 
festation of piety must have an inward ground. 
How then did tlie altar of the tabernacle grow 
out of the low altar of earth or of unhewa 
stones ? First, it is to be considered that the altar 
of the tabernacle was threefold: the altar of 
burnt-offering in the court (xxvii. 1); the altar 
of incense in the sanctuary (xxx. 1); and tlie 
mercy-seat in the Holy of holies (xxvi. 34; xxv. 
21). The altar of burnt-offering was of acacia 
wood, overlaid with copper, and three cubits 
high. The altar of incense, also of acacia wood, 
was overlaid with gold; finally, the mercy-seat 
was of pure gold. This gradation points back 
from the gold through the gilding and the copper 
to the starting-point, the altar of earth or of 
stone. This primitive form continued to be the 
normal type for the altars which, notwithstanding 
the fixed centre in the exclusive place of wor- 
ship, were always prescribed for extraordinary 
places of revelation (Deut. xxvii. 5; Josh. viii. 
30; Judg. vi. 26). Not only the right, but also 
the duty, of marking by altars real places of re- 
velations, was therefore reserved ; the worship in 
high places easily followed as an abuse. Only in 
opposition to this abuse was the central sanctuary 
the exclusive place of worship; but it was to be 
expected that a permanent altar in the sanctuary 
could not continue to be so much like a natural 
growth, but had to be symbolically conformed to 
its surroundings in the sanctuary. 

An altar of earth. — "The altar, as an ele- 
vation built of earth or unhewn stones, symbolizes 
the elevation of man to the God who is enthroned 
on high, in heaven" (Keil). Most especially it 
is a monument of the place where God is re- 
vealed; then a symbi)l of the response of a hu- 
man soul yielding to the divine call, Gen. xii. 7; 
xxii. 9; xxviii. 18; Ex. iii. 12, etc. Hence it is 
said: ''In all places where I cause my name to 
be remembered." "Generally," says Knobel, 
"the passage is referre.l to the altar of the taber- 
nacle, which subsequently was to stand now here, 
now there. But this will not do. For (1) The 
author in no way points to this single, particular 
altar, but speaks quite generally of any sacrificial 
worship of Jehovah, and gives no occasion to 
bring in the tabernacle here contrary to the con- 
nection. (2) The altar of burnt-offering in the 
tabernacle was not made of earth, but consisted 
of boards overlaid with copper (xxvii. Isq ). 
(3) Jehovah could not say that He would come 
to Israel at every pl.ace where the tabernacle 
stood, because He dwelt in the tabernacle, and 
in it went with Israel (xiii. 21 sq., etc.)." But 
though the tabernacle denotes the legal and sym- 
bolical residence of Jehovah, yet that does not 
mean that Jehovah in a human way and perpe- 
tually dwells in the tabernacle. The tabernacle 
was only the place where He was generally to be 
found, more than elsewhere, and for the whole 
people; but Jehovah was not confined to the ta- 



CHAP. XXI. 1— XXIII. 



83 



bernaole. The designation of the altar of burnt- 
offering as one of copper shows that a rising scale 
was formed : from the earth to stone, and from 
stone to copper, and from this still higher to gold 
plate and to solid gold. So in the way of self- 
surrender, of offerings under the fire of Qod's 
self-revelation, out of the man of earth is 
formed the second man, the child of golden 
light. On the original form of altars, earth en- 
closed with turf, vid. Knobel, p. 211. As simple 
as the original form of the altar are the original 
forms of offerings: burnt-offerings and thank- 
offerings. Both constitute the first ramification 
of the Passover, which in the Levitical ritual 
branches out still further. 

Ver. 25. An altar of stone. — The aspiration 
of religious men after more imposing forms of 
worship is not prohibited by Jehovah, but it is 
restricted. The stone altar was to be no splen- 
did structure. By any sharp iron (S^n, gene- 
rally sword) the stone is desecrated — i. e., under 
these circumstances; for how can the worship- 
per, when receiving a new revelation from God, 
be thinking of decking the altar? "The precept 
occurs again in Deut. xxvii. 6 sq.; and altars of 
unhewn stone are mentioned in Josh. viii. 31 ; 1 
Kings xviii. 32; 1 Maco. iv. 47. They were 
found also elsewhere, e. g., in Trebizond." (Kno- 
bel.) The opinion that hewn stone was looked 



on as spurious can hardly be maintained, coua - 
dering the recognition of culture and art in other 
relations. But vid. Knobel, p. 212.* Connected 
with the first restriction in regard to the splendor 
of the stone altar is the second: Neither . . . by 
steps. — The more steps, the more imposing the 
altar; therefore no steps ! The reason is: "that 
thy nakedness be not uncovered before it." Be- 
fore it, as being the symbol of God's presence. 
[But the Hebrew says: "on it." — Tb.] As the 
sacrifice symbolically covers the sin of man be- 
fore God, so the nakedness of the offerer should 
remain covered, as a reminder of his sinfulness 
before God and before His altar. The ethical 
side of the thought is this: that a knowledge 
of this exposure might disturb the reverence of 
the offerer. But inasmuch as the later altar of 
the ritual service in the tabernacle was three 
cubits high and therefore probably needed steps 
(Lev. ix. 22), the priests had to put on trowsers 
(xxviii. 42). 



* [" It would seem that the stone which waa unhewD, therp- 
fore uninjured and unfashioned, found in the condition in 
which the Creator left it, was regarded as unadulterated and 
pure, and was therefore required to be used. Similar are tiie 
reasons for the commands not to offer castrated animals (Lev. 
xxii. 24), to receive into the congregation a mutilated man 
(Deut. xxiii. 1), to propagate mongrel beasts and grain 
(Lev. xix. 19), nor to put on the clothes of the opposite sex 
(Deut xxii. 5)." Knobel, I. a. — Tb.] 



C— FIRST FORM OF THE LAW OF THE POLITICAL COMMONWEALTH. 

Chapteb XXI. 1— XXIII. 33. 

a. Right of Personal Freedom [according to Bertheau, ten in number). 

1 Now these are the judgments [ordinances] which thou shalt set before them. 

2 If [when] thou buy [buyest] an Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve : and in 

3 the seventh he shall go out free for nothing. If he came [come] in by himself, he 
shall go out by himself: if he were [be] married, then his wife shall go out with 

4 him. If his master have given [give] him a wife, and she have borne [bear] him 
sous or daughters, the wife and her children shall be her master's, and he shall go 

5 out by himself. And if the servant shall plainly say, I love my master, my wife, 

6 and my children ; I will not go out free : then his master shall bring him unto the 
judges [God] ; he shall also bring him to the door, or unto the door-post ; and his 
master shall bore his ear through with an awl ; and he shall serve him forever. 

7 And if [when] a man sell [selleth] his daughter to be a maid-servant, she shall not 

8 go out as the men-servants do. If she please not her master who hath betrothed 
her to himself,Hhen shall he let her be redeemed: to sell her unto a strange nation 

9 he shall have no power, seeing he hath dealt deceitfully with her. And it he have 
betrothed [betroth] her unto his son, he shall deal with her after the manner ot 

10 daughters. If he take him another wife; her food, her raiment, and her duty ot 

TEXTUAL AND GEAMMATICAL. 

I [Ver. 8. The Hebrew here, amirding to the K'thibh, is vh, and If this were followed, we should have to transla^ 
with G6dde8,RosenmUller and others: "so that he hath not betrothed (or will not betroth) her." The KM 'eads V7, 
" unto him " or " unto himself." This yields much the easiest sense, and is especially confirmed by the consideration that 
■}y^ of itself means, not "betroth," but "appoinV "destine." Followed by the Dative, it may in the connection convey 
th7notion of betrothal ; but used absolutely, it cannot convey it.— Tb.] 



84 EXODUS. 



11 marriage [marriage due] shall he not diminish. And if he do not these three unto 
her, then shall she go out free [for nothing], without money. 

b. On Murder and Bodily Injuries. Sina againtt the Life of one') Neighbor. (Ten in number, accord- 
ing to Sertheau.) 

12 He that smiteth a man, 80 that he die [dieth], shall be surely put to death. 

13 And if a man lie not in wait, but God deliver him into his hand [make it happen 

14 to his hand^] ; then I will appoint thee a place whither he shall flee. But [And] 
if [when] a man come [cometh] presumptuously upon his neighbor, to slay him 

15 with guile ; thou shalt take him from mine altar, that he may die. And he that 

16 smiteth his father, or his mother, shall be surely put to death. And he that steal- 
eth a man, and selleth him, or if he be found in his hand, he shall surely be put to 

17 death. And he that curseth [revileth]' his father, or his mother, shall surely be 

18 put to death. And if [when] men strive together, and one smite [smiteth] another 
[the other] with a stone, or with his fist, and he die [dieth] not, but keepetb 

19 his bed : If he rise again, and walk abroad upon his staff, then shall he that smote 
him be quit : only he shall pay for the loss of his time, and shall cause him to be 

20 thoroughly healed. And if [when] a man smite [smiteth] his servant, or bis maid, 
with a rod, and he die [dieth] under his hand; he shall be surely punished. 

21 Notwithstanding, if he continue a day or two, he shall not be punished : for he is 

22 his money. If [And when] men strive, and hurt a woman with child, so that her 
fruit depart from her [depart], and yet no mischief follow: he shall be surely 
punished [fined], according as the woman's husband will [shall] lay upon him : 

23 and he shall pay as the judges determine.* And if any mischief follow, then thou 

24 shalt give life for life, Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, 
25, 26 Burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe. And if [when] a 

man smite [smiteth] the eye of his servant, or the eye of his maid, that it perish 

27 [and destroyeth it] : he shall let him go free for his eye's sake. And if he smite 
out his man-servant's tooth, or his maid-servant's tooth ; he shall let him go free 
for his tooth's sake. 

c. Injuries resulting from Relations of Property. Through Property and of Property. Acts of 
Carelessness and Theft. {Ten, according to Bertheau.) 

28 If [And when] an ox gore [goreth] a man or a woman, that they die, then the ox 
shall be surely stoned, and his flesh shall not be eaten ; but the owner of the ox 

29 shaU be quit. But if the ox were [hath been] wont to push with his horn [to gore] 
in time past, and it hath been testified to his owner, and he hath not kept him in 
[keepeth him not in], but that he hath killed [and he kUleth] a man or a woman; 

30 the ox shall be stoned, and his owner also shall be put to death. If there be laid 
on him a sum of money [ransom], then he shall give for the ransom [redemption] 

31 of his life whatsoever is laid upon him. Whether he have gored a son, or have 

32 gored a daughter, according to this judgment shall it be done unto him. If the ox 
shall push [gore] a man-servant or maid-servant, he shall give unto their master 

33 thirty shekels of silver, and the ox shall be stoned. And if [when] a man shall 
open a pit, or if [when] a man shall dig a pit, and not cover it, and an ox or an 

34 ass fall therein ; The owner of the pit shall make it good, and [good; he shall] give 

35 money unto the owner of them ; and the dead beast shall be his. And if [when] one 
man's ox hurt [hurteth] another's, that he die [dieth] ; then they shall sell the live ox, 

36 and divide the money [price] of it; and the dead ox also they shall divide. Or if 

' [Ver. 13. nils cannot mean "deliver," and no object is expressed. It is therefore unwarrantable to render, with 

A. v., " deliver him," or even with Lange, " let him accldentnlly fall into his hand." The object to bo supplied is the indfr 
finite one suggested by the preceding sentence, viz. homicide.— Xa.J 

' [Ver. 17. 77p, though generally rendered "curse" in A. V , yet differs unmistakably from TIX 'n being used not 

merely of cursing, but of evil speaking in general, e. g. Jndg, ix. 27 and 2 Sam. xvl. 9. The LXX. render it correctly Ij 
KaKoAoyeu. And this word, where the passage is quoted in the Kew Testament, is rendered by the same Greek word, vs. 
Matt. XV. 4.— Tk.] 

* [Ver. 23. The Heb. reads 0^77533, lit. "with Judges" or " among judges." Some render "unto the Judges;" othen 

"before the judges;" but the preposition does not naturally ronvey either of these senses. The A. V. probably 
the true meaning; " with judges," i. e. the fine being judicially imposed.— Tb,] 



CHAP. xxr. 1— xxiir. 33. 85 



it be known that the ox hath used to push [hath been wont to gore] in time past. 
and his owner hath not kept him in ; he shall surely pay ox for ox ; and the dead 
shall be his own. 

Chap. XXII. 1 If [When] a man shall steal [stealeth] an ox, or a sheep, and kill 
[killeth] it, or sell [selleth] it ; he shall restore [pay] fiveoxen for an ox, and four sheep 

2 for a sheep. If a [the] thief be f >und breaking up [in], and be smitten that he die 

3 [so that he dieth], there shall no blood be shed [no blood-guiltiness] for him. If 
the sun be risen upon him, there shall he blood shed [blood-guiltiness] for him ; for 
he [him ; he] should make full restitution ; if he have nothing, then he shall be sold 

4 for his theft. If the theft be certainly found in his hand alive, whether it be ox, 

5 or ass, or sheep ; he shall restore [pay] double. If [When] a man shall cause 
[causeth] a field or vineyard to be eaten [fed upon], and shall put in his beast [letteth 
his beast loose], and shall feed [and it feedeth] in another man's field; of the best 

6 of his own field, and of the best of his own vineyard, shall he make restitution. If 
[When] fire break [breaketh] out, and catch [catcheth] in thorns, so that the 
stacks of corn [grain], or the standing corn [grain], or the field, be [is] consumed 
therewith; he [consumed; he] that kmdled the fire shall surely make [make full] 
restitution. 

d. Things Entrusted and Things Lost. 

7 If [When] a man shall deliver unto his neighbor money or stuff to kee^, and it 
be [is] stolen out of the man's house; if the thief be found, let him pay double. 

8 If the thief be not found, then the master of the house shall be brought unto the 
judges [unto God], to see whether he have put [have not put] his hand unto his 

9 neighbor's goods. For all manner of trespass [In every case of trespass], whether 
it he for ox, for ass, for sheep, for raiment, or for any manner of lost [any lost] 
thing, which another challengeth to be his [of which one saith. This is it], the cause 

f of both parties shall come before the judges [God] ; and [he] whom the judges 

10 [God] shall condemn, he [condemn] shall pay double unto his neighbor. If [When] 
a man deliver [delivereth] unto his neighbor an ass, or an ox, or a sheep, or any 
beast, to keep; and it die [dieth], or be [is] hurt, or driven away, no man seeing 

11 it: Then shall an [the] oath of Jehovah be between them both, that [whether] hw 
hath not put his hand unto his neighbor's goods ; and the owner of it shall accept 

12 <te-eo/ [it], and he shall not make it good [make restitutiop]. And if it be stolen from 

13 him, he shall make restitution unto the owner thereof If it be torn in pieces, then 
let him bring it for witness; and [witness;] he shall not make good that which was 

14 torn. And if [when] a man borrow [borroweth] aught of his neighbor, and it be 
[is] hurt, or die [dieth], the owner thereof being not with it, he shall surely make 

15 it good [shall make full restitution]. But if [If] the owner thereof 6e with it, he 

16 shall not make it good : if it be an hired thing, it came for his [its] hire. And if 
[when] a man entice [enticeth] a maid [virgm] that is not betrothed, and lie [lieth] 

17 with her, he shall surely endow her to be his wife. If her father utterly refuse to 
give her uuto him, he shall pay money according to the dowry of virgms. 

e. Unnatural Crimes. Religious and Inhumane Abominations. (Arranged according to Bertheau.) 

18, 19 (1) Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live. (2) Whosoever lieth with a beast 

20 shall surely be put to death. (3) He that sacrificeth unto any god, save unto 
Jehovah only, he [only,] shall be utterly destroyed [devoted to destruction]. 

21 (4) Thou shalt neither vex [wrong] a stranger, nor oppress him : for ye were 

22 strangers in the land of Egypt. (5) Ye shall not afflict any widow, or fatherless 

23 child. If thou afflict them in any wise, and they cry at all unto me, I will surely 

24 hear their cry ; And my wrath shall wax hot, and I will kill you with the sword ; 

25 and your wives shall be widows, and your children fatherless. _ (6) If thou lend 
money to any of my people that is poor by thee [with thee that is poor], thou shalt 
not be to him as an usurer ; neither shalt thou [shall ye] lay upon him usury [interest]. 

26 (7) If thou at all take thy neighbor's raiment to pledge, thou shalt deliver [restorej 

27 it unto him by that the sun goeth down: For that is his covering only [only cnver- 
bg], it is his raiment for his skin : wherein shall he sleep ? And it shall come to 



86 EXODUS. 



28 pass, when he crieth unto me, that I will hear ; for I am gracious. (8) Thou shalt 

29 Lot revile the gods [God], nor curse the [a] ruler of [among] thy people. (9) 
Thou shalt not delay to offer [not keep back] the first of thy ripe fruits and of thy 
liquors [the first-fruits of thy threshing-floor and of thy press] :^ the first-born of 

30 thy sons shalt thou give unto me. Likewise shalt thou do with thine oxen, and 
with thy sheep : seven days it shall be with his [its] dam ; on the eighth day thou 

31 shalt give it me. (10) And ye shall be holy men unto me ; neither shall ye [and 
ye shall not] eat any flesh that is torn of beasts in the field ; ye shall cast it to the 
dogs. 

/. Judicial Proceedings. 

XXIII. 1 (1) Thou shalt raise [carry] a false report: (2) put not thine [thy] hand 

2 with the wicked to be an unrighteous witness. (3) Thou shalt not follow a multi- 
tude to do evil ; neither shalt thou speak in a cause to decline [turn aside] after 

3 many [a multitude] to wrest judgment : (4) Neither shalt thou countenance [be 

4 partial to] a poor man in his cause. (5) If [When] thou meet [meetest] thine 
enemy's ox or his ass going astray, thou shalt surely bring it back to him again 

5 [to him]. (6) If [When] thou see [seest] the ass of him that hateth thee lying 
under his burden, and wouldest forbear to help him [thou shalt forbear to leave 

6 him], thou shalt surely help [release i{] with him.* (7) Thou shalt not wrest the 

7 judgment of thy poor in his cause. (8) Keep thee far from a false matter; and 

8 the innocent and righteous slay them not : for I will not justify the wicked. (9) 
And thou shalt take no gift [bribe] : for the gift [a bribe] blindeth the wise [the 

9 seeing], and perverteth the words of the righteous. (10) Also thou shalt not op- 
press a stranger : for ye know the heart of a stranger, seeing ye were strangers in 
the land of Egypt. 

g. Rules for Holidays and Festivals. 

10 (1) And six years thou shalt sow thy land, and shalt gather in the fruits thereof: 

11 But the seventh year thou shalt let it rest and lie still [fallow] ; that the poor of 
thy people may eat : and what they leave the beasts of the field shall eat. In like 

12 manner thou shalt deal with thy vineyard, and with thy olive-yard. (2) Six days 
thou shalt do thy work, and on the seventh day thou shalt rest : that thine ox and 
thine ass may rest, and the son of thy handmaid, and the stranger may be refreshed. 

13 And in [unto] all things that I have said unto you be circumspect [take heed]: 
and make no mention of the name of other gods, neither let it be heard [gods ; let it 

14 not be heard] out of thy mouth. (3 ) Three times thou shalt keep a feast unto me in 

15 the year. (4) Thou shalt keep the feast of unleavened bread: thou shalt eat 
unleavened bread seven days, as I commanded thee, in the time appointed [at the 
set time] of [in] the month Abib ; for in it thou camest out from Egypt : and 

16 none shall appear before me empty: (5) And the feast of harvest, the [of the] first 
fruits of thy labors, which thou hast sown [sowest] in the field: (6) and the fesist 
of ingathering, which is in [ingathering, at] the end of the year, when thou hast 

1 7 gathered [thou gatherest] in thy labors out of the field. (7) Three times in the 

18 year all thy males shall appear before the Lord God [Jehovah]. (8) Thou shalt 
not ofier the blood of my sacrifice with leavened bread ; neither shall the fat of my 

19 sacrifice [feast] remain until the morning. (9) The first of the first-fruits of thy 
land thou shalt bring into the house of Jehovah, thy God. (10) Thou shalt not seethe 
[boil] a kid in his [its] mother's milk. 

h. The Promises. 

20 (1) Behold, I send an angel before thee, to keep thee, in [by] the way, and to 

... * [■^?-^-^- ^^* IJiterally: "thy fullneaa and thy tear." The phrase " ripe fruita " iaobjpctionableaa includingtoomuchj 
'■ liquors as suggesTing a wrong conception. The first refers to the crops generally, excluaivo of the olive and the laifo, 
from which oil and wine, the liquid products ("tear"), were derived. Cranmer'a Bible rendeie, not inaptly: "thy frmU, 
whether they be dry or moist." — Tr.] 

6 [XXni. 6. The rendering of A. V. : " and wouldeat forbear," is utterly untenable. Not less ao ia the rendering of 

DIJ? by "help." The aimpleat explanation asaumea a doable meaning of aij?, viz. to "looae," and to "leave." Wo 

might borrow a vnlgar phrase, and read : " Thon alialt forbear to cut loose from him, thou ahalt cut loose with him." Be 
Wette and Murohy attempt to avoid the doiihlo meaninu by emphasizing " with." Thus : " Thou ahalt forbear to leave it 
to him : thou ahalt leave it vdth him." But this ia a nicety quite alien from the Hebrew.— Tr.] 



CHAP. XX. 1— XXIII. 88. 



87 



21 bring thee into the place which I have prepared. Beware of him, and obey his 
voice, provoke him not : for he will not pardon your trangressions : for my name 

22 is in him. But [For] if thou shalt indeed obey his voice, and do all that I speak ; 
then I will be an enemy unto thine enemies, and an adversary unto thine adversa- 

23 ries. (2) For mine angel shall go before thee, and bring thee in unto the Amo- 
rites, and the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Canaanites, the Hivites, and the 

24 Jebusites: and I will cut them off. Thou shalt not bow down to their gods, nor 
serve them, nor do after their works : but thou shalt utterly overthrow them, and 

25 quite break down their images. (3) And ye shall serve Jehovah your God, and 
he shall [will] bless thy bread and thy water ; (4) and I will take sickness away 

26 from the midst of thee. (5) There shall nothing [no one] cast their [her] young, 

27 nor be barren, in thy land ; (6) the number of thy days I will fulfil. (7) I will send 
my fear [terror] before thee, and will destroy [discomfit] all the people to whom 

28 thou shalt come, and I will make all thine enemies turn their backs unto thee. (8) 
And I will send [send the] hornets before thee, which [and they] shall drive out the 

29 Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite, from before thee. {9) I will not drive 
them out from before thee in one year ; lest the land become desolate, and the beast 

30 of the field multiply against thee. By little and little I will drive then? out from 

31 before thee, until thou be increased, and ioherit the land. ^10) And 1 will set thy 
hounds from the Red Sea even unto the sea of the Philistines, ano' from the 
desert unto the river : for I will deliver the inhabitants of the lanr into your 

32 hand ; and thou shalt drive them out before thee. Thou shalt make r.o covenant 

33 with them, nor with their gods. They shall not dwell in thy land, lest they make 
thee sin against me : for if thou serve their gods, it will surely be a snai-* unto thee. 



EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL. 

This seotion is very clearly to be distinguished 
from the two preceding, so that after the purely 
religious and ethical legislation, and after the 
ritual, now the social and political legislation is 
instituted. The genuinely theocratic character 
of this legislation here at once appears. It is 
not a criminal law in the first instance, but a 
system of legal regulations for a people that is to 
be trained for freedom. Hence these ordinances 
begin at once very significantly with the regula- 
ting of the laws concerning emancipation ; and in- 
directly all the main points of this law point to the 
rights of freedom. Just as the sacrificial usages 
were found already existing, and were thence- 
forth theocratically regulated, so now the rela- 
tions of slavery, found as an existing fact, were 
regulated in the spirit of the typical people of 
God. So Keil entitles the section : " The fun- 
damental rights of the Israelites in their civil 
and social relations," Less satisfactorily Kno- 
bel : " The further rights, i. e. laws," etc. But 
the parallels which he draws between the Jew- 
ish legislation and that of other ancient people, 
and of heathen people in general, as also of the 
modern Mohammedan Arabs, are excellent. 
We divide thus : (a) The law of personal free- 
dom. That this may correspond with the first 
commandment of the decalogue, the duty of hold- 
ing sacred the divine personality, is obvious. 
(A) The second division, on murder and bodily 
injuries, quite as unmistakably aims to secure 
the human form from abuse or disfigurement, as 
the second commandment to keep the divine 
image from being deformed ; but it is also con- 
nected with the commandment : Thou shalt not 
kill, (c) The third division, on injuries which 
result from the relations of properly, points to 



the commandment. Thou shalt not steal, {d) 
Akin to the foregoing, and yet different, are the 
regulations concerning goods put in another's 
care, and goods lost, (e) The regulations con- 
cerning unnatural crimes, offences against reli- 
gion and humanity are more specially connected 
with the first and with the fifth and tenth com- 
mandments. (/) The section on judicial pro- 
cesses reminds us of the proliibition of false 
witness. (9) The division relating to holidays 
and feast-days reminds us of the third com- 
mandment, but is more especially an unfolding 
of the law of the Sabbath. (A) Also the pro- 
mises which are annexed to the fifth and second 
commandments are in the last division expanded 
into a fuller form. 

Here must be noticed one more circumstance. 
When regulations of similar import are found 
in different sections of the law, this is not to be 
regarded as mere repetition, still less as confu- 
sion. The moral law of the Sabbath, e. </., comes 
here (xxiii. 12) under consideration again, from 
a social point of view ; in Leviticus still again 
as connected with the ceremonial law. For the 
Sabbath, there are moral and ritual reasons, and 
likewise social or civil reasons, the latter uniting 
the two former. In like manner the great festi- 
vals of the Israelites are here regarded from 
a national, or civil, point of view ; in Leviti- 
cus they are associated with the idea of wor- 
ship. The occasional precepts concerning pu- 
rification and sacrifice in the book of Numbers 
relate to the keeping pure of the social common- 
wealth of Jehovah, and are therefore not prima- 
rily ceremonial. The tabernacle is found in Exo- 
dus, not in Leviticus, because it is primarily the 
house of the theocratic lawgiver, and is the re- 
pository of the decalogue; only secondarily the 
place of worship, the place where the lawgiver 
meets his people. 



88 



EXODUS. 



li. Law of Personal Freedom. 

(1) The Hebrew man-servant, vera. 1-6; (2) 
The Hebrew maid-servant, vers. 7-11. The fur- 
ther dejelopment of, and reasons for, the law of 
emancipation, vid. in Deut. xv. 12-18. "The 
Hebrew man-servant after six years of service 
is to receive his freedom gratis. According to 
Deut. XV. 12 this holds also of the Hebrewmaid- 
servaut. The attributive '^3J1' designates the 
servant as an Israelite (comp. '1'nx in Deut.) in 
distinction from the slaves derived from non- 
laraelitish foreign nations, to whom this law 
does not apply" (Keil). The law evidently 
tends towards securing the universality of perso- 
nal freedom. But it also knows that within the 
theocracy, in the servitude which is mitigated 
by it, there is an element susceptible of educa- 
tion. Therefore the servant is not compelled to 
become free in the seventh year. We are to con- 
sider that the sons of the household also then 
stood in the relation of strict subjection, so that 
a dutiful servant became more and more like 
them. Vid. xxiii. 12, Lev. xxv. 6, etc. The 
servant might also be led by devotion to his wife, 
given to him by his master during his servi- 
tude, and to her children, to remain a servant. 
With reference to this the three cases in vers. 3 
and 4 were to be distinguished. The fixing of 
the seveuth year as the year of emancipation is 
connected with the sabbatical year, but does 
not coincide with it. How one could become a 
slave among the Israelites is told in xxii. 3, Lev. 
xxv. 39. But how the emancipation was to be 
beautified and enriched is seen in the parallel 
passage in Deuteronomy [xv. 12-15]. On the 
manner of emancipation vid. Keil p. 130. TJnto 
God. — Not to the priests, but to the court of 
the assembly, which passed judgment in the 
name of God, and whose sentence was a divine 
dispensation. Similar expressions vid. in Kno- 
bel, p. 214. There had therefore to be a public 
declaraiion that the servant voluntarily re- 
mained a servant. " The boring of the ears was 
among the Orientals a sign of slavery" (Kno- 
bel). The ear-rings among the Carthaginians 
from being a symbol of slavery came to be an 
ornament, like the cross among Christians. The 
case mentioned in Lev. xxv. 39 is probably a 
modification, but according to Knobel is a coa- 
tradiotion, of the law before us. — Vers. 7-11 : 
The Israelitish daughter as servant and concubine. 
Knobel makes no distinction between concubinage 
as it is found among the patriarchs, and the 
usual custom of the Jews. But in reply see the 
Commentary on Genesis, p. 80. She shall not 
go out as the men-servants do.— It follows 
from the nature of her position that it is a benefit 
to her if she can remain in the house of her mas- 
ter, provided that the rights of the concubine 
are respected. It is therefore presupposed 
either that he takes her for himself, or gives her 
to his son, or maintains her honor by the side 
of his son's wife. In the first case, he must let 
her be redeemed ; in the second ease, he must 
accord to her the domestic rights of an aiisooiate 
wife. If he is not willing to give her this pro- 
tection, he must let her go free for nothing. 
In this connection the precepts of Deut. xv. 12 are 



also to be considered. Vers. 8, 9. Who hath 

betrothed her to himself.—" The i6 before 
Tny belongs to the 15 passages designated by 

the Massorah in which K/ stands for 1*7" 
(Keil ; compare Knobel). To sell her unto a 
strange people. — Knobel: ''The Greek, too, 
did not sell a Greek slave to go beyond the 
boundary of the land." Seeing he hath 
dealt deceitfully with her. — It would cer- 
tainly create a difficulty to translate, "on ac- 
count of his infidelity towards her," as if this 
unfaithfulness were the only reason why an Is- 
raelitess might not be sold to heathen. There- 
fore the emphasis probably lies on the thought 
that his injustice would be doubly great if evea 
in this case, in which he has gone so far as to 
send her away, he should also in his treachery 
to her violate the theocratic law. That the 
word "1J3 has a specially important meaning, is 
seen from Ps. Ixxiii. 15. Comp. Deut. xxi. 14, 
and the account of the Arabian customs in Kno- 
bel, p. 216. If he betroth her unto his 
son. — Comp. Knobel also on a Persian or Ara- 
bian custom of a similar sort. As his son's 
concubine she is to be regarded by him as a 
daughter. Ver. 9. If he take him another 
Tvife. — That is, the father for his son. So Keil; 
but Knobel understands it to mean : If he takes 
another for himself. Keil well disposes of the 
views, according to which either the son is the 
subject, or the father takes for himself.* Her 
food, etc. — All of her domestic rights are to re- 
main secure, "^^p, meat, as the chief article of 
food, " because the lawgiver has men of wealth 
in mind." (Keil). To understand njlj,', which 
properly means lying, of cohabitation, yields no 
tolerable sense. How could the father in this 
thing control the son ? Or how could the sou 
be obliged to conduct himself towards several 
wives in the same way as towards one. Either, 
therefore, the expression has in it something 
figurative, meaning: She must not as wife be 
neglected ; or it refers to a seat, a resting-place 
(see the meaning of [1J>), which would well har- 
monize with the reference to food and raiment. 
It is therefore assumed that under the conditions 
imposed she has in the house of her servitude a 
much better position than if she should be dis- 
missed, especially if she has borne children who be- 
long to the permanent members of the household. 

4. On Murder, Homicide, and Bodilg Injuries. 

(1) Homicide proper, vers. 12-14. (o) Sim- 
ple homioide in consequence of beating ; (4) un- 
intentional, resulting from misfortune and mis- 
take ; (c) murder proper. (2) Spiritual homi- 
cide, (a) Smiting of parents; (6) deprivation 
of freedom (as spiritual fratricide) ; (c) cursing 
of parents (spiritual suicide). (3) Bodily inju- 
ries, (a) Of uncertain, perhaps fatal result ; (t) 
to a free man ; (») a man-servant or maid-ser- 



* [Tlie reasons are thus stated by Keil : " If tlie languige 
in ver. 9 is referred to the son, so '8 to mean, * whm he take* 
to liimself another wife,' then there must be assumed a 
change of subject of which there is no indication ; but if ws 
understand the language to mean that the father (the pn^ 
chaser) talces to himself another wile, then this precept 
ought to have been given before ver. i)." — TB.] 



CHAP. XX. 1— XXIII. 33. 



89 



-rant. ; (Hi) a pregnant woman, in which connec- 
tion is to be noticed that the Jiia talionia is laid 
down in close connection with an extremely hu- 
mane law of protection, vera. 22-25 ; (6) local 
injuries to men-servants or maid-servants. 

Yer. 12. He that smiteth a man. — Says 
Keil : " Higher than personal freedom stands 
life." It may then be asked, why is capital 
punishment prescribed (ver. 16) for the violent 
taking away of freedom? The slavery treated 
of in the preceding section was no innovation, 
but as a traditional custom it was restricted, and 
moreover in great part was based on guilt or 
voluntary assent; it had besides an educational 
end. It is true, the law of retaliation, as in- 
stituted in Gen. ix. 6, underlies all this section; 
but it is noticeable that this law is expressly 
prescribed just where the protection of a preg- 
nant woman is involved. It is repeated (Lev. 
xxiv. 17) in connection with the ordinance that 
the blasphemer shall be stoned. The reason for 
the repetition is the piinoiple that in respect to 
these points perfect equality of rights should be 
accorded to the stranger and the Israelite ; and 
it was occasioned by the fact that the blasphe- 
mer was a Jew on his mother's side, but an 
Egyptian on his father's side. So that he 
dieth. — Three oases are specified : first, the se- 
vere blow which in fact, but not in intention, 
proves mortal ; secondly, the unfortunate killing 
through mistake, a providential homicide ; 
thirdly,' intentional, and hence criminal and 
guileful, murder. 

Yer. 13. And if a man lie not in 'wait. — 
When, therefore, not only the murderous blow, 
but any blow, was unintentional, so that the case 
is one of severe divine dispensation. I will 
appoint thee a place. — A place of refuge, 
with reference to the avengers of blood who 
pursue him. A check, therefore, upon the cus- 
tom, prevalent in the East, of avenging murder. 
It is worthy of notice, from a critical point of 
view, that no place is now fixed ; this was done 
later, vid. Num. xxxv. 11 ; Deut. xix. 1-10. Here 
too the innocent homicide is expressly distin- 
guished from the violent one. Num. xxxv. 22 sqq. 
Together with the prescribed place of refuge for 
the one who kills by mistake is found the stern 
provision that a real murderer, who has com- 
mitted his murder with criminal and guileful 
intent, cannot be protected even by fleeing to the 
altar of the sanctuary, as it was customary in 
ancient times for those to do whom vengeance 
rightly or wrongly pursued, because, as some 
would say, the altar was a place of expiation. 
Even from the altar of God he is to be torn 
away. The expression HJ' is not adequately re- 
presented by "behave viciously, or arrogantly." 
It denotes the act of breaking through, in ebul- 
lient rage, the sacred restraints which protect 
one's neighbor as God's image. Partioulnr 
oases, Num. xxxv. 16, Deut. xix. 11. Murder 
could be expiated only with death. Num. xxxv. 
81. Examples of fleeing to the altar, 1 Kings i. 
60; ii. 28. This was also customary among the 



Ver. 15. Smiteth his father. — The simple 
act of smiling, conamitted on a father or mother, 
is made equivalent to man-slaughter committed 



on one's neighbor. " Parricide, as not occur- 
ring and not conceivable, is not at all mentioned" 
(Eeil). Similar ordinances among the Greeks 
Romans, and Egyptians are mentioned by Eno- 
bel, p. 217. The two following provisions rest 
on the same ground. The parents are God's 
vicegerents for the children ; the neighbor is 
God's image ; hence a violent abuse of his per- 
son is equivalent to murder, vid. Deut. xxiv. 7. 
We explain the insertion of the prohibition of 
man-stealing between verses 15 and 17 by the 
fact that in cursing his parents the curser mo- 
rally destroys himself, vid. Lev. xx. 9, Deut. 
xxvii. 16. The order is: undutif ul ness, man- 
stealing, self-destruction.'^ See various views 
of ver. 16 in Keil, p. 133. 

Yer. 18 sq. And when men strive. — The 
section concerning bodily injuries as such is dis- 
tinguished from the section beginning with ver. 
12 in that there injuries are spoken of which re- 
sult in death. The injuries here mentioned 
would accordingly also be punished with death 
if they resulted in death. This is shown espe- 
cially by ver. 20. Here, then, an injury is con- 
templated which only confines the injured one 
to his bed. The penalty is twofold : First, the 
offender must make good his sitting still, i. e. 
what he might have earned during this time ; 
secondly, he must pay the expenses of his cure, 
ver. 19. In the case of a man-servant or maid- 
servant a different custom prevailed. If man- 
slaughter took place, the manhood of the slain 
one is fully recognized, i. e. the penal retribution 
takes place. Probably sentence was to be ren- 
dered by the court, which was to decide accord- 
ing to the circumstances. According to Jewish 
interpretations capital punishment was to be in- 
flicted with the sword; but vid. Kuobelfor a dif- 
ferent view.-)- On the one hand, the danger of a 
fatal blow was greater than in other relations, 
for it was lawful for a master to smite his slave 
(vid. Prov. X. 13 ; the rod was also used on chil- 
dren) ; but on the other hand an intention to 
kill could not easily be assumed, because the 
slave "had a pecuniary value. Furthermore, the 
owner is exempted from punishment, if the 
beaten one survives a day or two ; and the pun- 
ishment then consists in the fact that the slave 
was his money, i.e. that in injuring the slavehehas 
lost his own money. The Rabbins hold that this 
applied only to slaves of a foreign race, accord- 
ing to Lev. XXV. 44. This is not likely, if at the 
same time, in case of death, execution by the 
sword was to be prescribed ; also according to 
this view there would have been a great gap in 
the law as regards Hebrew slaves. It is true, 
reference is here had only to injuries inflicted 
by the rod. When one was killed with an iron 
instrument, an intention to kill was assumed, 
and then capital punishment was inflicted un- 
conditionally, Num. xxxv. 16, Lev. xxiv. 17, 21, 



* [This pxplanatinn of the order of the verses can hardly 
he regarded as satisfactory. In fact, any attempt to discover 
deep metaphysicul or psjohologlral reasons for the order 
and number of these laws is open to suspicion as implying a 
degree of subtlety ani regard for logical order which w;ia 
qoite alien from the Hebrew spirit — Ttt J 

f [Tin. that the omission of the direction, " he shall surely 
be put to death," implies that his punishment was something 
milder ; aa does also the spirit of the precept in ver. 21.— TB.J 



90 



EXODUS. 



Deut. xix 1 i sqq. On the Egyptian, Greek, and 
Koman legislation, see Kuobel, p. 219.* 

Vers. 22-26. Special legal protection of preg- 
nant women. It might often happen that in 
quarrelling men would injure a pregnant woman, 
since wives on such occasions instinctively inter- 
pose, Deut. XXV. 11. In the latter passage the 
rudenesses which the woman, protected by law, 
might indulfje in are guarded against. — So that 
her fruit depart. Literally : so that her chil- 
dren come out; i. e., so that abortion takes place. 
According to Keil, the expression designates 
only the case of her bearing real children, not a 
fetus imperfectly developed ; i. e., a premature 
birth, not an abortion, is meant. " The expres- 
sion mT is used for the sake of indefiniteness, 
since possibly there might be more than one 
child in her body." Strange interpretation of 
the precept, according to which the plural in in- 
dividual cases denotes indefiniteness I Accord- 
ing to this view, the moat, and perhaps the worst 
cases, would not be provided for, since women 
far advanced in pregnancy are most apt to guard 
against the danger of such injuries. The plural 
may also indicate that the capacity for bearing 
was injured. " If no other injury results from 
the quarrel, reparation is to be made, according 
as the husband of the woman imposes it on the 
perpetrator, and the latter is to give it ' with 
judges,' t. e., in company with, on application to 
them, in order that excessive demands may be 
suitably reduced. The amount of indemnity de- 
manded doubtless was determined by the consi- 
deration, whether the injured man had many or 
few ohildrea, was poor or rich, elc. The law 
stands appropriately at the end of the cases 
which relate to life and the inviolability of the 
person. The unborn child is reckoned as be- 
longing to, and, as it were, a part of, the mo- 
ther" (Knobel).— Ver. 23. And if any mis- 
chief follow. It is to the credit of the legisla- 
tion that the law of retaliation {vid. Lev. xxiv. 
19, Deut. xix. 21) is here bo particularly laid 
down. In its connection it reads: The injury of 
such a woman must be most sternly expiated 
according to the degree of it. But even this ex- 
plication of the law of retaliation must be guarded 
from a lifeless literalism, as is shown by the pro- 
visions in vers. 26 and 27. It would surely have 
been contrary to nature to put out the eye of a 
master who had put out his servant's eye, or to 
make him lose tooth for tooth. Keil says, " The 
principle of retaUation, however, is good only for 
the free Israelite, not for the slave." In the 
latter case, he adds, emancipation takes place 
Emancipation, even on account of a tooth knocked 
out, has nevertheless the force of retaliation, 
which, even in the relations of free Israelites, 
could not have been everywhere literally applied, 
e. g., in the case of burns. On the jus talionu 
in the ancient heathen world, and generally in 
the Orient, vid. Knobel, p. 220. 

c. Injuries resulting from Property relations 
Spedally from acts of Carelessness. Chs. xxi. 
28— xxii. 6. 



* [According to whom, the Bgyptians punished nil mnrdera 
with death ; the Greeks pnniahed all murders, but punished 
the mnrdor of a si ive only hy requiring certain expiatory 
rites; tbeEom m law, however, until thetimeof the**nipf*ror8, 
allowed musters to treat their slaves as they pleased.— Tit.] 



We follow in general Bertbeau's classiScatioo, 
which makes property the determining thought. 
Keil and Knobel divide otherwise. Keil with 
the words, " Also against danger from cattle is 
man's life secured." The conflict between life 
and property, and the subordination of property 
is here certainly everywhere observed. In a 
critical respect it may not be without signifi- 
cance that there is here no trace of hof ses ; also 
the dog is not mentioned. At the time of Solo- 
mon and Ahab the case was quite different. 
First are to be considered the accidents occa- 
sioned by oxen that hook, vers. 28-32. But this 
list is connected with the following one, which 
treats of the misfortunes which men may suffer 
in respect to their oxen or asses through the 
fault of neighbors, in which case a distinction is 
made between the injuries resulting from care- 
lessness and those resulting from theft, ver. 
3.3-xxii. 4. Then follow injuries done to fields 
or estates through carelessness in the use of cat- 
tle or of fire, vers. 5 and 6. Then the criminal 
misuse of goods held in trust constitute a sepa- 
rate section, vers. 7-17, which we do not, like 
Bertheau, make a subdivision of the division (c), 
but must distinguish from it. 

Ver. 28. First case. And if an oz. — The in- 
stinct of oxen to hook is so general that every 
accident of this sort could not be foreseen and 
prevented. Therefore when an ox has not been 
described to the owner as properly a goring ox, 
the owner is essentially innocent. Yet for a 
possible want of carefulness he is punished by 
the loss of his animal. But the ox is stoned to 
death. Legally it would involve physical un- 
cleanness to eat of the flesh. But the stoning 
of the ox does not mean that the ox is " lainted 
with capital crime" (Keil), but that he has In- 
come the symbol of a homicide, and so the vic- 
tim of a curse (D.'in). It is therefore an appli- 
cation of Gen. ix. 6 in a symbolical sense, on 
account of the connection of cattle with men. 
Comp. also Lev. xx 15. Similar provisions 
among the Persians and Greeks vid. in Knobel, 
p. 220. 

Ver. 29. Second case. The owner has been 
cautioned that his ox is given to hooking. In 
this case be himself is put to death as well as 
his ox. This is the rule. But as there may be 
mitigating considerations, especially in the case 
of tbe injured family; as in general the guilt 
was only that of carelessness, not of evil inten- 
tion, the owner might save his life by means of 
a ransom imposed on him by the relatives of the 
man that had been killed. Probably with the 
mediation of the judges, as in ver. 2i. Refer- 
ence to the Salio law made by KnobeL Ran- 
som. — "^33, covering, expiation. 

Ver. 31. Third case. The son or the daughter 
of a freeman are treated in the same manner as, 
according to the foregoing, he himself is treated. 

Ver, 32. Fourth case. The ox gores a man- 
servant or a maid-servant to death. The stoning 
of the ox is still enjoined, but the owner in this 
case is not doomed to death. He must pay the 
master of the slave 30 stiekels of silver. "Pro- 
bably the usual market price of a slave, since 
the ransom money of a free Israelite amounted 
to 50 shekels, Lev. xxvii. 3." (Keil). On tha 



CHAP. XXI. 1— XXIII. 33. 



91 



Talne of the shekel (/pBf iri/cAof) vid. Winer, 
RealworteTbuch, p. 433 sqq.* The result of the 
perplexing investigation is that its value is 25 or 
26 silver groschen.f The shekel afterwards used 
for the revenue of the temple and of the king 
was different from that used in common life. 
This legal inequality [between the slave and 
the freeman] is to be explained by the con- 
sideration that the capital punishment inflicted 
on the owner formed an offset to the revenge 
to which otherwise the relatives of the mur- 
dered man might resort. But this revenge 
for bloodshed was in no danger of being exer- 
cised in the case of a murdered slave, since he 
was removed from the circle of his relations. 
The seemingly great difference in the penalty 
amounts finally to this, that the ransom money 
for a free man was 50 shekels, and that for a 
slave 30 shekels. On the estimate of the Attic 
slave, vid. Knobel; but the great difference in 
the period of time must be taken into account. 
"In the legal codes of other ancient nations 
also are found laws concerning the punishment 
of beasts that have killed or injured a man. 
Comp. Clerious and Knobel on this passage. 
But no nation had a law which made the owner 
of such a beast responsible, because none of 
them had recognized the divine image in human 
life" (Keil). The responsibility of the owner 
could certainly be grounded only on the myste- 
rious solidarity of the Hebrew household (" thy 
man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thy cat- 
tle"), a unity which was not taken into account 
where a more atomistic view of liberty prevailed. 
Vers. 33, 34. Fifth case. And when a man 
shall open a pit (cistern). This is connected 
with the foregoing cases as coming under the 
head of punishable carelessness. The ox or ass 
are named as examples of domestic animals in 
general. In this case only property is destroyed ; 
and the careless man has to pay for it, but re- 
ceives the dead beast, of which he could only 
use the skin and other such parts, since the 
flesh was unclean. 

Ver. 35. Sixth case. A specially fine provision. 
In the ox that has killed another ox there is 
nothing abominable, but yet a stain ; the sight 
of him is obnoxious. He is therefore sold and 
comes into another place where his fault is not 
known. But the two owners share the price of 
sale and the dead animal. This is an alleviation 
of a misfortune that is common to both parties. 
Without doubt the dead ox also must have hooked. 
Ver. 86. Seventh case. But here too is to be 
considered the special circumstance that the ox 
may have been a notorious hooker. In this case 
the owner must make full oompeasatiou for the 
loss with a live ox, in return for which he re- 
ceives the dead beast. 

Chap. xxii. 1-4. Eighth case. The cattle- 
thief Five-fold indemnity for the stolea ox; 
four-fold for the stolen sheep or goat. In the 
case of the five-fold indemnity any kind of large 
animal may be delivered over. The difference 
of five-fold and four-fold points to the greater 

* [See also Smith's MbU Dklirmary, Art. Weights avd Mea- 
mirei.— Ttt.] 

t |I. e., about 60 or 62U cents. Mr. Poole, in the article 
ahove referred to, mak^s the silver shekel ■= 220 grains, i. e., 
about 63}^ cents, or 2 shillings and 2 ponce.— Ttt.]. 



guilt of the greater theft. "The four-fold re- 
stitution is also mentioned in 2 Sam. xii. 6 : the 
seven-fold, Prov. vi. 31, is not to be understood 
literally, but only in a general way as manifold" 
(Knobel). From the five-fold and four-fold re- 
stitution is distinguished the two-fold, which 
is prescribed in case the thief has not yet 
slaughtered or sold the animal, but is able to 
return it alive. The reasons for this distinction 
are differently given; vid. Keil; also his note, 
II; p. 187.* In the latter case the thief had not 
carried out his purpose to the full extent, espe- 
cially as he has not put the object of his theft 
out of the way. The case differed therefore ma- 
terially from the other. Vid. Knobel on the Bo- 
man laws. Others indicating the value set on 
ploughing oxen, Knobel, p. 222. 

Vers. 2, 3. If the thief be found break- 
ing in. — This is obviously an incidental interpo- 
lation, which properly belongs to the class (6). 
There shall be no blood to him; i. e. no 
blood-guiltiness is incurred by the homicide; 
vid. Num. xxxv. 27; Deut. xix. 10; Job xxiv. 16. 
One might understand this chiefly of an attack 
on the fold, since the topic is the stealing of cat- 
tle; at all events a nocturnal irruption is meant, 
vid. ver. 3. Accordingly the watchman, or the 
one who is awaked, is in a condition of defense. 
He must protect his property, and therefore 
fight ; and the thief is liable to become a robber 
and murderer. If the sun be risen upon 
him. — It might be thought that this refers to 
the early dawn or early day, when he might re- 
cognize the thief, or frighten him away unre- 
cognized, or with the help of others capture 
him. But inasmuch as further on it is assumed 
that the thief has really accomplished his theft, 
the expression probably means: If some time 
has elapsed. If in this case the owner kills the 
thief, he incurs blood-guiltiness; but on account 
of the great variety in the cases the sentence of 
death is not here immediately pronounced upon 
him. Since the life of the thief is under the 
protection of the law, the case comes before the 
criminal court, vid. xxi. 20. For Calvin on the 
" ratio disparitatis inter furem nocturnmn et diur- 
num," vid. Keil, p. 137. The real punishment 
for the thief is determined by the law concern- 
ing restitution, xxii. 1, 3. But in case the thief 
can restore nothing, he is sold for the theft, for 
that which is stolen, i. e. for the value of it. 
" This can mean only a sale for a period of time. 
The buver reckoned the restitution which the 
thief was to render, and used the thief as a slave 
until the whole loss was made good" (Knobel). 
Similar arrangements among the Romans vid. in 
Knobel, p. 2;i3. Likewise laws concerning 
theft, p. 224. The thief could not be sold to a 
foreigner, according to Josephus, Ant. XVI. 1 , 1. 

* [" The difFerenci"," says Keil, I. c, " cannot be eiplained 
by the considerfttion ' that the animal slaughtered or sold was 
lost to it^ owner, while yet it may have had for him a special 
individual value' (Knobel), for such regard for personal 
feelings is foreign to the law, to say nothing of the fact that 
an animal when sold might have been regainnd by purchase j 
nor bv the consideration that the thief in that case baa rar- 
ried his crime to a higher point (Baumgarten), for the main 
thing was the stealing, not the dispoiition or consumption 
of the stolen object. The reason can have lain only in the 
educational aim of the law, viz., to induce the thief to think 
of himself, recognize his sin, and restore what he has sto- 
len."— IB.] 



92 



EXODUS. 



Ver. 5. Ninth eaae. A field or a vineyard 
to be fed upon. — There are various views of 
this. (1) Si Iseserii quispiam agrum vel vineam, 
etc. (Vulg.). Luther: " When any one injures a 
field or vineyard, so that he lets his cattle do 
damage." (2) Knobel: "When one pastures a 
field or a vineyard by sending his cattle to it." 
(3) Keil: "When any one pastures a^eld or a 
vineyard, and lets his cattle loose." Vnjt) bears 
either meaning, to send away, or to let go free ; 
but according to the connection only the latter 
can be meant here. The sense given to it by 
the Vulgate might accordingly be accepted : he 
injures the field or vineyard of his neighbor so 
that (in that) etc. But it is more obvious to as- 
sume an incidental carelessness to be meant. 
The beast feeds on his field (perhaps also on the 
grass between the grape-vinesj ; from this pas- 
ture ground he lets him pass over so that he 
does damage to his neighbor. Knobel even af- 
firms that an intentional damage is meant. And 
yet only a simple, though ample, indemnity is to 
be rendered from the best of his field and of his 
vineyard. Keil rightly contends against Kuobel's 
theory. Talmudic provisions on this point are 
found in Saalschiitz, Mosaisches Recht, p. 875 sq. 

Ver. 6. Tenth case. This is about a fire in a 
field, which might the more readily sweep over 
into the neighbor's field, inasmuch as it was 
likely to be kindled at the edge of the field, in 
the thorn-hedge. Clearly an act of carelessness 
is meant ; comp. Is. v. 5. He that bath kin- 
dled the fire. — The carelessness is imputed to 
him as a virtual incendiary, because he did not 
guard the fire. 

d. Things entrusted and lost. 

Ver. 7. First case. The money or articles or 
stuff (on D'70 see Deut. xxii. 5) left for safe 
keeping are stolen from the keeper, but the thief 
is discovered. The affair is settled by the thief 
being required to pay back double, vid. ver. 4. 

Ver. 8. Second case. The thief is not disco- 
vered. In this case suspicion falls on the 
keeper ; he may have embezzled the property 
entrusted to him. Therefore such a case 
must come before the court, which was es- 
teemed a divine court, hence the expression, 

DTI^Nn-TX. The penalty is paid according to the 
decision of the case. The man under suspicion 
must approach unto God. Such an approach 
produced an excitement of conscience. The true 
high-priest is the one who may approach unto 
God. In case the keeper is adjudged guilty, he 
has to pay double. 

Ver. 9. The foregoing provision is designated 
as an example for a general rule. The cleansing 
of the suspected man was probably often effected 
by an oath of purification. The LXX. and 
Vulgate interpolate Kal b/ieiTai, etj'urabit. In all 
cases in which the concealer made a confession, 
an oath was unnecessary. Also dishonesty re- 
specting objects found is placed under this rule. 
On the oath among the Arabs and Egyptians, 
see Knobel, p. 225. Knobel seems to assume 
without reason that the plaintiff also is meant in 
the words, " whom God shall condemn." etc.* 



Vers. 10, 11. Third ease. This is about beasts 
put in others' care, which die in their possession, 
or are mutilated in the pasture, or injure them- 
selves, or are driven away by robbers. Here 
the oath is positively required, in case the guar- 
dian alone has seen the thing ; but it is also de- 
cisive. On a similar Indian law vid. Enobel. 

Ver. 12. Fourth case. Stolen from him.— 
It is assumed that the thief is not found. 
" Here," says Knobel, " restitution is prescribed, 
but not in ver. 8, because he who has an animal 
in charge is the guardian of it, whereas he who 
has things in charge cannot be regarded as ex- 
actly a watchman." But according to ver. 9 the 
judges could even adjudge a double restitution, 
while here only simple restitution is spoken of. 
There a complication was referred to, in which 
the approach of the master of the house- 
hold to God and the attitude of his con- 
science formed the main ground for the judicial 
sentence. In the case described in vers. 10 and 
11 the oath determines the main decision; in the 
present case the simple restitution is prescribed 
upon the simple declaration : "stolen." 

Ver. 13. Fifth case. The production of the 
animal torn by a beast of prey (not, "or a part 
of it," as Keil says) proved not only the fact 
itself, but also that the guardian had watched, 
and had driven off the beast of prey by a violent 
exertion. From this we see the severity of La- 
ban who, according to Gen. xxxi. 39, required 
his son-in-law in such cases to make the loss 
good. Comp. 1 Sam. xvii. 34, Amos iii. 12. On 
the Indian law, vid. Enobel, p. 2J7. 

Ver. 14. Sixth case. A hired beast is injured, 
or dies, when the owner is not present. The 
sentence requires restitution, because neglect 
may be presumed. 

Ver. 15. Seventh case. The owner is present 
when the accident occurs. In that case it be- 
longed especially to himself to prevent the acci- 
dent, if prevention was possible. 

Eighth case. The borrower is in the hired 
service of the owner of the beast. In this case 
he gets the dead beast instead of his pay ; it Is 
subtracted from his pay. For the owner as a 
hired laborer would have had to do only wltli 
himself; and a hired servant with a hired beast 
cannot be meant. It is therefore a day-laborer 
to whom the animal of the owner has been en- 
trusted. TJiJ^ can hardly (with Stier and Keil) 
be referred to the hired beast. Knobel has a 
forced explanation, in which the hired servant 
becomes the one who lets the beast.* 



I * [This is a mistake. Knnbel translates ; " If G'xi makes 



(one) a malefactor, (i. e. if the court decides that a mla^e- 
mt;anor has been comm'tted), then he shall restore double to 
his neighbor." And in opposition to the translation. " whicti- 
ever one God condemn", he shall restore double," he aayaj 
" How could the plaintiff be condemned to make resUlvtion, 
if he, eV'-D though the complaint was ungrounded, had y" 
taken nothing from the other f '* — Tr.] 

* [The miijority of interpreters (like the A. V.) regsri 
^32/ as referring to the beast, not the borrower. Kuobel 

explains thus : " If the beast was not merely lent out of Idnd- 
ness, but let for pay, the loss comes upon the hire by the ifr 
ceipt of which the owner is paid. In fixing the hire he hid 
regard to tho danger of the loss, and, when the lose t»W 
place, must content himself with the hire." So Keil. 1"' 
explanation of Knobel's al>ove referred to by Livngei i^^ 
second one, evidently not preferred by Knobel, but merely 
stated as possible, especially in view of the fact that T3ff 
everywhere else is used of men.-— Tr.] 



CHAP. XX. 1— XXIII. 33. 



93 



Ver. 16. Ninth case. The seducer of an unbe- 
trothed virgin (the case is different with the 
sedaction of a betrothed one (Deut. xxii. 23), 
who has entrusted to him the wealth of her vir- 
ginity, valuable not only in a moral, but in a 
oivil point of view, must make restitution to her 
by marrying her, and to her father by giving a 
dowry. 

Ver. 17. Tenth ease. The seducer himself can- 
not refuse the settlement ; but the father of the 
seduced maiden may have reasons for refusing 
it. In this case the seducer must pay him the 
dowry [vid. Gen. xxxiv. 12), with which she is, 
in a sort, reinstated as a virgin, and as after- 
wards a legally divorced woman. The case is 
not differently provided for in Deut. xxii. 28, as 
Enobel affirms. There only the price of sale is 
fixed, viz., at 60 shekels ; the right of the father 
to refuse his daughter to the seducer is simply 
not repeated. The dowry was not properly a 
price of sale. 

" The precepts in ver. 18 and onwards," says 
Keil, " differ in form and contents from the fore- 
going laws; inform,by the omission of "3 [when], 
with which the foregoing are almost without ex- 
ception introduced ; in substance, by the fact 
that they impose on the Israelites, on the ground 
of their election to he the holy people of Jeho- 
vah, requirements which transcend the sphere of 
natural law." Yet the two divisions are not to 

> be distinguished as natural and supernatural. 

j But Keil has correctly found a new section here, 
whilst Knobel begins :>. new section, poorly de- 
fined, with ver. 16. 

e. Unnatural Crimea. Abominations committed 

against Religion and Humanity. 
Ver. 18. First offence. The sorceress is con- 
demned to death. This term is not to be made 
synonymous with witch, as Knobel makes it. 
The medieval witch may practice, or wish to 
practice, sorcery; but she may also be a calum- 
niated woman. She gets her name from the 
popular conception, whereas the sorceress gets 
her name from the real practice of a lying, dark 
art. She operates on the assumption that demo- 
niacal powers co-operate with her, and so she 
promotes radical irreligion. She injures her 
neighbor in body and life, as being the instru- 
ment of hostile passions, which she nourishes ; 
or, when she enters into the mood of the ques- 
tioner, she nourishes ruinous hopes (Macbeth) 
or despair (the soothsayer of Endor), and often 
from being a mixer of herbs becomes a mixer of 
poisons (Gesina). "The sorceress is named in- 
stead of the sorcerer, as Calovius says, not be- 
cause the same thing is not punishable in men, 
but because the female sex is more addicted to 
this crime" (Keil). According to Knobel the 
expression, "not suffer to live," intimates that 
perhaps a foreign sorceress might be punished 
with banishment; but Keil supposes fliat she 
may have been allowed to live, if she gave up 
her occupation. Sorcery was connected not only 
with simple idolatry, but in many ways with the 
worship of demons, and the sorceress was re- 
garded as seducing to such things. 
B Ver. 19. Second offence. Sexual intercourse 
with a beast. Comp. Lev. xviii. 23 ; xx. 15 ; Deut. 
szvii. 21. This unnatural thing also was pun- 



ished with death, like the kindred one of sodomy, 
a prominent vice of the Oanaanites, Lev xx. 13. 

Ver. 20. Third offence. Idolatry. Keil's expla- 
nation, " Israel must not sacrifice to foreign gods, 
but must not only tolerate foreigners in the midst 
of them," etc., almost seems intended to intimate 
that the heathen in Israel had an edict of tole- 
rance for their offerings. Opposed to this con- 
ception is tne Sabbath law, and the ordinance in 
xxiii. 24. In both cases, however, the explana- 
tion is that a public worship of strange gods was 
not tolerated in Israel ; but an inquisition to ferret 
out such worship secretly carried on is not coun- 
tenanced by the Mosaic law. The words are: 
" whosoever sacrificeth unto any god." The ad- 
dition, "save unto Jehovah only" (as likewise 
XX. 24), is a mild expression also as regards the 
theocratic offerings, and also secures a right un- 
derstanding of the word "Elohim." — He is to 
be devoted, i. «., to the judgment of Jehovah 
sentencing him to death. Here the notion of 
D'ln {hherem, ban) comes out distinctly. Every 
capital punishment was essentially a hherem; but 
here is found the root of the notion; an idolater 
by his offering has withdrawn from Jehovah the 
offering due to Him alone ; he has, so to speak, re- 
moved the offering away from the truedivine idea, 
and perverted it into its opposite. " He is to be 
devoted by death to the Lord, to whom in life 
he would not devote himself" (Keil). It may 
be that a sort of irony lies in the notion of the 
hherem; as being consecration reversed, it se- 
cures to God the glory belonging to Him alone; 
but it does this also as being consecration to the 
judging God in His judgment. "No living 
thing," says Knobel, " devoted to Jehovah could 
be redeemed, but had to be destroyed. Lev. xxvii. 
28 sq. ; 1 Sam. xv. 3." But only when it was a 
case of hherem, vid. Deut. xiii. 12 sqq. 

Ver. 21. Fourth offence. A beautiful contrast 
to the foregoing is formed by the statement of 
offences against humanity. Maltreatment of the 
foreigner is put first of all. He must not be 
wronged, "for ye were strangers," etc. A moral 
principle which re-appears in the N. T. (Matt. 
vii. 12), as also in Kant. The particular rules 
concerning the treatment of aliens are given by 
Knobel. p. 228, who also gives the appropriate 
references to Miohaelis and Saalschiitz. Vid. 
iii. 9, Dent. xxvi. 7. Knobel says, " The per- 
sons meant are the Canaanitish and nonCa- 
naanitish strangers who staid as individuals 
among the Israelites ; the Canaanites as a whole 
are, according to this lawgiver also, to be extir- 
pated (vid, xxiii. 83)." It belongs to the defini- 
tion of the "stranger," that he is dissociated 
from his own nationality, and has become sub- 
ject to another, i. e. here, to the national laws 
of the Israelites. The failure to affix a penalty 
to this law implies that the noble emotion of gra- 
titude was probably depended on to secure its ful- 
filment. 

Vers. 22 24. Fifth offence. Against widows 
and orphans. On this point see Knobel's collec- 
tion of the various passages, p. 229. God takes 
the place of the deceased fathers and husbands 
by His special protection ; whence follows that 
they on their part when living are to exercise a 
divine protection in the house over wife and 



94 



EXODUS. 



children. And because, through the selfishnese 
of the strong, widows and orphans were so liable 
to be oppressed, being easily despoiled on ac- 
count of their impotence, chief prominence is 
given to the significance of their crying. This 
need not always be a conscious prayer uttered in 
one's extremity, for crying, on the part of living 
things and before God, has a special meaning, even 
down to the crying of the young ravens. The 
threatened punishment, in the first place, is con- 
nected with the guilt, and in the second place 
corresponds with it. Despotism begins with the 
oppression of the weak (widows and orphans), 
and reaches its consummation in unrighteous 
wars and military catastrophes, out of which 
again widows and orphans are made. Vid. Isa. 
ix 17. 

Ver. 25. Sixth offence. Prohibition of usury, 
by which the exigency of the poor is abused, 
Lev. XXV. 36. Two grounds : the poor man be- 
longs to the people of God as a free man, and 
has lost his freedom through his troubles. By 
usury he is burdened. 

Vers. 26, 27. Seventh offence. Excessive taking 
of pawn. The lender may require a pledge of 
the creditor, but his covering (outer garment) he 
must return to him before sunset, lest he suffer 
from the nocturnal cold. The mantle marks the 
extreme of poverty in general, vid. Deut. xxiv. 
6 sqq. The compassion which J ehovah here pro- 
mises to the helpless ones that cry has an ob- 
verse side for the pitiless. The expression in 
ver. 27 becomes even a rhetorical plea for the 
poor. Matt. v. 7, James ii. 13. "The indigent 
Oriental covers himself at night in his outer gar- 
ment. Shaw, Travels, p. 224, Niebuhr, Arabien, 
p. 64" (Knobel). On the pawning of clothes, 
see Amos ii. 8, Job xxii. 6, Prov. xx. 16, xxviL 13. 

Ver. 28. Eighth offence. Contempt of the Deity 
and of princely magistrates. Keil says, "Elo- 
him means neither the gods of the other nations, 
as Josephus (Avt. IV. 8, 10, contra Apionem II. 
33), Philo (vita Mos. III. 864) and others explain 
the word in their dead and Pharisaic monothe- 
ism; nor the magistrates, as Onkelos, Jonathan, 
Aben Ezra and others think; but God, the Deity 
in general, whose majesty is despised in every 
transgression of Jehovah's command3,and should 
be honored in the person of the prince. Comp. 
Prov. xxiv. 21; 1 Pet. ii. 17," etc. So Knobel. 
This explanation is certainly favored by the con- 
text, particularly the following; especially also 
by the fact that the prince (the exalted, the high 
one) is mentioned next to God. Yet this is to be 
observed in the line of Josephus and Philo's 
opinion, that the theocracy does not reject the 
divine element in the religions themselves, but 
the false ideal images of the gods (Elilim), and 
the actual idols, and that even in this sphere 
there are reservations in reference to Satan 
(Epistle of .lude). There are two reasons for it : 
first, the element of truth which, underlies the 
errors; secondly, the moral injury of the reli- 
gious feelings of the neighbor who is in error. 
We prefer to render, "the Deity;" at all events 
the reviling of the Deity, which may have many 
degrees, is sharply distinguished from the posi- 
tive reviling of Jehovah (Lev. xxiv. 15, 16). The 
world of to-day would perhaps invert the order 
of guilt in this relation. Luther's translation 



transposes the meanings of the verbs \_"Den Got 
tern .... nicht fluehen, und den Oberiten . . , 
nicht Idstern," " not curse the gods, and not re- 
vile the magistrates"]. The princes are under 
God as His vicegerents. Passages relative to the 
defamation of princes are given by Knobel. The 

word 77p comprehends all forme of evil-speaking 
of God. 

Vers. 29, 30. Ninth offence. Holding back of the 
natural products due to the sanctuary. "nxSo 
means the produce of grain (Deut. xxii. 9), and 
the word i^p'l, which occurs only here, properly 
'tear,' something flowing, liquor atillans, is a 
poetic designation of the produce of the wine- 
vat, the wine and the oil, comp. daupvov tOv 6h- 
rf/DUV. Theoph.: arhorum laerymse; Pliny XI. 6." 
(Keil.) Firf. xxiii. 19; Deut. xxvi. 2-11 ; Num. 
xviii. 12. These gifts to the temple retained 
their festal character and their value only as they 
were freely and joyfully presented. The first- 
born of thy sons. — Repetition of the precept 
to sanctify the first-Tjorn to Jehovah, xiii. 2, 12. 
In the passage before us, however, the precept 
is put under the point of view of the civil com- 
monwealth. This needs religious institutions in 
order to its perpetuity. Knobel attempts in vain 
to make out a difference between this passage 
and others which prescribe the redemption of the 
first born. A week of existence with the dam 
must also be secured to the sacrificial victims 
taken from the cattle and from the sheep or 
goats. 

Ver. 31. Tenth offence. Use of unclean meat. 
As men of holiness consecrated to the sanctuary, 
they must refrain from the use of unclean meat, 
especially of that which is torn of beasts. The 
carcass is to be given to the dogs, whose charac- 
teristic here appears. Comp. xix. 6 ; Lev. xvii. 15, 

/. Legal Proceedingt. 

Chap, xxiii. 1. First precpt. Against rashness 
in cherishing and uttering suspicions. Comp. 
Lev. xix. 16 ; Deut. xxii. 13 sqq. Vid. the refer- 
ences to Michnelis and Saalscbiitz in Knobel. 

Second precept. No one shall allow himself to 
be misled by wicked men into the utterano of 
false witness. 

Ver. 2. Third precept. Base compliance with 
the judgment of the multitude. 

Ver. 3. Fourth precept. Not to favor the poor 
man in his suit. Atieolation in sympathy with 
the lowly. The error of many modern minds. 
Against Knobel's conjecture, vid. Keil.* 

Ver. 4. Fifth precept. To keep even an enemy 
from suffering loss. One's enemy is in this case 
a brother, according to Deut. xxii. 1. Neglect 
of this duly is positive and culpable violation 
of law. 

Ver. 5. Sixth precept. It is still harder to la- 
bor in company with the enemy (the hater), ui 



* [Knobel's conjecture ia that iDBtsHd of ^Tl (" a"* » 1"°' 

man ") we should read 7*1J (" a great man ")— since in lev. 

xix. 15 It is the " might; " who is not to be " honored," anj 
partiality to the poor " was not to be anticipated, and neeaea 
not to be forbidden." Keil r pltes thsit this is HiifBclentlj an- 
swered by the fact that the same passage hiis a command not 
to " respect the person of the poor." — 'Te.] 



CHAP. XX. 1— XXIII. 83. 



95 



order to help him in his extremity. In this case 
the inclination to avoid the enemy must be over- 
come. On the pun see Gesenius under 213>. 
Comp. Bertheau, p. 41. The neglect of this dif- 
ficult self-denial also comes into the category of 
violation of law. 

Ver. 6. Seventh precept. Of thy poor. — The 
poor must be the- protegS of the rich. But the 
temptations to violate his rights, to pervert it 
this way and that, is strong, since he is defence- 
less. Hence Moses puts him specially under the 
protection of the law. Comp. Deut. xxvli. 19; 1 
Sam. viii. 3; Lam. iii. 36. 

Ver. 7. Eighth precept. This looks like the 
first. But there the subject is false testimony — 
here, the false judge; because his conduct may 
possibly bring death to the innocent man. Here, 
therefore, judicial murder is specifically treated 
of, with the declaration that God will not acquit 
the wicked one, i.e., will judge him; and the 
wicked judge is probably meant. Bertheau, di- 
viding this one precept into two, fails to make 
out the tenth — wherefore Keil is led to pro- 
nounce his hypothesis of decades to be arbitrary 
throughout. 

Ter. 8. Ninth precept. Prohibition of the 
taking of presents in law-suits. Out of such 
presents corruption grows. They pervert the 
cause of the righteous — make right wrong. 

Ver. 9. Tenth precept. This is not identical 
with the general precept in xxii. 21, since here 
the question is about law-suits. It should be 
considered especially in courts of law how a 
stranger feels. He is timid, faint-hearted, and 
readily surrenders a part or the whole of his just 
claim before the mighty judge. Israel is to learn 
this from his experience in Egypt. Vid. Deut, 
ixiv. 17; xxvii. 19. 

g. Ordinance concerning Featt-days and Days 
of Rest. 

Vers. 10, 11. First ordinance. The land must 
rest the seventh year. It is the Sabbath of the 
years, the continuation of the Sabbath of the 
months, as of the Sabbath of the days, while they 
all look back to the Sabbath of God's creation, 
and look forward to the Sabbath of the genera- 
tion, the great year of jubilee, the type of the 
future foundation and completion of the Sabbath 
by Christ. The civil side of the religious ordi- 
nances here made should nut be overlooked, as 
is done by Keil and Knobel. In Lev. xxv. the 
ordinance bears a predominantly religious as- 
pect. What the land produces of itself, without 
euUurfe, belongs to all as a common possession to 
be freely enjoyed; likewise to the stranger and 
to the cattle, and even to the wild beasts. Thus 
this festal year forms a reflex of Paradise. And 
if this festal year in point of fact was poorly ob- 
served in Israel, critics may well infer that this 
law was written long before the time of the later 
national life of the Israelites. In its ideal signi- 
ficance, however, it belcngs to all times: not only 
the field, but also the forest, the river, and the 
mine, may be spoiled by unintermittent labor. 

Vers. 12, 13. Second ordinance. Man and beast 
must rest on the seventh day. The humane ob- 
ject of the Sabbath in its civil aspect comes out 
prominently in the text. Mention is first made 
10 



even of the rest needed by the ox and the ass, then 
of the hand-maid's son, i. e., the one born a 
slave, and the stranger; they must on the Sab- 
bath have a breathing-spell, as the verb properly 
means. Ver. IB enjoins the proper celebration 
for this sacred list of feast-days, strictly ex- 
cluding the names of all heathen deities, and 
containing a suggestion for the revision of the 
Christian calendar in view of the medieval deifi- 
cations. Says Knobel: "The most important 
point is the exclusive adoration of Jehovah. The 
Hebrew is not even to mention — i. e., utter — the 
name of another god; not to take it into his 
mouth, still less recognize or reverence such a 
god. So, too, the strict worshippers of Jehovah 
did (Ps xvi. 4; Hos. ii. 17; Zech. xiii. 2). Ac- 
cordingly the Hebrew was to swear only by Je- 
hovah (Deut. vi. IB; X. 20; J«r. xii. 16). So 
the Phenician could not swear bpKovg ^evMoiig 
(Josephus c. Apionem I. 22)." But we must dis- 
tinguish between the proper meaning of this 
command and the superstitious Jewish interpre- 
tation of it, which has even imposed a penalty 
on the utterance of the name of Jehovah. The 
so-called "killing by silence" ITodtschweigen], 
generally a sin, has therefore here, too, its mo- 
ral side. 

Ver. 14. Third ordinance. Three annual festi- 
vals are to be celebrated in accordance with the 
wants of God's people in their civil capacity. At 
the head stands the feast of unleavened bread, as 
the festival of freedom ; then follow the two prin- 
cipal harvest festivals, of which the second at 
the same time marks the close of the year with 
reference to the notion of the civil year. Vid. 
xxxiv. 23 ; Deut. xvi. 1 6 ; 2 Chr. viii. 13. "Other- 
wise," says Knobel, "the Elohist, on which 
point see Lev. xxiii." But it must be observed 
that there the festivals are spoken of in their re- 
Isition to religion and religious rites. Therefore, 
at that place special prominence is given to the 
Passover and the day of atonement. The arrange- 
ment of the three festivals, however, was, for the 
most part, prophetic, since in the wilderness 
there could be no harvesting, nor even sacrifices, 
vid. Lev. xxiii. 10. 

Ver. 15. Fowth ordinance. The feast of un- 
leavened bread as the birth-day festival of the 
people and of their freedom; whereas the Pass- 
over stands at the head of their religious offer- 
ings, uirf. xii. 40 sqq. On Hitzig's view in his 
"Oatern und Pfingsten," vid. Knobel,* p. 233; 
Bertheau, p. 57. — "Not empty," i.e., not with 
empty hands, but with sacrificial gifts. Even 
the" general festival offerings had to come from 
the sacrificial gifts of the people — a fact which 
Knobel seems to overlook; to these were adiled 
the peace-offerings madfe by individuals. So the 
Oriental never came before his king without pre- 
sents; vid. the citations from .^lian and Paulsen 
in Keil. The offering is the surplus of the gain 

« FHitzig I. c. holds that aUNn E?n'n meuns the new 

moon, of the month of grpen cars— to which Knobel replies 
that in that case the' phlrase " time appointed " would be hu- 

perflnoas ; that the Hebrew expression, if W'Vn means " new 

moon," would have to be retldered " new moon of the green 
ears " — a very improbable translation ; and that according to 
Lev. xxiii. 6 the festival was to begin on the fifteenth day 
of the month, i, e.,' at the time of the full moon,— Tb.] 



96 



EXODUS. 



which God has blessed, and by the effort to se- 
cure this surplus a barrier is built against want 
in civil life. While the offerings serve to main- 
tain the religious rites, they also serve indirectly 
to maintain the common weal. The same holds 
of the true church and of its wants. 

Ver. 16. Fifth ordinance. The feast of har- 
vest. — Here named for the first time, as also the 
third feast, vid.. Lev. xxiii. 15 : Num. xxviii. 26. 
Also called the feast of weeks, because it was 
celebrated seven weeks after the feast of unlea- 
vened bread ; or the feast of the first fruits of the 
wheat-harvest, because the loaves offered as 
first-fruits at that time were to be made of wheat 
flour, xxxiv. 22. On the Pentecost, see the 
lexicons. 

Sixth ordinance. — The feast of Ingathering. 
— Gathering or plucking characterizes this har- 
vest: the fruit-harvest and vintage. Further 
particulars, as that it is to be held on the 15th 
day of the 7th month, seven days like that of 
unleavened bread, a feast of rich abundance in 
contrast with that of great privation, see in Lev. 
xxiii. 34, Num. xxix. 12, Winer, Realworterbuch, 
Art. Laubhutienfest, [Smith's Bible Dictionary, 
Art. Tabernacles, Fea.it of]. In the end of the 
year. — Knobel, on account of this passage, as- 
sumes that the Hebrews had two new-years, the 
one in autumn, when the agricultural season of 
the year ended with the harvesting of the fruits, 
and the following one, beginning with the 
ploughing and sowing of the fields. The for- 
mer, he says, seems to have been the usual mode 
of reckoning in the East ; and he cites many 
proofs, p. 235. His view that this is a contra- 
diolion of the Elohist, who puts the beginning of 
the year in the spring (xii. 2), is not perspicu- 
ous ; neither, on the other hand, is Keil's — that 
reference is here made only to the agricultural 
year, by which he must mean the natural sea- 
sons, II. p. 148. We find here a new proof that 
the Mosaic law distinguishes the civil from the 
religious ordinances. But because the civil is 
subordinate to the religious, the determinative 
regulation proceeds from the feast of Passover, 
as is Been especially from Num. xxix. 12. That 
in Lev. xxiii. 34 the date is religious, is self-evi- 
dent. 

Ver. 17. Seventh ordinance. Three times In 
the year; i. e. of course at the three above- 
mentioned feasts. The place where the Israel- 
ites are to appear before .Jehovah, i. e. in the 
place where He reveals Himself, is not yet fixed, 
an omission explained by the fact that they were 
still wandering. That only the males are held 
obliged to do thii, shows the civil side of this 
legislation. 10T for 131, thy males. "Proba- 
bly," says Keil, "from the twentieth year and 
upwards, those who were included in the census, 
Num. i. 3. But this does not prohibit the ad- 
mission of the women (comp. 1 Sam. i. 3 sqq.) 
and boys (Luke ii. 41 sqq.)." More exactly: 
by the side of the civil ordinance the religious 
custom was developed in a natural way. Kno- 
bel thinks he finds here another discrepancy, p. 
235. 

Ver. 18. Eighth ordinance. Not offer with 
leavened bread. — The duty of keeping sacred 
things pure is enjoined especially by references 



to the feast of the Passover. The connection of 
the feast of unleavened bread with the Passover 
is here assumed. Backwards and forwards the 
paschal feast is to be kept pure in view of the fact 
that the blood of the offering (i. e. of the offering 
emphatically so called, the Passover offering) 
belongs to Jehovah, that therefore the surrender 
must be unmixed. In reference to the past, 
therefore, everything leavened must be removed 
(xii. 15, 20). In reference to the future, the 
fatty parts of the paschal offering, which alsu 
belong to Jehovah, must not remain over night, 
and so serve for ordinary food. They must 
therefore be burned in the night. That cannot 
mean, as Knobel understands it, that the fatiy 
pieces are to be at the outset separated from the 
paschal lamb, as was done with other offerings, 
since the lamb was to remain whole; but it was 
natural that the fatty parts would be for the moat 
part left over ; and then they were to be burned 
with the other things left over. Thus these 
fatty remains, which, however, were not burnt 
on the altar, became a type of the fatty pieces 
which were from the first designed for the altar. 
So then this regulation is made to refer to the 
more detailed laws of the festivals as found in 
Lev. ii. 11, etc. As the Passover was to be con- 
trasted with the ordinary mode of life, so also 
with the feast of unleavened bread. The three 
stages are : (1) the old life (leaven) ; (2) the of- 
fering of life (Passover); (3) the beginning of 
the new life (unleavened bread). 

Ver. 19. Ninth ordinance. Precept in refer- 
ence chiefly to the feast of weeks, or the first feast 
of harvest, but with a more general significance. 
" The Pentecostal loaves (Lev. xxiii. 17) are 
meant," says Knobel. Keil with reason under- 
stands the precept of a bringing of firstlings in 
general, vid. Num. xviii. 12, Ut. xxvi. 2 sqq. " The 
sheaf of barley which was to be offered on the 
second day of the feast of unleavened bread (Lev. 
xxiii. 10) belongs to the same" [Keil]. It niay 
be asked how the expression '1133~n''E'!<'l is to 
be understood ; whether, according to the LXX., 
followed by Keil, as the first of the first fruits, 
the first gathering of the first fruits; or, accord- 
ing to Aben Ezra and others, including Knobel 
(p. 236), as the best, the choicest, of the first 
fruits. Inasmuch as not the very first that came 
to hand was also the best, the latter explanation 
is to be taken as a more precise statement of the 
other: the first, provided it was the best, or the 
first-fruits, properly so called (for not even every 
first-born beast was a true firstling). The chro- 
nological element in the term " first," however, 
takes precedence, and forbids every delay and 
sequestration, according to xxii. 29. The mean- 
ing of these offerings is seen from the liturgical 
forms prescribed for them in Deut. xxvi. 3 sqq., 
13 sqq. Everything is a gift from Jehovah; there- 
fore the first fruits are brought back to Him, and 
their acceptance is effected by the priest, vfho, 
however, represents also the Levites, the widows 
and orphans, and the stranger. As in the N. T. 
Christ pictures Himself to His church as poor, in 
the person of the poor and the little ones, so Je- 
hovah in the 0. T. symbolically pictures Himself 
as in a human state of want, in the priests 
under whose protection all, especially all needy 



CHAP. XX. 1— XXIII. 33. 



97 



ones stand. So then the church ought conti- 
nually to care for the poor, as a religious du.y. 
Ver. 19. Tenth ordinance. Not boil a kid. — 
This precept seems strange, probably for the 
reason that it may be in a high degree symboli- 
cal. First, we must pronounce incorrect Lu- 
ther's translation : "Not boil the kid while it is 
at its mother's milk" [vid. 1 Sam. vii. 9). Other 
incorrect interpretations see in Enobel: (1) 
not to cook and eat meat and milk together; (2) 
injunction not to use butter instead of the oil of 
trees; (3) prohibition of an odious barbarity 
and cruelty. According to Knobel there is a re- 
ference to a custom of heathen religions which 
is to be kept away from the worship of Jehovah. 
Vid. his commentary, p. 237, where are accounts 
of Jewish opinions and Arabian usages. "Aben 
Ezra and Abarbanel," he says, "mention the 
boiling of the kid in milk by the Arabs of their 
time ; and they are right. Up to the present 
day the Arabs generally boil the flesh of lambs in 
sour milk, thus giving to it a peculiar relish 
(Berggren, Eeisen, etc.)." Further on Knobel, 
following Spencer, professes to give proofs that 
a peculiar superstition underlay the custom. But 
the heathen element, if there was one in the 
practice, might have been excluded without pro- 
hibiting the practice itself. If we assume that 
the precept in ver. 18 referred to the first feast, 
and was designed to prevent the profanation of 
the offering, and that the one in ver. 19 referred 
to the second one, and was designed to prevent 
the neglect of the peace-offering and the priest- 
hood with its family of Levites and of the poor, 
it is natural, with Abarbanel and others, to refer 
this precept especially to the third feast; and 
because this was in the highest degree the joy- 
ous feast of the Israelites, it is furthermore pro- 
bable that this prohibition was designed to pre- 
vent a luxury which was inconsistent with sim- 
ple comfort, and which moreover was hideous in 
a symbolical point of view, the kid here being, 
as it were, tortured even in death by the milk 
of the dam. The same precept condemns all the 
heathen refinements of festive gormandizing, 
such as are still practiced (e. g. roasting live 
animals). This epicurism might also pitch upon 
the eating of unclean animals or other haul goat; 
vid, Deut. xiv. 21, where the same prohibition is 
connected with the one before us. Keil's expla- 
nation, that the practice marked a reversal of 
the divine order of things in regard to the rela- 
tion between old and young, is less intelligible 
than that the kids were a very favorite article of 
food, according to Gen. xxvii. 9, 14; Jndg. vi. 19, 
xiii. 15 ; 1 Sam. xvi. 20. To be sure, the usage 
considered in its symbolical aspect was a sort of 
unnature such as the keen sense of natural fit- 
ness which characterized the Mosaic laws re- 
jected in every form, so that it even denounced 
the production of hybrid animals and grains, the 
mixing of different materials in cloth, as well as 
human misalliances, Lev. xix. 19, 20. 

h. The Promises. Vers. 20-33. 
That this last division also of the religio-oivil 
legislation relates to the political commonwealth, 
is seen from the whole contents of it, especially 
from vers. 22, 24 sqq., 27, 33. Knobel calls 
them " Some more promises ;" Keil, " The con- 



duct of Jehovah towards Israel." The promises 
here given are not some, but a whole ; not, how- 
ever, the whole of .Jehovah's promises, but the 
sum of the civil and political blessings condi- 
tioned on good behavior. (1) Protection of an- 
gelic guidance, of the religion of revelation ; and 
invincibility founded on religious obedience. 
(2) Victory over the Canaanites, Possession of 
the holy land on condition of their purifying the 
land from idolatry. (3) Abundance of food. (4) 
Blessing of health. (5) Fertility of man and 
beast. (6) Long life. (7) The respect and fear 
of all neighboring peoples. (8) Mysterious con- 
trol of natural forces in favor of Israel, ver 28. 
(9) The subjected Canaanites themselves made 
to serve for the protection of the growth of 
Israel. (10) Wide extent of territory and sure 
possession of it on condition of not mingling 
with the Canaanites and their idolatry. 

Vers. 20-22. Mrst promise. I send an angel. 
— That which the people, as the religious con- 
pregation of God, afterwards have imposed upon 
them as a check on account of their misbeha- 
vior (chap, xxxiii.), is here promised to the civil 
congregation as a protection. This cannot well 
be an anticipation, and cannot, with Knobel, be 
accounted for on the theory of "another narra- 
tor" who calls this angel DiiT \33. For in 
xxxiii. 2, 8 two forms of revelation are clearly dis- 
tinguished. In xxxiii. 18, 19 this distinction is 
between the glory of Jehovah and the goodness of 
Jehovah. Further on it is said that no one can 
see the glory in its full display, i. e. Jehovah's 
face, but can see its reflected splendor as it 
passes by in sacred obscurity (ver. 23). It is 
therefore a private relation between Jehovah 
and Moses, when Jehovah speaks with him face 
to face (xxxiii. 11), and hence in Moses' con- 
sciousness the two degrees of revelation go to- 
gether. The prophet Moses stands as Abra- 
ham's son higher than Moses the lawgiver. So 
Paul (in Gal. iii.) distinguishes positively be- 
tween the form of revelation which Abraham re- 
ceived and the form of revelation by which the 
people of Israel received the law (vers. 16 and 
19). This difference in degree is presented an ■ 
tithetically as early as in Jer. xxxi. 32-34. It 
harmonizes entirely with this distinction, when 
the angel of Jehovah first appears to Hagar, 
Gen. xvi. 7 ; also in the circumstance that he 
directs her to return to the household to which, 
she legitimately belonged. Comp. Gen. xxi. 17. 
Later also the immediate revelations made by God 
to Abraham are distinguished from the appear- 
ance of the angel of Jehovah in a legal aspect. 
Gen. xxii. 1, 11. The difference resembles that 
between inspiration and manifestation, as these 
two through ecstatic vision are made to assume 
forms different in degree. The angel of Jehovah 
is therefore the revelation of Jehovah for the 
people of Israel in a predominantly legal rela- 
tion; hence also the form of the political theo- 
cracy as it is instituted through the mediation 
of Moses and Aaron, chiefly of Moses. The sal- 
vation of the people will depend on their obedi- 
ence to the theocratic religion, as shaped by 
the higher form of the ceremonial revelation. 
This angel prepares the way for the Israelites, 
and conducts them to their goal. His counte- 



98 



EXODUS. 



Dance in the theocratic legal institutions is 
turned towards Israel ; Jehovah's name, the re- 
velation of His essential being, is within him, 
under the cover of this angelic form. He re- 
quires awe ; he can he easily offended ; he pun- 
ishes acta of disloyalty, for he is legal ; hence 
he goes before Israel as the terror of God to in- 
timidate the enemies. Knobel identifies this 
Angel of the Lord with the pillar of cloud and 
fire; and in fact this was a sign of the hidden 
presence of the angel, xxxiii. 9. 

Vers. 23, 24. Vid. Gen. xv. 18 sqq. Annihila- 
tion of the public heathen worship in Canaan af- 
ter its conquest by Israel. That the system 
of worship was connected with the morals, which 
were horrible and criminal, is even thus early 
made prominent. Vid. the parallel passages in 
Knobel, p. 2-38. 

Ver. 25. The pure service of Jehovah is the 
condition of well-being and health; vid. xv. 26; 
comp. Lev. xxvi. 16, 25; Deut. xxviii. 20. Bread 
and water, the most important articles of nutri- 
tion, symbols of all kinds of welfare. 

Ver. 26. Prevention of miscarriages. Only 
one item in a whole category: diminution of the 
population through miscarriages, unohastity, 
conjugal sins against procreation, exposure of 
children, f,tc.; oomp. Lev. xxvi. 9; Deut. xxviii. 
11; XXX. 9; virf. Is. xxv. 8 ; Ixv. 23. Respecting 
the blessing of long life, vid. chap, xx.; Deut. v.; 
1 Cor. XV. 51. 

Ver. 27. My fear. — This marks the sphere 
of intimidating influences exerted by the religious 
power of Israel on the heathen in general; 
whereas the hornets (ver. 28) represent the ter- 
rifying or destructive effects of this power in 
particular. Vid. Gen. xxxv. 5; Ex. xv. 14; Ps. 
xviii. 41 (40); xxi. 13 (12); Josh. vii. 8, 12. 

Ver. 28. Hornets.— Firf. Deut. vii. 20; Wis- 
dom of Solomon xii. 8. Says Knobel: "Accord- 
ing to Josh. xxiv. the kings of the Amorites, Si- 
hon and Og, were driven out not by Israel's wea- 
pons, but by the ni>")!t. Elsewhere neither the 
word nor the thing occurs in the 0. T." Differ- 
ent explanations: (1) The promise is literally 
meant. So Jarchi, Clericus, and others. (2) 
Plagues in general. So Saadias, Michaelis, and 
others. (3) The expression is figurative. So 
most modern interpreters. Yet the text evidently 
does not mean to identify the hornets with the 
great general terror of God, as Knobel holds, but 
distinguishes them from it as small, isolated, but 
very powerful evils, as Keil, following Augus- 
tine, has correctly observed. It is a question 
even whether the hornets are not meant to repre- 
sent the same thing as the bees, Deut. i. 44; Ps. 



cxviii. 12 ; Isa. vii. 18. The bee frightens by the 
multitude of the irresistible swarm; the hornets 
by the frightful attack and sting of the indivi- 
dual insect. In the petty religious and moral 
conflicts between Judaism and heathenism, civil- 
ized Christian nations and barbarians, Indians, 
and other savages, it is just these hornets, these 
thousand.fold particular sources of terror, moral 
thorns, and even physical stings, under which the 
enemies gradually succumb. The three Canaan, 
itish nations which are here named denote the 
totality; perhaps, however, in the heathen tri- 
nity may be found a reference to the spiritual 
impotence of heathenism. 

Ver. 29. Not in one year. — Comp. Deut. vii. 
22; Lev. xxvi. 22; Ezek. xiv. 15, 21 ; 2 Kings 
xvii. 25; Josh. xiii. 1-7. From this it appears 
that the destruction denounced by Jehovah on 
the Canaanites was intended primarily for them 
in their collective and public capacity, not for 
the individuals. The individuals, in so far as 
they submit, Jehovah will allow, as individuals, to 
live ; and to live, in so far as they remain heathen 
and enemies, for the purpose of preventing the 
wild beasts from getting the upper hand and di- 
minishing the number of the people of Israel, 
which as yet is far too small to subdue the wild 
beasts, and the wildness of nature in general. 
The higher races of mankind are still indebted 
for this service to the lowest races throughout 
the five continents. Even savages constitute still 
a sort of barrier against what is monstrous in na- 
ture, which without them would lapse into wild- 
ness. These Canaanites serve this purpose only 
as being incorrigible. In proportion as nature 
is reclaimed, they sink away. It was therefore 
not the fact that these individuals continued to 
live in Israel, but that the Israelites mingled 
with them, which led to ruinous consequences. 
Comp. Judg. i. and ii. 

Ver. 31. Set thy bounds. — Vid. Gen. xv. 
18. The Bed Sea on the south — the sea of the 
Philistines, or Mediterranean Sea, on the west — 
the Arabian desert on the east (Deut. xi. 24), the 
Euphrates on the north. These ideal boundaries 
are assured to the Israelites, in so far as they 
conduct themselves in relation to the heathen 
according to the ideal standard. Forming al- 
liances with the heathen and recognizing their 
political existence would not of itself be actual 
apostasy, but it would be a snare to the Israelites 
through which they would be drawu into idola- 
try by way of false consistency in the policy of > 
toleration. The lesson is to be applied even at 
the present day. The several precepts are given 
by Knobel, p. 241. 



CHAP. XXIV. 1-8. 



99 



D.— THE FEAST OF THE COVENANT COMMANDED. 
CffAP. XXIV. 1-2. 

1 And he said unto Moses, Come up unto Jehovah, thou, and Aaron, Nadab, and 

2 Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel ; and worship ye afar off. And Moses 
alone shall [let Moses alone] come near Jehovah : but they shall not [let them not] 
come nigh ; neither shall [and let not] the people go up with him. 

darknesa of the mountain; by which, however, is 
not exactly meant that he waa on the mountain 
(xx. 21). It ia therefore not to be supposed 
(with Keil and Knobel) that Moaea, according to 
XX. 21, had again betaken himself to the mountain ; 
for in thia case it would have to be assumed that 
the descent bad been forgotten. But no wan ascend- 
ing to Jehovah takes place, with most significant 
distinctions. lUoses, the prophet, alone is per- 
mitted to go to the top of the mountain, and ap- 
proach Jehovah. At the declivity of the moun- 
tain the priests must stop, represented by Aaron 
and his sons, Nadab and Abihu; and with a like 
limitation, but also with a like right, the state, 
the popular assembly, represented by the seventy 
elders. They occupy a middle position between 
the prophet above and the people below. On 
Nadab and Abihu vid. Lev. x. 1 sqq. 



EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL. 

The connection of this passage with the fore- 
going is correctly stated by Keil in opposition to 
Knobel. In xx. 22 God spoke through Moses to 
the people. What He now speaks at the end of 
the giving of the law iafor Moses himself, al- 
though he must communicate with the people 
about it. After Jehovah has proclaimed the law 
of the covenant to the people, the feast of the 
covenant must be celebrated. It is presupposed, 
first, that Qod has spoken from Hinai the ten 
commandments to Moses and the people at the 
foot of the mountain (xix. 26). Then that He 
gave the ceremonial laws and the civil laws for 
the people, while the latter had removed from 
the mountain, but Moses was standing in the 



E.— RATIFICATION OF THE COVENANT. 
Chap. XXIV. 3-8. 

3 And Moses came and told the people all the words of Jehovah, and all the judg- 

4 ments [ordinances] : and all the people answered with one voice, and said, All the 
words which Jehovah hath said [spoken] will we do. And Moses wrote all the 
words of Jehovah, and rose up early in the morning, and builded an altar under 

5 the hill [mountain], and twelve pillars, according to the twelve tribes of Israel. A.nd 
he sent young [the young] men of the children of Israel, which [and they] offered 
burnt-offerings, and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen [bullocks] unto Jehovah. 

6 And Moses took half of the blood, and put it in basins ; and half of the blood he 

7 sprinkled on the altar. And he took the book of the covenant, and read in the au- 
dience [hearing] of the people: and they said, All that Jehovah hath said [spoken] 

8 will we do, and be obedient. And Moses took the blood, and sprinkled it on the 
people, and said. Behold, the blood of the covenant which Jehovah hath made with 
you concerning all these words. 

evidently the report must have included the 
whole threefold law (therefore not only the deca- 
logue), because the covenant now to be con- 
cluded was to relate to the whole law. But it is 
also self-evident that Moses was a better hearer 
of the ten commandments than the people were, 
and had to be for them a mediator of the law 
which they th^maelves had heard. Once more 
the assent of the people ia given to the law of 
the covenant unanimoualy — with one voice ; prac- 



EXEQETICAL AND CRITICAL. 

Ver. 8. And Moses came. — That is, ont of 
the darkness of the mountain, not exactly from 
the mountain itself. And told the people. — 
" Not the decalogue (as Delitzsch holda, JBehrder- 
brief, p. 414), for the people had beard this im- 
mediately from the mouth of God, but the words 
of XX. 22-26, and all the laws" (Keil). But 



TOO 



EXODUS. 



tieally, the third expression of compliance (vid. 
XX. 19 and xix. 8). How then can there be any 
more thought of despotic subjection of the peo- 
ple ? Thus far everything has been done orally ; 
aud for the first time Moses makes a provisional 
copy of the law. — Ver. 4. The covenant is con- 
cluded, and DOW it is sealed by the feast of the 
covenant. Moses builds early on the follow- 
ing morning an altar (for Jehovah), and in addi- 
tion twelve pillars for the twelve tribes of Israel. 
"As the altar,-' says Keil, "being the place 
where the Lord comes to bless His people (xx. 
24), indicates the presence of Jehovah, so the 
twelve pillars, or signal stones, were not to serve 
as mere memorial signs of the ratification of the 
covenant, but, as the dwelling-place of the twelve 
tribes, to represent their presence." Vid. Gen. 
xxviii. 18, xxxi. 45 (Knobel on Gen. xxi. 31), 
Josh. iv. (memorial stones). Josh. xxii. 11 sqq. 
(the altar a symbol of unity). 

Ver. 6. And be sent the young men. 
The young men must officiate in offering the sa- 
crifices of ratification. Why ! Different views : 
(1) As first-born children, who constitute the 
natural basis for the priesthood (Onkelos), or 
even the sons of Aaron (Augustine). (2) Vigor- 
ous men, as Moses' assistants in making the 
offering (Knobel: first-born youths). (3) As 
representatives of the youthful people (Kurtz 
III., p. 143). The young men of the nation 
stand midway between the children and the 
men ; they share with the first their innocence, 
and with the latter their strength, and, as being 
the bloom of the national life, are the fittest re- 
presentatives of an incipient national life. When 
the national life is to be restored by wars of 
liberation or defence, the young men enter the 
lists. Thus Israel concludes its covenant with 
Jehovah through the bloom of its national life, 
the young men — according to a general law of 
the life of nations, which Kurtz has at least sug- 
gested (but criticised by Keil, note 1, p. 157).* 
It is, however, an observation needed only by 
the high-churchly, when Kurtz lays stress on the 
fact that the bringing and slaying of the victims 
was not a sacerdotal function. For as yet " the 
universal priesthood" officiates, although Moses 
alone as yet exercises the function of high-priest. 
Archaeological notes on the young men offering, 
vid. in Knobel, p. 242. — Burnt-oSerings and 
peace -ofierings. The burnt-offerings symbol- 
ize Jehovah's part of the festive solemnities ; the 
peace-offerings that of the people. — Bullocks. 
The great covenant cannot be ratified by the sa- 
crifice of sheep or goats. — Half of the blood. 
On the division of the blood, djU Keil, p. 158. f We 



* The English edition omits the note. Keil argues that 
there is nowhere any indication that a nation in general ap- 
proaches Jehovah through an offer! ne. These young men 
nl-ficiated, he thinks, merely ns Moses' assistants, as is indi- 
cared hy the circumstance that he nent them (ver. 5). — Ta. 

t fKeil, ;. c. says ; " The halving of the blnod has nothing 
in couiraon with the heathen customs rited by Bahr (Sym- 
boh'kf II., p. 421) and Koobel (on this passage) according to 
which the contracting parties mingled their own blood. For 
it is not two different kinds of blood that are mixed together, 
t'Ut oiu blood, and that, sacriQcial blood, in which animal 

life is taken away instead of human life Inasmuch ob 

the blood is divided only because what is sprinkled on the 
altar cannot be taken up again from the altar and sprinkled 



have no hesitation, in spite of superstitious in- 
terpretations of the Lord's Supper and of the 
ritual, to conceive of the one-half of this blood 
as a sacrifice, and the other as a sacrament typi- 
cally foreshadowed. In accordance with this 
reference the sacrificial element is traceable in 

the burnt-offering, the sacrament in the D'D7B', 
peace-offerings, or thank-offerings. Keil, refer- 
ring to Bahr and Knobel, rightly opposes the 
adducing of the analogy of heathen usages, in 
so far as thereby an ideniification of the usage 
is intended [vid. Knobel, p. 243) ; but an affinity 
of the profane with the theocratic sacrificial 
usages cannot be denied. Keil is also incorrect, 
when, in reference to these offerings, he speaks 
of expiation in the proper sense of the word. 
This could least of all be applied to the peace- 
offerings, or festive-offerings. The offerings in 
general, it is true, rest on the consciousness of 
the sinfulness which leads man. with his good 
will, and in symbolic form, to bring to God, as con- 
fession, prayer, and vow, what in his real condi- 
tion as sinful in his spiritual life he cannot bring 
Him — in the burnt-offering the sinless consecra- 
tion of his whole life, in the peace-offering the 
sinless consecration of all his prosperity and en- 
joyment. It is quite in accordance with the 
legal stand-point that Moses at first pours out the 
blood designed for God at the altar of God; 
thereby he symbolically effects a general and 
complete surrender of the people to God. But 
not till after he has read the book of the cove- 
nant, the laws of chs. xx.-xxiil., and the people 
have given their fullest assent {vid. the transla- 
tion), does he sprinkle the people with the other 
half of the blood of the offering, which till then 
was kept in the basin, while he calls it the blood 
of the covenant that has been completed. It 
can hardly be correct, with Keil, to understand 
the blood to have been halved only because the 
blood sprinkled on the altar could not be again 
taken from it and sprinkled on the people ; but 
he is right in assuming that the halves belong 
together. Clearly there is formed out of the 
identity of the blood a contrast in actu. In this 
contrast, however, the thought comes out that 
surrender in general, in accordance with the 
conditions of grace, must precede obedience in 
particular, according to the law. This is the 
patriarchal and evangelical seal impressed on 
the law, such as also introduces the decalogue — 
the language about the redeeming God. The 
expression, "blood of the covenant," is, it is 
true, a marked one, denoting an ideally symboli- 
cal exchange of blood, as a foundation for blood 
relationship. But no human blood is here used, 
and still less can there be any thought of real 
blood of God, although, as sacrificial blood, it 
comes from God (and so far forth is a typical 
mystery), and is sprinkled upon men, symholi- 
cally expiating them and devoting them to aano- 
tification, vid. xxix. 21, Lev. viii. 30. 

on the people, the two halves of the blood are to be regarded 
as belonging together and so forming fme blood, which is firlt 
sprinkled on the altar and then on the people, as was really 
done at the consecration of the priests, xxix. 21, Lev. Till. 
30."— TB.| 



CHAP. XXIV. 9-11. 



101 



P.— FEAST OF THE COVENANT. 

Chap. XXIV. 9-11. 

9 Then went up Moses, and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders 

10 of Israel : And they saw the God of Israel : and there was under his feet as it were 
a paved work of a sapphire stone [as it were work of bright sapphire], and as it 

11 were the body of heaven [the very heaven] in his clearness [for clearness]. And 
upon the nobles of the children of Israel he laid not his hand : also [and] they saw 
God, and did eat and drink. 

covenant, and the subsequent darkening of the 
mountain by cloud and fire which took place when 
the law was drawn up. The Tision of Jehovah in 
its several stages of development is marked by Isa. 
vi. 1 and Ezek. i. 26, Dan. vii. 9-13 (comp. Num. 
xii. 8). During the feast of the covenant at the 
declivity of the mountain (according to ver. 1 
prescribed before the covenant was formed) the 
representatives of Israel saw the God of Israel. 
It was a vision, for which no objective image is 
furnished. But the sign of the objective image 
is called the image of a work or footstool under 
God's feet, of brilliant sapphire, of sky blue there- 
fore, like the heaven in its full brightness, as is 
added by way of further explanation. This 
ethereally delicate picture of the vision of the co- 
venant God of Israel in His grace and covenant 
faithfulness has been coarsened and obscured in 
two directions. According to Knobel, the figure 
under God's feet is "like a work of sapphire 
slabs ;" and he refers to Ezek. i. 26, and reads 

njab, vid. p. 244. According to Baumgarten 
there was no image of God, because the vision of 
the men was imperfect. According to Hofmanu the 
fire was separated from the cloud and turned into a 
form. According to Keil they saw also a form of 
God, which, however, is not described, "inas- 
much as Moses, according to Num. xii. 8, saw 
the form of Jehovah." But here we are told of 
a vision of the supermundane God as the God of 
Israel, not of a vision of Jehovah becoming in- 
carnate. This is the first contrast. The second 
is the fact that at the feast of the covenant the 
cloud and the darkness are entirely gone, that 
the heavens open themselves, as it were, to the 
transported gazers in the full splendor of the 
heavenly blue, as at the baptism of Jesus; whereas 
immediately afterwards, at the beginning of the 
drawing up of the law, the mountain was obscured 
again, even more than before, as was the case when 
the ten commandments were first proclaimed. This 
is now again a phenomenal image of the glory of 
Jehovah as a law-giver, the same one who also in 
ch. xxxiii. does not show Moses, the law-giver, the 
face of His glory, but only its reflected splen- 
dor. The exegetical assumption that an external 
image must correspond to a vision of God, or 
that the sight must always be an external seer 
ing, has no Biblical basis, although even here 
the inward vision is connected with the sight of 
an outward corresponding sign. 



EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL. 
A wonderfully beautiful, sublime, but also 
mysterious feature of the history of the giving 
of the law. In it we see the significance of the 
sprinkling of the blood further carried out. It 
is the communion festival of the law — a commu- 
nion of the Israelites, in the persons of their no- 
blest representatives, with Jehovah, — the other 
side of the picture presented by the communion 
of Moses, his brother Aaron, and the elders, with 
Jethro, Moses' heathen father-in-law, after the 
latter offered burnt-offerings and sacrifices, and 
doubtless also, as here, peace-offerings, xviii. 
12. — A prophetic form of the communion feast 
is given by Isaiah, ch. xxv. 6-8. The first reali- 
zation of it, the celebration of the Lord's supper, 
frequently made to point figuratively to the last 
supper of the kingdom of Christ (Matt. xix. 28), 
finds its last fulfilment in the marriage of the 
Lamb, Rev. xix. 7-9. 

Ver. 9. Therefore the representatives of Israel 
went up, according to the prophetic, ceremo- 
nial, and political elements of the community. 
Aaron's sons mark the genealogical succession 
of the Levitical priesthood ; the prophets have 
no genealogical succession ; the elders must 
grow up to attain their dignity, and from the 
whole of them seventy are chosen as representa- 
tives, according to the sacred number seventy. 
Vid. Gen. xlvi. 27. 

Ver. 10. And they saw the Ood of Israel. 
It is not said that they saw Jehovah, though He 
is meant ; for Jehovah is the God of Israel. 
Therefore not niiT' 1'I33, as Knobel conceives, 
referring to xvi. 10. He says, "According to the 
chief narrator this favor was shown only to 
Moses, and that too later than this, and at his 
special request." Two discrepancies are said 
to be found here : (1) That Moses " does not see 
the glory of Jehovah till afterwards, xxxiii. 18;" 
(2) That "according to the chief narrator the 
people themselves at the proclamation of the ten 
commandments perceived only thunder, light- 
ning, clouds, noise of trumpets, and the voice of 
Jehovah;" but here also the ninnf33 [glory of 
Jehovah], according to ver. 17 1 The narrative 
evidently brings out two marked contrasts. The 
first is the seeing of Elohim, and the seeing of 
Jehovah; the second is the heavenly clear- 
ness above the mountain during the feast of the 



102 



EXODUS. 



Yer. 11. He laid not his hand. It ia dan- 
gerous for sinful man to approach God, because 
the holiness and justice of God repel him ; hence 
the true priest is he who can summon courage 
to approach God (Jer. xxi. 21). But the view 
of the countenance of Jehovah annihilates, as it 
were, the sinful man (slays the old man) ; hence 
the Jewish popular saying, that no one can see 
God without dying, vid. Judg. xiii. 22. At that 
very place the error in the popular notion is cor- 
rected by Manoah's wife; yet the full revelation 
of Jehovah is still dangerous and agitating even 
for one who sacerdotally approaches and sees 
Him (yid. Rev. i.). Hence to the legal mind of the 
narrator it is an astonishing and joyous wonder of 
grace that the God of Israel did not punish the no- 
bles of Israel for their temerity. In the enjoy- 
ment of this theocratic peace of God " the nobles 
of the children of Israel" received a pledge that 
the people of Israel themselves were also called 
to this dignity. They received this peace for 
the benefit of Israel, And they saw God. — 



Luther's translation makes the sentence describe 
two successive events: "and when they had seen 
God, they ate and drank." But the two are 
simultaneous ; the seeing of God and the eating 
and drinking are intimately connected, forming 
a prelude of sacramental enjoyments. Fear 
might report: "they saw God and died;" but 
instead of that faith reports: "they saw God, 
and ate and drank." In ver. 14 is found an in- 
dication that the nobles of Israel were on a de- 
clivity of the mountain, which, as contrasted with 
the summit, might be regarded as in the valley, 
and from which they could keep up their con- 
nection with the people. According to Keil, 
Moses also had first left the mountain with them, 
and afterwards ascended it again. This assump- 
tion may be favored by the fact that Joshua 
now comes into company with Moses. Moses 
needed his servant, since there was now to be a 
longer stay on the mountain. Knobel also under- 
stands the command, " Tarry here," of the stay 
at the foot of Sinai. 



O.— THE SUMMONS TO COMMIT THE LAW TO WRITING. 
Chapter XXIV. 12-18. 

12 And Jehovah said unto Moses, Come up to me into the mount, and be there : 
and I will give thee [thee the] tables of stone, and a [the] law, and commandments 
[the commandment] which I have written, that thou mayest teach [written, to 

13 teach] them. And Moses rose up, and his minister Joshua: and Moses went up 

14 into the mount of God. And he said unto the elders, Tarry ye here for us, until 
we come again [back] unto you : and behold, Aaron and Hur are with you : if anv 

15 man have any matters to do [whosoever hath a suit], let him come unto them. And 

16 Moses went up into the mount, and a [the] cloud covered the mount. And the 
glory of Jehovah abode upon mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days : and 

17 the [on the] seventh day he called unto Moses out of the midst of the cloud. And 
the sight [appearance] of the glory of Jehovah was like devouring fire on the top 

18 of the mount in the eyes of the children of Israel. And Moses went into the midst 
of the cloud, and gat him up into the mount : and Moses was in the mount forty 
days and forty nights. 

was added a new, grand task : the construction 
of the tabernacle. The law (or, the instruc- 
tion) and the commandment. Not as two 
parts, but as two fundamental forms of the legisr 
lation. The law is originally oral instruction 
(<AoraA), but is written down as commandment 
only by Jehovah as the proper author, and is 
again to be transferred into living instruction 
for the people by the mouth of the prophet. 

Ver. 13. And Joshua. Vid. xvii. 9, xxxii. 
17, xxxiii. 11. Mount of Ood. Vid. Hi. i. 

Ver. 14. Tarry ye here for us. At the foot 



EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL. 

Ver. 12. And Jehovah said. The particu- 
lar legislative relation of Jehovah here becomes 
again prominent, whereas heretofore the seventy 
elders of Israel may have represented Israel's 
vocation to become a shepherd of the nations in 
their relation to Elohim. Moses is now sum- 
moned to a longer stay on the summit of the 
mountain. The mere reception of the tables is 
related in xxxi. 18. No very long stay was 
needed for that. What Moses as mediator of 
the law did upon the mountain, Jehovah did in- 
deed do through him.* But besides this there 



* [In representing the commandments as committed to 
writing by Moses, and not by Jeiiovah, Lange certainly has 
to strain the language of the text It is true that God may 
ho 3aid to do what -He commands Moses to do. But that 



would not justify the narrator in declaring with such p«^ 
ticulanty that the two tables were " written with the finger 
of God" (xxxi. 18), and that "the tables were the w"* ?' 
God, and the writing was the writing of God " (xxxii. W 
A man may be said to write what an amanuensis writes at hta 
dictation ; but if he expressly states that certain things m 
written with his own hand, it Is unreasonable to suppose tMi 
they are written by the hand of another.— Tn.J 



CHAP XXV. 1— XXXI. 18. 



103 



of the mountain? That they were not to go any 
further with the people must have been quite 
self-evident. Moaes goes now through the flame 
and the darkness as it were to death ; he there- 
fore institutes for the interim » government, 
whioh, standing between the mountain and the 
people, represents the outward sanctuary which 
was still wanting, and at the same time governs 
the people. Aaron and Hur (vid. xvii. 12) are 
nominated as chief magistrates to settle suits 
that might arise. 

Ver. 16 sqq. Moses ascends the mountain, and 
J8 concealed by the cloud for six days. It is the 
cloud which at once reveals and conceals the 
glory of Jehovah, identical in significance with 
the pillar of cloud, but different from it in form, 
since it covers the mountain. Oil the seventh 
day Jehovah calls Moses to Himself out of the 
cloud, and the cloud is now transformed, to 
the people at the foot of the mountain, in 
its outward appearance, into the radiance of 
a consuming fire. Into this fiery radiance 
Moses enters, through the fiery flame, as 
it were, of the unapproachable justice of God 
(Heb. xii. 18, 29), as it were, through the light- 
nings of the flaming sword of the cherubim (Qen. 



iii.), in order to receive the fiery law (Deut. 
xxxiii. 2) which goes through the world's his- 
tory under the protection of the cloudy darkness 
and of the fire (I*s. xviii. 8-13, civ. 4, isa. vl. 2-4, 
Zeph. i. 15, Zeoh. xiv. 7, Mai. iv. 1, Matt. xxiv. 
29, 2 Pet. iii. 10, Rev. xviii.), in order to sanctify 
the people of God by means of judgment and de- 
liverance, and to prepare for the reconatruotion 
of the old world. The lawgiver had to be fa- 
miliar with this design of the sacred fire, 
whose typical significance reaches its climax 
and turning-point in the life of Elijah. So then 
he seemed to the people to have disappeared; and 
after his stay of forty days and nights on the 
mountain where he had a vision of the taberna- 
cle, the image of the kingdom of God, the peo- 
ple might imagine that he had perished in the 
terrors of the mountain. Knobel confounds the 
first stay of forty days on the monntain with the 
second. The origin of the idea of the tabernacle 
on the mountain coincides in time with the 
origin of the golden calf, aad so there arises a 
contrast, in which nevertheless the tabernacle 
outweighs the golden calf. On the significance 
of the forty days, vid. the Introduction, as also 
the Introduction to Kevelatlon. 



H.— THE VISION OB THE IDEAL OP THE TABERNACLE. THE ORDERING OF THE ARK 
AND OF THE HOUSE OF THE COVENANT; OF THE LIVING PRESENCE OF THE LAW 
AND OF THE DWELLING-PLACE OF THE LAW-GIVER. 

Chapters XXV.— XXXI. 
I. Contributions for the Building. Preliminary Condition. 
1, 2 And Jehovah spake unto Moses, saying. Speak unto the children of Israel, 
that they bring me an offering : of every man that giveth it willingly with his heart 

3 [whose heart maketh him willing] ye shall take my offering. And this is the of- 

4 fering which ye shall take of them ; gold, and silver, and brass, And blue, and pur- 

5 pie, and scarlet, and fine linen, and goats' hair. And rams' skins dyed red, and 

6 badgers' [seals'] skins, and ehittim [acacia] wood, Oil for the light, spices for 

7 anointing [the anointing] oil, and for sweet [the sweet] incense. Onyx stones, and 

8 stones to be set in [set, for] the ephod, and in [for] the breast-plate. And let them 

9 make me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them. According to all that I shew 
thee, after [thee,] the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all the instru- 
ments [furniture] thereof, even so shall ye make it. 

II. The Structure itself. The Place of Worship. 
1. The Ark. 

10 And they shall make an ark of shittim [acacia] wood : two cubits and a half 
shall be the length thereof, and a cubit and a half the breadth thereof, and a cubit 

11 and a half the height thereof And thou shalt overlay it with pure gold, within 
and without shalt thou overlay it, and- shalt make upon it a crown [moulding] of 

12 gold round about. And thou shalt cast four rings of gold for it, and put them in 
the four corners [feet] thereof; and two rings shall be in [on] the one side of it, and 

13 two rings in [on] the other side of it. And thou shalt make staves of shittim 

14 [acacia] wood, and overlay them with gold. And thou shalt put the staves into 
the rings by the sides of the ark, that the ark may be borne with them [to bear the 

16 ark with]. The staves shall be in the rings of the ark : they shall not be taken 



104 EXODUS. 



16 from it. And thou shalt put into the ark the testimony which I shall give thee. 

17 And thou shalt make a mercy-seat o/pure gold : two cubits and a half shall he the 

18 length thereof, and a cubit and a half the breadth thereof And thou shalt make 
two cherubims [cherubim] of gold, of beaten work shalt thou make them in [at] 

19 the two ends of the mercy-seat. And make one cherub on [at] the one end, and 
the other cherub on [at] the other end : even of [of one piece with] the mercy-seat' 

20 shall ye make the cherubims [cherubim] on [at] the two ends thereof Aud the 
cherubims [cherubim] shall stretch forth their wings on high, covering the mercy- 
seat with their wings, and their faces shall look [with their faces] one to another : 

21 toward the mercy-seat shall the faces of the cherubims [cherubim] be. And thou 
shalt put the mercy-seat above upon the ark ; and in the ark thou shalt put the 

22 testimony that I shall give thee. And there I will meet with thee, and I will com- 
mune with thee from above the mercy-seat, from between the two cherubims [cheru- 
bim] which are upon the ark of the testimony, of aU things which I will give thee 
in commandment uuto the children of Israel. 

2. The Table. 

23 Thou shalt also make a table o/shittim [acacia] wood : two cubits shaU he the length 
thereof, and a cubit the breadth thereof, and a cubit and a half the height thereof. 

24 And thou ehalt overlayit with pure gold, and make thereto a crown [moulding] of gold 

25 round about. And thou shalt make unto it a border of an [a] handbreadth round about, 
and thou shalt make a golden crown [moulding] to the border thereof round about. 

26 And thou shalt make for it four rings of gold, and put the rings in [on] the four 

27 corners that are on [belong to] the four feet thereof. Over against [Close by] the 

28 border shall the rings be for places of [for] the staves to bear the table. And thou 
shalt make the staves of shittim [acacia] wood, and overlay them with gold, that 

29 the table may be borne with them. And thou shalt make the dishes [plates] 
thereof, and spoons [the cups] thereof, and covers [the flagons] thereof, and bowls 
[the bowls] thereof, to cover [pour out] withal: o/pure gold shalt thou make them. 

30 And thou shalt set upon the table shew-bread before me alway. 

8. The Candlestick. 

31 And thou shalt make a candlestick of pure gold : of beaten work shall the can- 
dlestick be made : his shaft, and his branches, his bowls, his knops, and his flowers 
shall be of the same [of beaten work shall be made the candlestick, its base and 

32 its shaft : its cups, its knobs, and its flowers shall be of one piece with it].' And 
six branches shall come out [coming out] of the sides of it: three branches of the 
candlestick out of the one side [one side of it], and three brauches of the candle- 

33 stick out of the other side [side of it] : Three bowls [cups] made like unto al- 
monds [almond-blossoms] with a knop and a flower in one branch [in one branch, 
a knob and a flower] ; and three bowls [cups] made like almonds [almond- 
blossoms] in the other branch, vyith [branch,] a knop [knob] and a flower : so in 

34 [for] the six branches that come out of the candlestick. And in the candlestick 
shall he four bowls [cups] made like unto almonds, with [almond-blossoms,] their 

35 [its] knops [knobs] and their [its] flowers. And there shaU be a knop [knob] 
under two branches of the same [of one piece with it], and a knop [knob] under two 
branches of the same [of one piece with it], and a knop [knob] under two branches 
of the same [of one piece with it], according to [for] the six branches that proceed 

TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL. 

1 fXXV. 19. m33n~ID, eta. Literally. " From tho mercy-seat shall ye make the cherubim." This is underetood 
by some to mean : " rifling up from the mercy-seat." But the simple |n hardly conveys that notion ; it has, perhaps, some- 
what of its original import, "part," so that the direction is to make the cherubim a part of tho raercy-seat, i.e., of one piece 
with it.— Te.] 

2 [XXV. 31, The change proposed in the punctuation is one required by the Mafloretic accentuation, as well as by the 
sense, thouEh adopted by only a few commentators (Knobel, De Wette, Bunsen). When it is said, " its base and itsshalj, 
etc., sliall be made of the pame," the question arises, the same with what? For the several specificafions include the wftoM 
of the caniilestirk. The direction thus would be to make all the sever*! parts of the candlestick of the same piece witli the 
candlestick — which is senseless. — Tr.] 



CHAP. XXV. 1— XXXI. 18. 108 



36 [come] out of the candlestick. Their knops [knobs] and their branches shall be of 
the same [of oue piece with it] : all it [all of it] shall be oue beaten work of pure 

37 gold. And thou shalt make the seven lamps thereof; and they shall light [set up] 

38 the lamps thereof, that they may give light over against it. And the tongs [snuf- 

39 fers] thereof, and the siluff-dishes thereof) shall be of pure gold. Of a talent of pure 

40 gold shall he make it [shall it be made], with all these vessels [instruments]. And 
look [see] that thou make them after their pattern, which was shewed thee in the 
mount. 

4. The Dwelling {the Tent). 
Chap. XXVI. 1. Moreover thou shalt make the tabernacle vAth ten curtains of 
[curtains: of] fine twined linen, and blue, and purple, and scarlet: with [scarlet, 
with] cherubims [cherubim] of cunning work [the work of a skilful weaver] shalt 

2 thou make them. The length of one [each] curtain shail be eight and twenty 
cubits, and the breadth of one [each] curtain four cubits : and every one of the 

3 [all the] curtains shall have one measure. The five [Five of the] curtains shall be 
coupled together one to another ; and other [the other] five curtains shall be cou- 

4 pled one to another. And thou shalt make loops of blue upon the edge of the one 
[first] curtain from the selvedge [at the border] in the coupling [the set of curtains] ; 
and likewise shalt thou make in [so shalt thou do with] the uttermost edge of another 
curtain [the edge of the outmost curtain] in the coupling of the second [in the second 

5 set of curtains]. Fifty loops shalt thou make in the one curtain, and fifty loops shalt 
thou make in the edge of the curtain that is in the coupling of the second [in the 
second set of curtains] ; that the loops may take hold one of [the loops shall be 

6 opposite one to] another. And thou shalt make fifty taches [clasps] of gold, and 
couple the curtains together [one to another] with the taches [clasps] ; and it shall 

7 be one t-abernacle [the tabernacle shall be one]. And thou shalt make curtains of 
goat's hair to be a [for a] covering [tent] upon [over] the tabernacle : eleven cur- 

8 tains shalt thou make. The length of one [each] curtain shail be thirty cubits, and 
the breadth of one [each] curtain four cubits : and [cubits :] the eleven curtains 

9 shall be all of [shall have] one measure. And thou shalt couple five curtains by 
themselves and six curtains by themselves, and shalt double [fold together] the 

19 sixth curtain in the forefront [front] of the tabernacle [tent]. And thou shalt 
make fifty loops on the edge of the one curtain that is outmost in the coupling \_Jirst 
set of curtains], and fifty loops in the edge of the curtain which coupleth the second 

11 [is the second set]. AJnd thou shalt make fifty taches [clasps] of brass, and put 
the taches [clasps] into the loops, and couple the tent together, that it may [and it 

12 shall] be one. And the remnant [excess] that remaineth of the curtains of the 
tent, the half curtain that remaineth, shall hang over the back-side [back] of the 

13 tabernacle. And a [the] cubit on the one side, and a [the] cubit on the other side 
of that which remaineth in the length of the curtains of the tent, it [tent,] shall 
hang over the sides of the tabernacle oo this side and on that side, to cover it. 

14 And thou shalt make a covering for the tent of rams' skins dyed red, and a cover- 

15 ing above of badgers' skins [of seal-skins above]. And thou shalt make boards 

16 [the boards] for the tabernacle of shittim [acacia] wood standing up. Ten cubits 
shall be the length of a board, and a cubit and a half shall be the breadth of one 

17 [each] board. Two tenons shall there be in one [each] board, set in order one 
against [equally distant from one] another : thus shalt thou make for [do unto] all 

18 the boards of the tabernacle. And thou shalt make the boards for the tabernacle, 

19 twenty boards on [for] the south side southward. And thou shalt make forty 
sockets of silver under the twenty boards ; two sockets under one board for his [its] 

20 two tenons, and two sockets under another board for his [its] two tenons. And for 
the second side of the tabernacle on [for] the north side there shall be twenty 

21 boards : And their forty sockets of silver ; two sockets under one board, and two 

22 sockets under another board. And for the sides [rear] of the tabernacle westward 

23 thou shalt make six boards. And two boards shalt thou make for the corners of 

24 the tabernacle in the two sides [in the rear]. And they shall be coupled together 
[be double] beneath, and they shall be coupled together' above the head of it unto 

' [XXVI. 21. The A. V. rendering (faroreil also by Kali8:h, Gesoniua, Glaire, De Wetto, FurBt, and Canon Cook) assumes 



106 EXODUS. 



one ring [and together they shall be whole up to the top of it, unto the first ring 

25 thus shall it be for them both ; they shall be for the two corners. And they [thei 
shall be eight boards, and their sockets 0/ silver, sixteen sockets ; two sockets und 

26 one board and two sockets under another board. And thou shalt make bars 

27 shittim [acacia] wood ; five for the boards of the one side of the tabernacle, Ai 
five bars for the boards of the other side of the tabernacle, and five bars for tl 

28 boards of the side of the tabernacle, for the two sides [the rear] westward. And tl 
middle bar in the midst [middle] of the boards shall reach [pass through] fro 

29 end to end. And thou shalt overlay the boards with gold, and make their rings ( 

30 gold for places for the bars : and thou shalt overlay the bars with gold. And the 
shalt rear [set] up the tabernacle according to the fashion thereof which was [hal 
been] shewed thee in the mount. 

5. Tha Veil. 

31 And thou shalt make a veil of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twine 
linen of cunning work : with cherubims [linen : with cherubim, the work of 

32 skilful workman] shall it be made. And thou shalt hang it upon four pillars 
shittim [acacia] wood overlaid with gold : their hooks shall be of gold, upo 

33 four sockets of silver. And thou shalt hang up the veil under the taclw 
[clasps], that thou mayest bring [and shalt bring] in thither within the veil th 
ark of the testimony : and the veil shall divide unto you between the hoi 

34 place and the most holy [the holy of holies]. And thou shalt put the merey-ses 

35 upon the ark of the testimony in the most holy place [holy of holies]. And tho 
shalt set the table without the veil, and the candlestick over against the table o 
the side of the tabernacle toward the south : and thou shalt put the table on th 

36 north side. And thou shalt make an hanging [a screen] for the door of the tea 
of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen, wrought with needle-worl 

37 [the work of the embroiderer]. And thou shalt make for the hanging [screen 
five pillars of shittim [acacia] wood, and overlay them with gold ; and their hook 
shall be of gold : and thou shalt cast five sockets of brass for them. 

6. The Altar of Burnt-offering. 

Chap. XXVII. 1. And thou shalt make an [the] altar of shittim [acacia] wood 
five cubits long, and five cubits broad ; the altar shall be four-square : and thi 

2 height thereof shall be three cubits. And thou shalt make the horns of it upon thi 
four corners thereof: his [its] horns shall be of the same [of one piece with it] 

3 and thou shalt overlay it with brass. And thou shalt make his [its] pans [pote| 
to receive his [to take away its] ashes, and his [its] shovels, and his [its], basins 
and his [its] fleshhooks, and his [its] firepans : all the vessels thereof thou shal 

4 make of brass [copper]. And thou shalt make for it a grate [grating] of networli 
of brass [copper] ; and upon the net shalt thou make four brazen [copper] rings ii 

5 [on] the four corners thereof. And thou shalt put it under the compass of th( 
altar beneath [below, under the ledge of the altar], that the net may be even to thf 

6 midst [and the net shall reach up to the middle] of the altar. And thou shall 
make staves for the altar, staves of shittim [acacia] wood, and overlay them will 

. 7 brass [copper]. And the staves [staves thereof] shall be put into the rings, asfl 

8 the staves shall be upon the two sides of the altar, to bear it [in bearing it]. Hol- 
low with boards shalt thou make it : as it was [hath been] shewed thee in the mount: 
so shall they make it. 

7. The Court. 

9 And thou shalt make the court of the tabernacle : for the south side southward thn 
shall be hangings for the court o/fine-twined linen of an hundred [linen a hundred] cu- 

10 bits long for one side : And the twenty pillars thereof and their twenty sockets, «W|< 

D^ran to be a contracted form of D^DNi^- But it is singular (if this is the case) that both forms should occur fh tlie Bsmf 

Terse, and more singular still that there should be the name conjunction nf the two forms in the parallel paasape xxxTi.29 
So long aa at the b^'St the obscurity of the descripiion if* not relieved by such an assumption, it seems much more reawO' 
able 10 take Q^ian in its natural senao of " perfect," " whole," and elucidate the meaning, if possible, on that asauJDP 

tion.— TeJ 



CHAP. XXV. 1— XXXI. 18. 107 



11 of brass [copper] ; the hooks of the pillars and their fillets [rods] shall be of silver. And 
likewise for the north side in length there shall be hangings of an hundred [hangings 
a hundred] cubits long, and his [its] twenty pillars and their twenty sockets of brass 

12 [copper] ; the hooks of the pillars and their fillets [rods] of silver. And for the 
breadth of the court on the west side shall be hangings of fifty cubits [hangings fifty 

13 cubits long] : their pillars ten, and their sockets ten. And the breadth of the court 

14 on the east side eastward shall be fifty cubits. The hangings of one side of the gate 
shall be fifteen cubits [Fifteen cubits of hangings shall be on one side of the gate] : 

15 their pillars three, and their sockets three. And on the other side shall be hangings 
fifteen eubits [fifteen cubits of hangings] : their pillars three, and their sockets three. 

16 And for the gate of the court shall be an hanging [a screen] of twenty cubits, of 
blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine-twined linen, wrought with needle-work 
[linen, embroidered work] : and their pillars shall be four, and their sockets four. 

17 All the pillars round about the court [of the court round about] shall be filleted 
with silver [joined with rods of silver] ; their hooks shall be of silver, and their 

18 sockets of brass [copper]. The length of the court shall be an [a] hundred cubits, 
and the breadth fifty everywhere, and the height five cubits, of fine-twined linen, 

19 and their sockets of brass [copper]. All the vessels [furniture] of the tabernacle 
in all the service thereof, and all the pins thereof, and all the pins of the court shall 
he of brass [copper]. 

III. The Persons and Things occupying the Building. The Ritual Worship. 
1. The Oil for the Lamp. 

20 And thou shalt command the children of Israel, that they bring thee pure oil olive 
beaten [beaten olive oil] for the light, to cause the [a] lamp to bum always [conti- 

21 nually]. In the tabernacle of the congregation [tent of meeting] without the veil, 
which is before the testimony, Aaron and his sons shall order [trim] it from evening 
to morning before Jehovah : it shaU be a statute forever unto [throughout] their 
generations on the behalf of [on the part of] the children of Israel. 

2. l%e Clothing of the Priest and of his Sacerdotal Assistants. 

Chap. XXVIII. 1 And take thou [bring thou near] unto thee Aaron thy brother, 
and his sons with him, from among the children of Israel, that he may minister 
unto me in the priest's office [that he may be a priest unto me], even Aaron, Nariab 

2 and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar, Aaron's sons. And thou shalt make holy [sacred] 

3 garments for Aaron thy brother for glory [honor] and for beauty- And thou sha't 
speak unto all that are wise-hearted [all the skilful-hearted], whom I have filled 
with the spirit of wisdom [skill], that they may make Aaron's garments to conse- 
crate [sanctify] him, that he may minister unto me in the priest's office [that he 

4 maiy be a priest unto me]. And these are the garments which they shall make: 
a breastplate, and an ephod, and a robe, and a broidered [checkered] coat, a mitre 
[turban], and a girdle: and they shall make holy [sacred] garments for Aaron thy 
brother, and [and for] his sons, that he may minister unto me in the priest's office 

5 [that he may be a priest unto me]. And they shall take gold, and blue, and purple, 

6 and scarlet, and fine linen. And they shall make the ephod of gold, of blue, and 
o/ purple, o/ scarlet, and fine-twined linen, with cunning work [linen, the work of a 

7 skilful weaver]. It shall have the two shoulder-pieces thereof joined at [have two 
shoulder-pieces joined to] the two edges thereof: and so it [and it] shall be joined 

8 together. And the curious pirdle of the ephod [the embroidered belt for girdina; 
it], which is upon it, shall be of the same [same piece], according to the work thereof; 

9 even of gold, of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine-twined linen. And thou shalt 
take two onyx stones and grave [engrave] on them the names of the children of 

10 Israel: Six of their names on one stone, and the other six names of the rest [and the 

11 names of the six remaining ones] on the other stone, according to their birth. With 
the work of an engraver in stone, like the engravings of a signet, shalt thou engrave 
the two stones with [according to] the names of the children of Israel : thou shalt 

12 make them to be set [inclosed] in ouches [settings] of gold. And thou shalt put 



108 EXODUS. 



the two stones upon the shoulders [shoulder-pieces] of the ephod jor stones of memo- 
rial unto [as memorial stones for] the children of Israel : and Aaron shall bear 

13 their names before Jehovah upon his two shoulders for a memorial. And thou shalt 

14 make ouches [settings] o/ gold ; And two chains o/ pure gold at the ends ; o/ wreathen 
work shalt thou make them [pure gold; like cords shalt thou make them, of 
wreathen work] : and fasten [and thou shalt put] the wreathen chains to the ouches 

15 [on the settings]. And thou shalt make the breastplate of judgment, with cunning 
work [the work of a skilful weaver]; after [like] the work of the ephod thou shalt 
make it; o/ gold, o/ blue, and o/ purple, and o/ scarlet, and o/ fine twined linen, shalt 

16 thou make it. Four square it shall be hdng doubled [It shall be square and double]; 

17 a span shall he the length thereof, and a span shall he the breadth thereof And 
thou shalt set in it settings of stones, even four rows of stones : the first row shall be 
a sardius, a topaz, and a carbuncle: this shall be [stones: a row of sardius, topaz, 

18 and emerald shall be] the first row. And the second row shall be an emerald, [car- 

19 buncle], a sapphire, and a diamond. And the third row a ligure, an agate, and an 

20 amethyst. And the fourth row a beryl [chrysolite], and an onyx, and a jasper: 

21 they shall set in gold in their inclosings. And the stones shall be with [according 
to] the names of the children of Israel, twelve, according to their names, lih 
[names: likel the engravings of a signet; every [signet, every] one with [according 

22 to] his name shall they be according to [be for] the twelve tribes. And thou shalt 
make upon the breast-plate chains at the ends [like cords] of wreathen work o/pure 

23 gold. And thou shalt make upon the breast-plate two rings of gold, and shalt put 

24 the two rings on the two ends of the breast-plate. And thou shalt put the two wreathen 

25 chains of gold in [on] the two rings which are on the ends of the breast-plate. And 
the other two ends of the two wreathen chains thou shalt fasten in the two ouches [put 
on the two settings], and put tfiem on the shoulder-pieces of the ephod before it [on 

26 the front of it]. And thou shalt make two rings of gold, and thou shalt put them 
upon the two ends of the breast-plate, in [on] the border thereof which is in [to- 

27 ward] the side of the ephod inward. And two other rings of gold thou shalt make, 
and shalt put them on the two sides [shoulder-pieces] of the ephod underneath, to- 
ward [on] the fore-part thereof, over against [close by] the other coupling [the cou- 
pling] thereof, above the curious girdle of the ephod [the embroidered belt of the 

28 ephod]. And they shall bind the breast-plate by the rings thereof unto the rings 
of the ephod with a lace [cord] of blue, that it may be above the curious girdle [the 
embroidered belt] of the ephod, and that the breast-plate be not loosed from the 

29 ephod. And Aaron shall bear the names of the children of Israel in the breast- 
plate of judgment upon his heart, when he goeth in uiito the holy place, for a me- 

30 morial before Jehovah continually. And thou shalt put in the breast-plate of 
judgment the Urim and the Thummim ; and they shall be upon Aaron's heart, when 
he goeth in before Jehovah : and Aaron shall bear the judgment of the children of 

31 Israel upon his heart before Jehovah continually. And thou shalt make the robe 

32 of the ephod all o/blue. And there shall be an hole in the top of it, in the midst 
thereof [And its opening for the head shall be in the middle of it] : it shall have a 
binding of woven work round about the hole of it [its opening], as it were the hole 

33 of an habergeon [like the opening of a coat of mail], that it be not rent. And be- 
neath upon [And upon] the hem of it [its skirts] thou shalt make pomegranates of 
blue, and of purple, and of scarlet, round about the hem [skirts] thereof; and bells 

34 of gold between them round about: A golden bell and a pomegranate, a golden bell 

35 and a pomegranate, upon the hem [skirts] of the robe round about. And it shall 
be upon Aaron to minister [for ministering] : and his sound [the sound thereof] 
shall be heard when he goeth in unto [goeth into] the holy place before Jehovah, 

36 and when he cometh out, that he die not. And thou shalt make a plate of pure 
gold, and grave [engrave] upon it, like the engravings of a signet, HOLINESS 

37 TO JEHOVAH. And thou shalt put it on a blue lace [cord], that it may be 
[and it shall be] upon the mitre [turban] ; upon the forefront [front] of the mitre 

38 [turban] it shall be. And it shall be upon Aaron's forehead, that Aaron may [and 
Aaron shall] bear the iniquity of the holy [sacred] things, which the children of 
Israel shall hallow in all their holy [sacred] gifts ; and it shall be always upon his 



CHAP. XXV. 1— XXXr. 18. 109 



39 forehead, that they may be accepted before Jehovah. And thou shalt embroider 
[weave] the coat of fine linen, and thou shalt make the mitre [turban] o/ fine linen 

40 and thou shalt make the [a] girdle of needle-work [embroidered work]. And for 
Aaron's sons thou shalt make coats, and thou shalt make for them girdles, and 

41 bonaels [caps] shalt thou make for them, for glory [honor] and for beauty. And 
thou shalt put them upon Aaron thy brother, and his sons with him; and shalt an- 
oint them, and consecrate [ordain] them, and sanctify them, that they may minister 

42 unto me in the priest's oflSce [and they shall be priests unto me]. And thou shalt 
make them linen breeches to cover their [the flesh of their] nakedness; from the 

43 loins even unto [loins unto] the thighs they shall reach: And they shall be upon 
Aaron, and upon his sons, when they come in unto [come into] the tabernacle of 
the congregation [tent of meeting], or when they come near unto the altar to minis- 
ter in the holy plaee; that they bear not iniquity, and die : it shall be a statute fur 
ever unto him and his [and unto his] seed after him. 

3. The Consecration of the Priests. 
Chap. XXIX. 1 And this is the thing that thou shalt do unto them to hallow them, to 

2 minister unto me in the priests' office [to be priests unto me] : Take one young bul- 
lock, and two rams without blemish, and unleavened bread, and cakes unleavened 
tempered [mingled] with oil, and wafers unleavened anointed with oil : of wheaten 

3 flour shalt thou make them. And thou shalt put them into one basket, and bring 

4 them in the basket, with the bullock and the two rams. And Aaron and his sons 
thou shalt bring unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation [tent of meet- 

5 mg], and shalt wash them with water. And thou shalt take the garments, and put 
upon Aaron the coat, and the robe of the ephod, and the ephod, and the breast- 

6 plate, and gird him with the curious girdle [embroidered belt] of the ephod. And 
thou shalt put the mitre [turban] upon his head, and put the holy crown upon the 

7 mitre [turban]. Then shalt thou [And thou shalt] take the anointing oil, and pour it 

8 upon his head, and anoint him. And thou shalt bring his sons, and put coats upon 

9 them. And thou shalt gird them with girdles, Aaron and his sons, and put the bonnets 
[bind caps] on them: and the priests' office [priesthood] shall be theirs for [by] a 

10 perpetual statute : and thou shalt consecrate Aaron and his sons. And thou shalt 
cause a bullock to be brought [bring the bullock] before the tabernacle of the con- 
gregation [tent of meeting] : and Aaron and his sons shall put their hands upon 

11 the head of the bullock. And thou shalt kill the bullock before Jehovah, by the 

12 door of the tabernacle of the congregation [tent of meeting]. And thou shalt take 
of the blood of the bullock, and put it upon the horns of the altar with thy finger, 

13 and pour all the blood beside the bottom [at the base] of the altar. And thou 
shalt take all the fat that covereth the inwards, and the caul that is above [lobe 
above] the liver, and the two kidneys, and the fat that is upon them, and burn them 

14 upon the altar. But the flesh of the bullock, and his skin, and his dung, shalt thou 

15 burn with fire without the camp : it m a sin-oflfering. Thou shalt also take one 
[the one] ram ; and Aaron and his sons shall put [lay] their hands upon the head 

16 of the ram. And thou shalt slay the ram, and thou shalt take his blood, and sprinkle 

17 it round about upon the altar. And thou shalt cut the ram in pieces, and wash 
the inwards of him [his inwards], and his legs, and put them unto his pieces, and 

18 unto his head. And thou shalt bum the whole ram upon the altar: it is a burnt- 
offering unto Jehovah : it is & sweet savor, an offering made by fire [a fire-offering] 

19 unto Jehovah. And thou shalt take the other ram ; and Aaron and his sons shall 

20 put [lay] their hands upon the head of the ram. Then shalt thou kill the ram, and 
take of his blood, and put it upon the tip of the right ear of Aaron, and upon the 
tip of the right ear of his sons, and upon the thumb of their right hand, and upon 
the great toe of their right foot, and sprinkle the blood upon the altar round about. 

21 And thou shalt take of the blood that is upon the altar, and of the anointing oil, and 
sprinkle {f upon Aaron, and upon his garments, and upon his sons, and upon the gar- 
ments of his sons with him : and he shall be hallowed, and his garments, and his sons, and 

22 his sons' garments with him. Also thou shalt take of the ram the fat and the rump [the 
fat tail], and the fat that covereth the inwards, and the caul above [lobe of] the liver, 



110 EXODUS. 



and the two kidneys, and the fat that is upon upon them, and the right shoulder ; foi jt 

23 M a ram of consecration: And one loaf of bread, and one cake of oiled breadj and one 

24 wafer out of the basket of the unleavened bread that is before Jehovah : And thou shalt 
put all [the whole] in the hands of Aaron, and in the hands of his sons ; and shalt 

25 wave them for a wave-offering before Jehovah. And thou shalt receive [take] thei$.| 
of [from] their hands, and burn them upon the altar for a [upon the] burnt-offering, J 
for a sweet savor before Jehovah : it m an offering made by fire [a fire-offering] unto 

26 Jehovah. And thou shalt take the breast of the ram of Aaron's consecration [of 
Aaron's ram of consecration], and wave it for [as] a wave-offering before Jehovah; 

27 and it shall be thy part. And thou shalt sanctify the breast of the wave-offeringi 
and the shoulder of the heave-offering, which is waved, and which is heaved up, of 
the ram of the [of] consecration, even of that which is for Aaron, and of that which 

28 is for his sons : And it shall be Aaron's and his sons' by a statute for ever from the 
children of Israel ; for it is an [a] heave-offering : and it shall be an [a] heave-offering 
from the children of Israel of the sacrifice of their [Israel of their] peace-offerings, 

29 even their heave-offering unto Jehovah. And the holy garments of Aaron shall be 

30 his sons' after him, to be anointed therein, and to be consecrated in them. And 
that son that is priest in his stead shall put them on seven days [Seven days shall 
he of his sons who is priest in his stead put them on], when he cometh into the ta- 

31 bernacle of the congregation [tent of meeting] to minister in the holy place. And 
thou shalt take the ram of the [of] consecration, and seethe [boil] his flesh in the 

32 [a] holy place. And Aaron and his sons shall eat the flesh of the ram, and the 
bread that is in the basket, by the door of the tabernacle of the congregation [tent 

33 of meeting]. And they shall eat those things wherewith the [wherewith] atonement 
was made, to consecrate and to sanctify them ; but a stranger shall not eat thereof, 

34 because they are holy. And if aught of the flesh of the consecrations [consecration], 
or of the bread, remain unto [until] the morning, then thou shalt bum the re- 

35 mainder with fire : it shall not be eaten, because it is holy. And thus shalt thou 
do unto Aaron and to his sons, according to all things which [all that] I have ' 
commanded thee : seven days shalt thou consecrate them. 

4. Consecration and Design of the Altar of Burnt-offering. 

36 And thou shalt offer every day a bullock for a sin-offering for atonement : and 
thou shalt cleanse the altar, when thou hast made an [by making] atonement for 

37 it, and thou shalt anoint it, to sanctify it. Seven days thou shalt make an [make] 
atonement for the altar, and sanctify it ; and it shall be an altar most holy : whatr 

38 soever toucheth the altar shall be holy. Now this is that which thou shalt offer 
upon the altar : two lambs of the firat year [a year old] day by day contmuallyj 

39 The one lamb thou shalt offer in the morning ; and the other lamb thou shalt offer 

40 at even : And with the one lamb a tenth deal [part] of flour mingled with the 
fourth part of an [a] bin of beaten oil ; and the fourth part of an [a] bin of wine 

41 for a drink-offering. And the other lamb thou shalt offer at even, and shalt do 
thereto according to the meat-offering of [shalt offer with it the same meal-offering 
as in] the morning, and according to the drink-offering thereof [and the same drink- 
offering], for a sweet savor, an offering made by fire [a fire-offering] unto Jehovah; 

42 This shall be a continual burnt-offering throughout your generations at the door of 
the tabernacle of the congregation [tent of meeting] before Jehovah ; where 1 will 

43 meet [meet with] you, to speak there unto thee. And there I will meet with the 

44 children of Israel, and the tahemacle [and it] shall be sanctified by my glory. And 
I will sanctify the tabernacle of the congregation [tent of meeting], and the altar; 
I will sanctify also both Aaron and his sons, to minister to me in the priest's office 

45 [to be priests unto me]. And I will dwell among the children of Israel, and will be 

46 their God. And they shall know that I am Jehovah their God, that brought thein 
forth out of the land of Egypt, that I may [might] dwell among them: I am Jeho- 
vah their God. 

5. The Altar of Incense. 

Chap. XXX. 1. And thou shalt make an altar to burn incense upon: of shittim 
2 [acacia] wood shalt thou make it. A cubit shall be the length thereof, and a cubit 



CllAP. XXV. 1— XXXI. 18. Ill 



the breadth thereof; four-square shall it be : and two cubits shall he the height 

3 thereof: the horns thereof sKall be of the same [of one piece with it]. And thou 
shalt overlay it with pure gold, the top thereof, and the sides thereof round about, 
and the horns thereof; and thou shalt make unto [for] it a crown of gold round 

4 about. And two golden rings shalt thou make to [for] it under the crown of it, 
by the two corners [upon the two flanks] thereof, upon the two sides of it shalt thou 

5 make it ; and they shall be ibr places for the staves to bear it withal [with]. And 
thou shalt make the staves of shittim [acacia] wood, and overlay them with gold. 

6, And thou shalt put it before the veil that is by the ark of the testimony, before the 

7 mercy-seat that is over the testimony, where I will meet with thee. And Aaron 
shall burn thereon sweet incense every morning : when he dresseth [trimmeth] the 

8 lamps, he shall burn incense upon it. And when Aaron lighteth [setteth up] the 
lamps at even, he shall bum incense upon it [burn it], a perpetual incense before 

9 Jehovah throughout your generations. Ye shall ofier no strange incense thereon, 
nor burnt-sacrifice [burnt-otfering], nor meat-ofiering [meal-offering] ; neither shall 

10 ye pour [and ye shall pour no] drink-offering thereon. And Aaron shall make an 
[make] atonement upon [for] the horns of it once in a [the] year with the blood of 
the sin-offering of atonements: once in the year shall he make atonement upon [for] 
it throughout your generations: it is most holy unto Jehovah. 

6. The Contributions for the Sanctuary [Poll-tax). 

11, 12 And Jehovah spake unto Moses saying, When thou takest the sum of the 
children of Israel after [according to] their number, then shall they give every man 
a ransom for his soul unto Jehovah, when thou numberest them ; that there be [may 

13 be] no plague among them, when ihou numberest them. This they shall give, every 
one that passeth among [over unto] them that are numbered, half a shekel after 
[according to] the shekel of the sanctuary : (a shekel is twenty gerahs) : an [a] half 

14 shekel shall he the offering of [unto] Jehovah. Every one that passeth among 
[over unto] them that are numbered, from twenty years old and above, shall give 

15 an offering unto Jehovah [Jehovah's offering]. The rich shall not give more, and 
the poor shall not give less than half a [the half] shekel, when they give an offer- 
ing unto Jehovah [give Jehovah's offering], to make an [make] atonement for your 

16 souls. And thou shalt take the atonement money of [from] the children of Israel, 
and shalt appoint it for the service of the tabernacle of the congregation [tent of 
meeting] ; that it may be [and it shall be] a memorial unto [for] the children of 
Israel before Jehovah, to make an [make] atonement for your souls. 

7. The Laver. 

17, 18 And Jehovah spake unto Moses, saying, Thou shalt also make a laver o/ brass 

[copper], and his foot also of brass [its base of copper], to wash withal [in] : and 

f thou shalt put it between the tabernacle of the congregation [tent of meeting] and 

19 the altar, and thou shalt put water therein. For Aaron and his sons shall wash 

20 their hands and their feet thereat [from it] : When they go into the tabernacle of 
the congregation [tent of meeting], they shall wash with water, that they die not ; 
or when they come near to the altar to minister, to bum offering made by fire [a 

21 fire-offering] unto Jehovah : So they shall wash their hands and their feet, that they 
! die not : and it shall be a statute for ever to them, even to him and to his seed 

throughout their generations. 

8. The holy Anointing Oil. 

I 22, 23 Moreover Jehovah spake unto Moses, saying, Take thou also unto thee prin- 
' cipal spices [the chief spices], of pure [flowing] myrrh flve hundred shekels, and 

of sweet cinnamon half so much, even two hundred and fifty shekels, and of sweet 

' 24 calamus two hundred and fifty shekels, And of cassia five hundred shekels, after [ac- 

25 cording to] the shekel of the sanctuary, and of oil olive an [olive oil a] hin : And thou 

shalt make it an oil of holy ointment [a holy anointing oil], an ointment compound 
I ' " [compounded] after the art of the apothecary [a perfiimed ointment, the work of the 



112 EXODUS. 



2") perfumer]: it shall be an [a] holy anointing oil. And thou shalt anoint the 
tabernacle of the congregation therewith [therewith the tent of meeting], 

27 and the ark of the testimony, And the table and all his vessels [its furniture], 
and the candlestick and his vessels [its fiirniture] and the altar of incense, 

28 And the altar of burnt-offering with all his vessels [its furniture], and the laver 

29 and his foot [its base]. And thou shalt sanctify them, that they may be most 

30 holy: whatsoever [whosoever] toucheth them shall be holy. And thou shalt 
anoint Aaron and his sons, and consecrate them, that they may minister unto 

31 me in the priest's office [to be priests unto me]. And thou shalt speak unto the 
children of Israel, saying. This shall be an [a] holy anointing oil unto me through- 

32 out your generations. Upon man's flesh shall it not be poured, neither shall ye make 
any other like it, after the composition of it [and ye shall make none like it with its 

33 proportions] : it is holy, and it shall be holy unto you. "Whosoever compoundeth any 
like it, or whosoever putteth any of it upon a stranger, shall even [he shall] be cut 
off from his people. 

9. The Incente. 

34 And Jehovah said unto Moses, Take unto thee sweet spices, stacte, and onyeha, 
and galbanum; these sweet spices with pure frankincense : of each shall there be a 

35 like weight [an equal part] : And thou shalt make it a perfume, a confection, after 
the art of the apothecary, tempered together [make of it an incense, a perfume, the 

36 work of the perfumer, salted], pure, and holy: And thou shalt beat some of it very 
small [it fine], and put of it before the testimony in the tabernacle of the congregar 
tion [tent of meeting], where I will meet with thee: it shall be unto you most holy. 

37 And as for the perfume [And the incense] which thou shalt make, ye shall not make 
to [for] yourselves according to the composition [with its proportions] : it shall be 

38 unto thee holy for [unto] Jehovah. Whosoever shall make [make any] like unto 
that, to smell thereto [thereof], shall even [he shall] be cut off from his people. 

IV. The Arohiteota. The Master-workman Bezaleel and his Vocation. Sacred Art. 
Chap. XXXI. 1, 2. And Jehovah spake unto Moses, saying. See, I have called by 

3 name Bezaleel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah : And I have 
filled him with the spirit of God, in wisdom, and in understanding, and in knowledge, 

4 and in all manner [kinds] of workmanship, To devise cunning [skilful] works, to 

5 work in gold, and in silver, and in brass [copper]. And in cutting of stones, to set 
them [stones for setting], and in carving of timber, to work in all manner [kinds] 

6 of workmanship. And I, behold, I have given with him Aholiab, the son of Ahisa- 
mach, of the tribe of Dan : and in the hearts of all that are wise-hearted I have put 

7 wisdom, that they make all that I have commanded thee : The tabernacle of the 
congregation [tent of meeting], and the ark of the testimony, and the mercy-seat 

8 that is thereupon, and all the furniture of the tabernacle [tent], And the table and 
his [its] furniture, and the pure candlestick with all his [its] fiirniture, and the altar 

9 of incense. And the altar of burnt-offering with all his [its] furniture, and the laver 

10 and his foot [its base], And the cloths [garments] of service, and the holy garments for 
Aaron the priest, and the garments of his sons, to minister in the priest's office [as 

11 priests], And the anointing oil, and sweet incense for the holy place: according to 
all that I have commanded thee shall they do. 

V. The Condition of the Vitality of the Kitual. The Sabbath. 
12, 13 And Jehovah spake unto Moses, saying. Speak thou also unto the children of 
Israel, saying. Verily my sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is a sign between me and 
you throughout your generations ; that ye may know that I am Jehovah that doth 

14 sanctify you. Ye shall keep the sabbath therefore [And ye shall keep the sabbath] ; 
for it is holy unto you : every one that defileth [profaneth] it shall surely be put to 
death : for whosoever doeth any work therein, that soul shall be cut off from among 

15 his people. Six days may work be done; but in [on] the seventh is the [a] sab- 
bath of rest, holy to Jehovah : whosoever doeth any work in [on] the sabbath day, 

16 he shall surely be put to death. Wherefore the c'hildreu of Israel shall keep the 
sabbath, to observe the sabbath throuehout their generations for [as] a perpetual 

17 covenant. It m a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever : for in six 



CHAP. XXV. 1— XXXI. 18. 



113 



days Jehovah made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was 
18 refreshed. And he gave unto Moses, when he had made an end of communing 
[speaking] with him upon mount Sinai, two [the two] tables of [of the] testimony, 
tables of stone, written with the finger of God. 



EXEGETICAL AND CRITIC AL. 

The origin of the tabernacle is twice recorded 
in Exodus: first, (considered from its divine 
Bi'le) as a command of God, or (considered from 
its human side) as a vision or ideal (the taber- 
nacle which God showed Moses on the mount), 
xxv.-xxxi. ; secondly, as the historical fact of 
the execution of the building of the work com- 
manded by Jehovah, but interrupted by the his- 
tory of the golden calf, xxxv.-xl. 

I'he tabernacle is not merely a place of wor- 
ship ; but, as being the house of the ark of the 
covenant or of the tables of the law, and as being 
the house of the Lord of the covenant who mani- 
fests Himself in the Holy of holies, it is first of 
all the centre of the whole legislation and the 
residence of the lawgiver Himself, who holds 
sway between the cherubim over His law, and 
will not let it become a dead ordinance, but 
makes sure that from out of the Holy of holies it 
shall grow into a living power. Hence, there- 
fore, the history of this institution properly 
stands in Exodus, not in Leviticus. Jehovah has 
redeemed His people out of the house of bond- 
age, and brought them to His holy house, which 
is at once palace, temple, and court-house, or 
public gathering-place — the house in which Je- 
hovah meets with His people. 

The tabernacle has been called a nomadic tem- 
ple. It is indeed the preliminary form of the 
temple, but itself continued, after the people 
ceased their wanderings, for a long time to 
change its location in Israel until Solomon's 
temple was built. As the prototype and oppo- 
site of garish heathen temples; as the historical 
model of the Israelitish temple in its three prin- 
cipal historical forms (temples of Solomon, Ze- 
rubbabel, and Herod); as the religious model, 
or outline, the type of Christian places of wor- 
ship; and as the symbol of the proportions of 
the kingdom of God, both outwardly and in- 
wardly considered; accordingly, as the funda- 
mental form of every real sanctuary, the taber- 
nacle preserves an imperishable significance — 
almost more significant in its naked simplicity 
than with its ornamentation and wealth. When 
the outward glory of the temple is gone, God 
will rebuild the tabernacle of David (Amos ix. 
11, 12). 

The tabernacle as Moses' idea, which indeed 
he owes to divine revelation, characterizes Moses 
as also a great and original man in Hebrew art. 
Bezaleel was only the artist or master-workman 
who carried out the idea, working according to 
Moses' plan; and even Michel Angelo, who chi- 
selled the figure of Moses, worked, as architect, 
according to the theocratic outline which had 
been introduced into the world through Moses. 

Of the numerous treatises on this sanctuary 
comp. besides Bahr (SymboUk des mosaischen 
KuUus I. p. 53sqq.) and Eeil {Bibl. Archdologie 
1, i 17sqq.), especially Leyrer in Herzog's Eeal- 



Encyhlopadie, Art. Stiftshiitte, which gives a con- 
densed view of all the opinions and conjectures 
which have been propounded respecting its 
structure and significance. The latest mono- 
grams are: With. Neumann, Die Stiftshiitte in 
Bild und Wort gezeichnet, Gotha, 1861 (rich in 
fantastic hypotheses derived from the discoveries 
at Nineveh), and C. J. Kiggenbaoh, Die mosaiscke 
Stiftshiitte mit drei lilhogr. Tafeln. (Basel, 1862-4). 
Vid. Knobel, Commentary, pp. 249-257. Pop- 
per, Der biblische Berieht uber die Stiftshiitte, etc. 
(Leipzig, 1862). Wangemann, Die Bedeutung der 
Stiftshiitte. Wissenschafllicher Vortrag, etc. (Ber- 
lin, 1866). Also Winer's Eeallexicon and Zeller's 
Biblisches Worterbnch. [To these may be added, 
besides Smith's Bible Dictionary and Kitto's Cy- 
clopedia, Kurtz, Sacrificial Offerings of the 0. T.; 
Haneberg, Die religiosen AiSerthiimer der Bibel 
(Munich, 1869); T. 0. Paine, Solomon's Temple 
(Boston, H. H. & T. W Carter, 1870); and E. E. 
Atwater, History and Significance of the Sacred Ta- 
bernacle of the Hebrews (Dodd & Mead, New York, 
1875).— Tb.] 

i. general view of the ideal plan oe the 

BriLDINO. CHAPS. XXV.-XXXI. 11. 

External Prerequisites. Building Materials. 
Assessments for the Building. Chap. xxv. 1-9. 

a. The Divine Side of the Dwelling. 

1. The Ark of the Covenant, with the Mercy- 
seat and the Cherubim, as the chief thing in the 
whole Building, vers. 10-22. Object of it: the 
continual, living Revelation of God. Ver. 22. 
The Holy of Holies. 

2. The Table of Shew-bread (of Communion 
with God, consecrated to God, ver. 30), and the 
Candlestick with its Appurtenances (the Divine 
Illumination in accordance with the Ideal, ver. 
40), vers. 23-40. 

3. The Sanctuary. Divine and Human. The 
Tent, or the Dwelling itself, chap. xxvi. 1-30. 
Conformed to the Ideal, ver. 30. 

4. The Veil to distinguish and divide the Holy 
of Holies from the Sanctuary, vers. 31-37. 

6. The Human Side of the Dwelling. 

1. The Altar of Burnt-offering. Chap, xxvii. 
1-8. Conformed to the Ideal, ver. 8. 

2. The Court, vers. 9-19. 

e. Functions Connected with the Building. 

1. Bringing of the holy Oil, and the Prepara- 
tion of the Candlestick, vers. 20, ^1. 

2. Equipment of the Priest, the High priest 
and his Assistants, chap, xxviii. 1-43. Object 
of it, vers. 35, 43. 

8. Consecration of the Priests and the Sacrifi- 
cial Functions of the Priest, chap. xxix. 1-46. 
Object, vers. 4.S-46. 

4. Altar of Incense, and its Use, chap. xxx. 
1-10. 



114 



EXODUS. 



5. Assessment for the Sanctuary as a Continual 
iVlemorial for the People, vers. 11-16. 

6. The Brazen Laver in the Court for the Priests 
to wash from, vers. 17-21. 

7. The Anointing of the Holy Things. The 
most holy Ointment, vers. 22-33. 

8. The Most Holy Incense, vers. 34-38. 

d. The Master-workmen. 
Chapter xxxi. 1-11. 

Conclusion. — The fundamental condition on 
which the meeting between Jehovah and His peo- 
ple ideally rests: the Sabbath, vers. 12-17. The 
addition of the Directions oonoerning the Taber- 
nacle to the completed written Law, ver. 18. 

II. GENERAL VIEW OP THE ACTUAL OONSTRUCTICN 
OF THE BUILDING. 

Foundation: The Sabbath as Prerequisite to 
the Tabernacle. Chap. xxxv. 1-3 (Chap. xxxi. 
14-17). 

1. The Assessments for the Building, and the 
Preparation of the Material made under the di- 
rection of the Master- workmen, xxxv. 4 — xxxvi. 
7 (XXV. 1-9; xxxi. 1-11). 

2. The Work on the Dwelling, xxxvi. 8-38 
(xxvi. 1-37). 

3. The Ark of the Covenant, the Mercy-seat, 
and the Cherubim, xxxvii. 1-9 (xxv. 10-22). 

4. The Table, with its Appurtenances, xxxvii. 
10-16 (xxv. 23-30). 

6. The Candlestick, xxxvii. 17-24 (xxv. 31- 
40). 

6. The Altar of Incense, the Incense, and the 
Anointing Oil, xxxvii. 25-29 (xxx. 1-10, 23-38). 

7. The Altar of Burnt-offering, xxxviii. 1-7 
(xxvii. 1-8). 

8. The Brazen Laver, and the Court, xxxviii. 
8-20 (yxvii. 9-19). 

9. The Reckoning of the Material used, xxxviii. 
21-31. 

10. The official Garments of the Priests, xxxix. 
1-31 (xxviii. 1-43). The Consecration of the 
Priests, and the Ordinance of the Sacrifices, 
xxix. 1-46. 

11. The Presentation of the Constituent Parts 
of the Dwelling, xxxix. 32-43. 

12. The Erection of the Dwelling, and the 
Heavenly Consecration of it by means of the 
Pillar of Cloud and Fire, the Sign of the Veiled 
Presence of the Glory of the Lord, chap. xl. 

Knobel calls attention "to the exact reckoning 
in xxxviii. 21 sqq. and the extraordinary cir- 
cumstantiality and diffuseness which is found in 
no other narrator to the same degree. So ex- 
tended a repetition does not occur elsewhere in 
all the Old Testament." As to the diffuseness, 
the 0. T. everywhere gives details when the 
sanctuary is concerned, as becomes the symboli- 
cal significance of the sanctuary and the religious 
spirit of the Israelites, vid. 1 Sam. iv.-vii,; 1 
Kings v.-ix. 15: 2 Kings xii.; 2 Chron. ii.-vii.; 
Ezek. xl.-xlvii.; the whole of Haggal; Zech. iii., 
iv. It is taken for granted that here in every 
individual feature there is to be recognized the 
reflection of a religious thought. As to the re- 
petition, however, stress is to be laid on the ge- 



neral consciousness of connection between idc 
and real worship, as well as the special consciou 
ness that the real tabernacle was built exact! 
according to the idea of it. Moreover, the si 
cond account is not a mere repetition of the firs 
In the presentation of the idea, the master-worl 
men come at the end; in the narrative of the ai 
tual erection of the building, at the beginning,- 
quite in accordance with the relations of rea 
life. In the execution of the work of the tabei 
nacle the sacerdotal garments are described, am 
even the calculation of the cost of the building- 
the church account, so to speak. So the denun 
ciation of a severe penalty on the manufacture 
for private use, of the holy anointing oil and ot 
the incense, is one of the means used to preveni 
the profanation of a legally prescribed system of 
worship. Even the hinderance in the executioi 
of the work prescribed in the mount, occasioned 
by the golden calf, is not without meaning. How 
often it is a golden calf which binders the execu- 
tion of pure ideal ecclesiastical conceptions! 
Here, however, is everywhere manifested this 
feature of revelation, that the idea must become 
fact, and that the fact must answer to the idea. 
We make five general divisions iu the things 
commanded: I. The Prerequisite — the Materials. 

II. The Precept concerning the Structure itself. 

III. The Persons and Things occupying ihe Build- 
ing. IV. The Architects and their Work. V. 
The Condition of the Vitality of the Institution— 
the Sabbath. 

I. PREKEQUISTTES : THE MATERIALS; THE ASSESS- 
MENTS. CHAP. XXV. 1-9. 

As the real temple of God must consist in be- 
lieving hearts which offer themselves and build 
themselves into a temple of the Spirit of God, 
so the typical sanctuary must be built of volun- 
tary offerings of the people of God : " Every one 
whose heart maketh him willing." 

On the assessments for the building (nDHfl, 

heave-offering), (he blue purple (H/Di^), the pur- 
ple proper, the white cloth {W'W, /jfaffoji fine 
linen), etc., comp. Keil, II., p. 163. There is dis- 
pute concerning the Tahaah skins (t^nW accord- 
ing to some, the seal ; according to others, the 
badger), the shiitim wood (probably acacia; see 
Keil's note, p. 164), the Shokam stone (beryl, or 
onyx), the garment for the shoulder (ephod), and 
the breastplate. The materials were: (l)Theme- 
tals. Firf. Knob., p. 257. Iron came into use later.* 
(2) The materials for cloths. (3) The woven fab- 
rics (brocades, variegated cloths, plain clotlis)- 
(4) Skins. (5) Wood. (6) Oil. (7) Spices. (8) 
Precious stones. These materials were to be made 
into the sanctuary, Jehovah's dwelling-place, in 
which He is to dwell in the midst of His people, 
and meet with them. — "According to all ths,t I 
show thee;" not, "have shown thee." Theideal 
significance of the pattern is contested by Keil 
in such a way as really leaves only a meaningless 
model for a meaningless structure; though after- 
wards this view is modified, II., p. 165. 

* [So Knobel says. But the use of iron is aHcrikeil "• 
Tulial-cain (Gen. iv. 22), and iron instruments are refemitj 
in Num xxxv. 16, to Bay nothing of the frequent mention ol 
iron iu Deuteronomy and Joshua.— Tb.] 



CHAP. XXV. 1— XXXI. 18. 



115 



11. THE BUILDIKO ITSELF. 0HAPTEE3 XXV. 10 — 
XXVII. 19. 

1. The Ark. Vers. 10-22. 
The Holy of holies in the strictest sense — the 
essential, principal thing in it. Three items are 
here to be considered: (1) The Ark; (2) The 
Meroy-seat; (3) The Cherubim. In other words : 
the preservation of the law as expressing the 
divine will in its special demands; the altar in 
its highest form, viz., the mercy-seat (Jeapporeth), 
as a symbol of God's gracious willingness to ac- 
cept expiation as such a fulfilment of His general 
will as covers and removes the demands imposed 
by the law, or the special will, on account of 
guilt; finally, the two cherubim as symbols of 
God's righteous dominion in the world, proceed- 
ing out of God's gracious will and the law, in 
order to the maintenance of the justice which is 
represented by the union of the ark and the 
cover [the meroy-seat]. The whole is accord- 
ingly the place where Qod reveals Himself in 
His glory under the conditions according to 
which the high-priest is to appear before Him. 
For a description of the ark vid. Keil, II., p. 167. — 
Why are the tables of the law which are to be 
put in it called the testimony (so xxxi. 18; xxxiv. 
29)? Because they are to be a witness of the 
foundation of the covenant which Jehovah has 
made with Israel, — the original records, there- 
fore, of the exact phraseology of the covenant. 
So, too, they might become a witness for Jeho- 
vah against Israel. — Why is the lid called ^^133 ' 
Certainly not simply because it covers the ark. 
But when Keil (p. 168) denies that the religious 
significance of the term originated with that of 
covering, on the ground that this older meaning 
cannot be substantiated, the literal sense of 
*133 in Gen. vi. 14 is against him; and when in 1 

Chron. xxviii. 11 the Holy of holies is called 
ITiain n'S, that may indeed not mean "lid- 
house," but it does not therefore for that reason 
mean house of expiation, but house of the kappor- 
eth, of the lid of expiation. The transition, too, 
from the first meaning to the second is very natu- 
ral. The covering up of the demands of specific 
law formulated in commandments, and the cover- 
ing up of guilt itself are reciprocal notions. The 
verb 133, when relating to guilty is construed with 

the Accus., Ps. Ixxviii. 38 ; also with hy_, Jer. xviii. 
23. The word in relation to persons is construed 
with S, with b^, and with nj;3, all in the general 
sense of "for." From the last preposition ["in 
behalf of"] it clearly follows that the senseless 
explanation which makes 133 denote a covering 
(concealing) of the sinful person himself from the 
eyes of Jehovah, an explanation which aims to 
invalidate the doctrine of the atonement, is en- 
tirely untenable. The transaction indicated by 
133 is performed by the priest both on the part 
of man and on the part of Jehovah. — Examples 
of the full construction, Lev. v. 18 ; iv. 26. — On 
j the UaaT^pimi see Commentary on Kom. iii. — The 
symbol of the cherubim was gradually developed 
out of the passage Gen. iii. 24 ; vid. Comm. on 



Genesis, p. 241. Here there are as yet only two 
forms, as also in 2 Chron. iii. 18 ; the full develop- 
ment is found in the symbol of Ezekiel, ch. i. 
From Ezekiel we might bo led to conjecture that 
the first two forms were the face of a man and 
that of a lion ; but it is of chief importance to 
maintain that the central thought is not that of 
representative forms of animal life, but only of 
representative mundane forms symbolizing the 
divine sovereignty as protecting the ark of 
the covenant; they are forms which come forili 
out of the substance of the mercy-seat. On i hese 
forms see Keil, p. 168, the lexicons, and works 
on archaaology. On the staves see Knobel, whu 
without reason denies that by "testimony" Uie 
two tables are meant. These, he says, were al- 
ready prepared; but the context disproves this. 
That the images of the cherubim are to be con- 
ceived as hollow, does not agree with the repre- 
sentation that they are of beaten work, of one 
piece with the mercy-seat. — Finally, the tent 
under the designation I^ID /fix, " tent of meet- 
ing," means somewhat more than that Jehovah 
therein has a fixed place of meeting with Moses 
and Israel, just as rill^n "JSTO cannot mean ta- 
bernacle of attestation, i. e., God's place of reve- 
lation, but tabernacle of the testimony ; for Jeho- 
vah's revelation was not confined to this place 
in Israel. 

2. The Table. Vers. 23-30. 
The symbol of communion between Jehovah 
and His people. See Revelation of John. On 
the two crowns (rims) of the table see Keil. The 
vessels belonging to the table were plates for the 
shew-bread, bowls for the incense (Lev. xxiv. 7), 
pitchers to hold the wine, and goblets for the 
drink-ofli'ering. — The "bread of the face," or 
shew-bread, is, according to Keil, "symbol of 
the spiritual food which Israel was to produce," 
referring to John vi. 27, and doubtless also to 
Hengstenberg. But what spiritual food was Is- 
rael, according to John vi. 27, to produce? A 
food which the Son of God would give them, the 
bread which came from heaven. We must also 
avoid confounding, with Keil, the shew-bread 
with the bloodless offerings, vid. Lev. ii. The 
shew-bread was one of the permanent in!>tiiutions 
of the temple, not one of the special offerings of 
the people. "The table," says Knobel, "stood 
in the holy place on the north side (xxvi. 36), 
while the candlestick belonged on the south side 
(ver. 85), and the altar of incense in the mid- 
dle (XXX. 6)." Archaeological observations vid. 
in his Comm, p. 266, especially on the dishes. 
On the use to which the pitchers and the goblets 
or bowls were put, Keil and Knobel come to op- 
posite conclusions, the latter with grammatical 
proofs.* 

8. The Golden Candlestick. Vers. 81-40. 
First is to be considered the form of the golden 
* [Their conclusions are diflferent only as regards the nityp 
and tV^yO, Keil making the first mean the bowls from 

which the wine was poured out as a drink-offering ; the se- 
cond, the pitchers in which the wine stood on the table. 
Knobel reverses this relation, arguing that H^pJD is derived 

from npj, to pour out. With him agree Gesenius and 

'''' - 
rarBt.— Tr.]. 



116 



EXODUS. 



candlestick; next, its use; finally, its signifi- 
oanoe. The candlestick has been often described 
and pictured (vid. Thenius, Bucher der Konige, 
Tab. IIL, 11)- Comp. Winer, RealUxieon; Zel- 
ler's Worterbuch, and the Commentaries. [More 
especially, Eeland, de Spoliis templi Hieroaolymi- 
tani in arm Titiano, Tr.]. On the base, which 
must necessarily have had feet, stood the can- 
dlestick, first as a single thing. It extended 
upwards in the form of a middle shaft, which 
had on each side three shafts in one plane, bend- 
ing around in the form of quarter-circles,— a 
unit, therefore, branching out into the sacred 
number, seven. 




The general form is easily pictured: a base ; a 
perpendicular central shaft, the trunk, as it were, 
of the luminous tree; and proceeding out of it at 
regular distances three branches on either side. 
The description is made obscure or difficult by 
the ornaments. The principal feature of the 
ornamentation is the almond-shaped cup; it is 
divided into the knob, or apple, and the flower. 
The main shaft has four such cups ; out of the 
lowest proceeds the shaft itself, as well as the 
first pair of branches. Out of the second pro- 
ceeds the second pair of branches ; out of the 
third, the third ; its fourth cup is its top. The 
six branches, or side shafts, have each three 
cups. The one forms the top ; the second may 
have been in the middle of the curve of the 
branch ; the third seems to have lain against 
one of the three divisions, or cups, of the main 
shaft. The seven cups which form the top stand 
in a horizontal line ; the lamps are set up into 
their flowers. But the explanations of the diffi- 
cult passage are various.* 

But the main shaft is distinguished by having 
four cups. So the one unit branches into the 
three, the three into the seven, and the seven 
into the twpnty-two. " The golden candlestick 
was placed on the south side in the holy place 
of the tabernacle. For the south is the direction 
from which the light comes, and is therefore 
called also DITH. The seven lamps of the candle- 
stick were set up every evening at the time of 
the evening incense offering, and were kept burn- 
ing until morning" (Knobel). They lighted the 
whole sanctuary, but cast their light especially 

* [According to some («. g.^ Philippson) the line connect- 
ing the seven lamps formed a curve, not a straight line. It 
wonld Beem probable that the ornamental flowera were not 
crowded together on the central abaft, os Lange conceives, 
but put at equal intervals from one another. It is fllso pro- 
bable that there wpre three flowers on each branch bi^tween 
the main shaft and the lamp, and that the fourth flower of 
the main shaft was between its lamp and the upper branch. 
— TlJ. 



northwards towards the altar of incense and the 
table of shew-bread ; for the life of prayer and 
the communion of salvation are conditioned on 
the light of revelation, enlightenment. Keil's 
explanation of the candlestick is, in our opinion, 
as mistaken as that of the table: "In the shining 
lamps, as receivers, bearers of light, Israel is to 
present itself continually to Jehovah as a people 
that lets its light shine in the night of this world." 
Did tbe nocturnal darkness of the sanctuary 
symbolize " the night of this world ?" Israel is 
indeed appointed to bear light, but the light 
which it is to diffuse is the light of the revela- 
tion of Jehovah, and the bearers of the light are 
primarily the select ones, the prophets of God. 
Keil himself urges that the oil is a symbol of 
God's Spirit, as also the olive-tree described in 
Zech. iv., and the seven candlesticks in Rev. i, 
20. The significance of the saored numbers, as 
well as that of the pure gold, is obvious. On 
the almond flowers, comp. Keil and Knobel. On 
the appurtenances of the candlestick see Knobel 

4. The Tent, or the Dwelling itself. Chap. xxvi. 
1-30. 
i. The Component Parts of the Tent as to Form. 

a. The tent itself. (1) Ten curtains of byssuB 
each 28 cubits long, and 4 cubits wide. (2) Fifty 
loops to each curtain, to connect together five 
curtains. (3) Five times fifty golden clasps, to 
connect the loops * 

b. The covering of the tent. First covering, of 
goats' hair: eleven curtains, each 30 cubits long, 
and 4 cubits wide, divided into sets of 5 and 6. 
For them 60 [or rather, 100] loops and 50 copper 
clasps. One curtain is folded double on the front 
side of the tent. The surplus cubits hang over on 
the two sides. A similar excess hangs over on the 
back end of the tent. — Second covering, rams' 
skins dyed red. — Third covering, the outer one, 
seal-skins. 

c. The supports of the tent. The boards of 
acacia wood. Each board 10 cubits long, IJ 
cubits wide. Two tenons in each board. Twenty 
boards on the south side resting on forty silver 
sockets (feet). — Twenty boards on the north side 
with the same number of sockets. Six boards 
for the rear. Two boards for the corners of the 
rear. In addition, the bars (cross-bars or con- 
necting bars), 5 for each side, the middle ons 
passing the whole length of the framework. The 
bars and boards gilt. Also the rings for the 
bars.f 



* [This is incorrect. Fifty loops to each curtain would 
make five hundred loops, whereas there were only one I ui> 
dred. For these loops were not to connect the flve cnrtaiM 
to one another, as Lange says, but to connect the one c"*'" 
made up of five (coupled together we are not told how) witu 
the curtain made up "f t'le other five. Accordinely, »ls». 
there were only fifty clasps, not two hundred and flfty.-^Xll.J 

t [Lange says nothing about the shape of the tabsrnado, m 
about the manner in which the curtains are arranged. ItiB 
a vexed question. Tbe following are the principal views: (1) 
It being clear and undisputed that the board framework m" 
30 cubits long, 10 broad, and 10 high, one theory is that IM 
ten curtains, called "the tabernacle" in xxvi. 1, w«K "J 
joineil toge'her si'Ie to side »s to form two curtains of e?"*' 
size, each 28 cul.its long, and 20 cubits broad; that these two 
were looped 'ogetlier (ver. 5), and the whole was spread nnti- 
zontally over the top-t of the boards, thus hanging down it 
cubits on eHCli side, ». e., within one cubit of the ground, sinM 
the two sides (each 10 cubits) and the width (10 iubito).ti> 
I gather are equal to 30 cubits. The breadth of both cultaii» 



CHAP. XXV. 1— XXXI. 18. 



117 



ii. The Component Parts as to material. Bys- 
sus, linen, goats* -hair, and the two kinds of skin. 
Acacia wood, gold, silver, copper. 

ili. The Colors. Especially significant. The 
covering proper of the lent contains the four co- 
lors: white, purplish-blue, purplish-red, crimson. 



being 40 cubits, and the leniith of the woofien structure nnly 
30, ai)'l tbe entrance ("CcordinE to vera. 9 and 36) being pro- 
vided with a special cuitaiu, it follows that 10 cubits must 
havf^ hung down un the west (back) end, and so the curtaia 
just reached the ground. (2) Another view (brought into 
favor by Bahr) differs from this in that the lower (linen) cur- 
tttind are conceived aa hanging down Inside, not outs de, of 
the boards. (3) SaalschlUz supposes that tbe curtains formed 
{t roofed tf-tU above the boards, the bottom of the uudtr^cur- 
tain juBt touching the top of the boards. This roof would 
reach about 13 cubits above the top of the boards, tlie ridpre 
having an angle of about 40°. Paine's theory is somewhat 
similar, but in its details is so fiiutastical and arbitrary aa 
hardly to merit a full statement. (4) Fergusson (in Smith'rt 
Jiible Dictionary, Art. Temple) also holds that there was a 
ridge above the boards and half-way between tht-m, so that 
the goats'-hair curtain formed a tent proper (as it is called in 
xxvi. 7, where A. V. mistranslates, "covering"). But his 
view differs from that of Saalschiitz, in that he makes the. 
angle at the ridg« a right angle (the more natural angle for 
a roof), so that the two sides of the roof projected beyond the 
boards, the lower point being 5 cubits above the ground and 
5 cubits horizontally from the boards. He also assumes that 
the roof extended 5 cubits beyond the boaids in the front 
and in the rear, so that the extra 10 cubits did not hang down 
at all over the west end. The accompanying diagram exhibits 
a section of the tabernacle according to Fergusson's theory. 
The apparent absence of all allusion to a ridge-pole Ferguason 
would supply by explaining "the middle bar" of ver. 28 as 



.^9 






vy 




(A 


*v 


y 




t 

ca 

ID 


\ 








« 
















OB 








3 








O 


6 CUBITS 




10 CUBITS 





referring not to a bar like the otln ya at the side, but to the 
ridge-pole. He supposes also (though no express mention is 
made of it) that the sides of the verandah and the western 
end were enclosed with curtains, and that the ridge-pole must 
have been supported at the middle by a pillar. — The princi- 
pal reasons urged by Mr. Fergusson for this theory are the 
following : (1) According to the common view only about one- 
third of tbe inner or ornamental curtain would have been visi- 
ble. Bahr's theory obviates this aifficulty, but creates ano- 
ther, viz., by making out that the gilded boards were aliriost 
entirely covered up. If so, why so expensively constructed ? 
(2) The curfaini spread flat over the boards would have 
been no protection against the rain. ThH skins above tbe 
cloth and hair curtains would, when wet, only have depressed 
the centre and torn the curtains under them. (3) The com- 
mon view contradicts the description in xxvi. 9, 12, 13, ac- 
cording to which oniy two cubits of the goats'-hair curtain 
hung over at the went end, and onK one cubit at ear.h side ; 
whereas the other theory assum'S that 10 cubits hung down 
on every side but the front.— The latter arKument may be 
met by the supposition that the Biblical statements referred 
to only assert that the goats'-hair curtain hung over the 
tabemaole^ i. e., the linen curtain, half a cubit at the we^t 
end, and one * ubit at each side. — The second reason is un- 
doubtedly the strongest one. The tabernacle, according to 
tbe traditional view, is «n ungainly structure, ill protected 
against rain or snow, and unlike either house or tent ; white 
yet a partof it is distinctly culled a tent.— Mr. Atwater points 
out rhe most obvious objection to Mr. Fergussou's theory, viz.. 
that, according to xxvi'. 33, the veil of the Holy of holies w»s 
hung under the clasps that connect the two parts of the co- 
vering. Thes'i must have been 20 cubits from the front of the 
building, and 10 cubits from the rear, according to th« tra- 
diUoDol view, entirely in accordance with the supposed posi- 



iv. The Work of the Curtains. The work of 
skilful weavers, i. e., with figures interwoven, v?2., 
with figures of cherubim. 

V. The different kinds of woven work. 

5. The Veil. Vers. 31-37. 

The division between the holy place and the 
Holy of holies. Accordingtomodern notions there 
is no difference between the wide, savage world 
and the court, no difference between the court 
and the holy place, none, in fine, between the 
holy place and the most holy. The Biblical no- 
tions are infinitely purer and finer. Even be- 
tween the holy place and the most holy hangs a 
thick curtain, as between the Old and New Tes- 
tament. The passage from the holy place into 
the Holy of holies has been made free to Hia 
people by Christ. 

As the heaven of heayens is to be conceived as 
a high heaven consisting of individual heavens, 
the age (xon) of ages [seons) as an age which 
consists of individual ages, the Sabbath of 
Sabbaths as one whose several week days 
are seven Sabbaths; so the Holy of holies is a 

sanctuary of sanctuaries, D^K'lp. ^IPt ^"^ so, 
most holy. Especially is it to be obsrrved that the 
three principal features of the holy piace, viz., 
the table of shew-bread, the candlestick, and the 
altar of incense, here coalesce into one. 

As there were three altars, so three curtains. 
The first screened the court ; the second, the 
holy place; tbe third, the Holy of holies. The 
latter was the principal one. Keil and Knobel 
give details about the construction and arrange- 
ment of the curtain, as also about the Arab tents 
and Egyptian temples.* 

tion of the veil, the Holy of holies being in tbe form of a 
cube, 10 cubits in every direction, while the holv place was 
20 cubits long. But Fergusson's theory would bring thn 
clasps 15 cubits frooa each end, though lie distint-tly ad pt-i 
rhe view that the veil was 10 cubits fnioi the western (nil. 
This difficulty seemK entirely to have esca^ied his atteurion. 
Mr. Atwater calls it " fatal," and deems it uselews to cousiiii-r 
rhe theory any further, remarking that "nothing is mo'e 
certain in regard tn the tabernacle, than that the two apart- 
ments into which it was divided by this partition-veil were 
of unequal pize, the eastern being thirty feet long and fifteen 
wide, and the western an exact cube of fifteen feet in dimen- 
sion." It might be asked, however, how is it ma le so cer- 
tain that the two apaituients were of the size specified? 
The Bible nov/heie gives the slightest information respecting 
this matter, excepting the statement of xxvi. .S3 above cited. 
Where the clajps were, depends on what disposition was 
made of the curtains ; and it we choof e to adopt Mr. Fergus- 
son's theory ^e^<pecting them, it would follow that tbe build- 
ing was equally divided ; and where is the proof that it was 
not? Only .Josephus's assertion, and the corre ponding 
apartments of ^olomon'8 temple, in which the Holy of bolus 
wa^ half the size of the other part of the sanctuary. It must 
be admitted that these two items of evidence arp very weighty ; 
but they by no means prove the theory so incontestably us 
to make it unwarrantable to hold a different one. At all 
fventp, if any stress had been meant to be laid upon thn 
dimensions of the Holy of holies, it is ^ingular that th y wure 
noc plainly given, instead of being: left to be inferr('d from 
the very indefinite directions concerDing tbe position of the 
lurtains. — Tr.]. 

* [" The temples of the ancient Egyptians were constructed 
as follows: First, a square in front 100 or less leet wide and' 
three or four times as long; then porticoes {TrpoirvXaia), in- 
d'-flnite in uumber; next the veias itself with a irpovaoi, aud 
finally the o-tjkos with a sacred animal as the object of wor- 
ship (Strabo, 17, p. 805). The Egyptian temples still pre- 
served confirm in general this description. A large gateway 
leads into the court, surrounded with pillars; then follows a 
' portico, and oftf-n a second one ; then two or three halls, in- 
the last of which the cacred animal or the idol-imnge stood." 
Heeren, Ideen, II. 2, p. 173)." Knobel, Comm., p 275.— Ta.].. 



118 



EXODUS. 



6. The Altar of Burnt-offering. Chap, xxvii. 1-8. 

The fact tliat the altar of burnt-ofFering was 
separated not only from the Holy of holies, but 
also from the holy place, and stood in the court, 
serves to express this religious idea : that faith 
begins with the first approach to God, with obe- 
dience to His law and surrender to His judg- 
ment; but that it does not for that reason entitle 
one to an entrance into the interior communion 
with God in the sanctuary, still less to a com- 
plete union with God in the Holy of holies; al- 
though it has this as its aim, and is a prepara- 
tion for it, and also through religious fellowship 
with the high -priest gives to him who makes the 
offering a conditional participation in the bless- 
ing of the Holy of holies, and gives him a hope 
of future entrance into the Holy of holies itself. 
This distance between the holy place and the 
Holy of holies is also represented by the grada- 
tions in the value of the metallic ornamentations. 
The altar of burnt ofi^ering was overlaid with 
copper: the seven-branched candlestick in the 
holy place consisted of fine or hollow vessels; the 
table of shew-bread was gilt ; the ark of the co- 
venant was gilt inside and outside, while its lid 
and the cherubim on it, as also the rim of the 
ark, were of solid gold. A similar relation exists 
between the curtains. The veil of the Holy of 
holies was the work of a skilled weaver, adorned 
with figures of cherubim in which the reflection 
of the cherubim in the Holy of holies appears. 
The second curtain, which screened the holy 
place, was simply woven in variegated colors, 
striped, or perhaps checkered ; so also the screen 
at the entranje of the court. Significant special 
features in the altar of burnt-ofFering are particu- 
larly its horns, the points of the corners, the 
permanent power of the altar, so to speak, in 
contrast with the fire which now appears and 
now disappears; "hence," as Keil says, "the 
blood of the sin-ofi'ering was put upon them (Lev 
iv. 7j, and also those who sought the protection 
of their lives at the altar seized hold of them (vid. 
xxi. 14)." Among the vessels bowls appear again, 
but here to be used for sprinkling the blood. 
Special mention, moreover, is made of the grating 

of the altar under the ledge or rim (3313), and 
of this ledge itself. " Upon the karkob, the ledge 
or rim, the priest stepped when an offering was 
made, or when he wished to add more wood, or 
do anything else on the altar" (Keil). Knobel 
has a different view, holding [that the rim was 
only an ornament, that such a ledge to step on 
would have disfigured the altar, and moreover] 
that the altar was so high that it could not have 
been served without steps; which is contrary to 
XX. 26. Keil, on the contrary, supposes that the 
earth was slightly heaped up, so that the priest 
could step from it to the ledge. Neither does 
the height of the altar in Solomon's temple (2 
C'hron. iv. 1) exclude the assumption of such a 
gradual ascent. The grating was an enclosure 
to protect the altar; the rings by which the altar 
was carried were also fastened to it. The altar 
itself was a wooden structure consisting of four 
plane sides overlaid with copper, forming a hol- 
low square, which was probably filled with earth, 



gravel, or stones (vid. xx. 24). The place for the 
fire had to be adequately separated from the 
wooden border. 

7. The Court. Vers. 9-19. 
The hangings which enclosed the court were 
not wrought in the four sacred colors, like the 
covering of the tabernacle itself, but were simply 
white. Moreover, they formed no roof, as that 
did, but only a boundary, an enclosure. The pil- 
lars here, moreover, have copper sockets, not 
silver ones ; only the hooks of the pillars and the 
rods connecting them were of silver, the latter 
perhaps only overlaid with silver, as the pillars 
at the entrance of the tabernacle were gilt. It 
is to be further observed, that the court properly 
unites the notions of a porch and of a quadran- 
gular wall of enclosure, since it passed around 
the tabernacle from east to west. 

III. THE PERSONS AKD THINGS OCCUPTINQ THE 
BUILDING. THE EITUAL WORSHIP. CHAPS. 

XXVII. 20-xx;x. 38. 

In speaking now exclusively of the features 
of the ritual worship, it is to be observed that we 
must distinguish the general worship of the house 
of God from the specific, Levitical worship, 
the sacrificial ritual described in Leviticus. 

1. The Oil for the Light. The Lamps. Chap, 
xxvii. 20, 21. 
The first condition of life, in the house of the 
Lord as well as elsewhere, is light; and the pre- 
requisite of that is oil. Light is the spirit in 
action, symbolized by oil, which is a symbol of 
the spiritual life itself. The first business of the 
priest was to be to prepare and produce light — 
even in the Old Testament. How is it in this 
respect with the sacrificial priesthood of the pre- 
sent time ? The text says that this is to be a 
perpetual statute. On the oil vid Knobel* 

2. The Sacerdotal Vocation. The Priest — his Assist- 
ants and Apparel. Chap, xxviii. 

The consecration of the priests is not treated 
of here, as Knobel thinks, but the priestly call- 
ing and its symbolic representation by means of 
the clothing; the consecration is not distinctly 
spoken of till the next chapter. 

First, then, the vocation of the Priest, vers. 1-5, 
That Aaron is to be the priest (i. c, high priest), 
is presupposed; or, rather, it is Jehovah s com- 
mandment which is fulfilled by his coming be- 
fore Moses, the prophet of God. The prophetic 
order is therefore perpetually the medium through 
which, and the condition on which, the priestly 
order officiates. But the priest is essentially 
only one — a truth which in the N. T. is fulfilled 
in the high-priesthood of Christ. His sons there- 
fore must approach with him, as being his de- 
scendants and legal successors, and as being his 



* " The oil which the children of Israel wi-re to bring to 
OSes was to be oil of the olive tree, ^|, pure, i. e., mudo of 

olives which, before being crushed, were cleansed from leaves, 
twigs, dust, etc.; and OTIS, beatrM, i. e., obtained from cruihsd 



olives. The olivps, when plucked, were beaten and crushed, 
and put into a basket; tlienco the oil was allowed to run "lit 
of itself. This wa-i the finest of all kinris; what was -eciirpii 
afterwards by pressing was poorer, ani t he more so tlio lonuor 
the olives were pressed. ' Kn bel, p. 279.— Te.J 



CHAP. XXV. 1— XXXI. 18. 



119 



actual assistants. So they are first publicly pre- 
sented to the congregation, and the latter take 
part in their appointment by furnishing men of 
sacred skill able to prepare the sacred garments 
which are to portray the symbolic phenomenon 
of the sacerdotal vocation, and by furnishing the 
materials for them (all of which is shadowed 
forth in Christianity, but not in the least in the 
"infallible" Pope). The main particulars are 
given in a significant order. As in the house 
of Jehovah the chief thing is the ark, so in the 
service of Jehovah is the breast-plate of the high- 
priest, with which, however, the shoulder-piece 
or ephod is immediately connected; for the 
priest is not only as a sympathizing intercessor 
to bear his people on his heart, but also, as a 
fellow-sufferer and laborer, on his shoulders. 
The shoulder-piece and the breast-plate form sub- 
stantially one whole, whose most important part 
is the breast-plate ; just as the mercy-seat is 
connected with the ark of the law, and yet forms 
in itself the principal thing in the Holy of holies, 
being, so to speak, the- New Testament in the 
Old. So also in the breast-plate the eternal in- 
tercession of the eternal High Priest is adum- 
brated. Then follow the robe, the coat, the tur- 
ban, and the girdle. 

Next, therefore, is described the ahoulder-piece 
or ephod, this being designed to underlie the 
breast-plate, vers. 6-14. From the whole cast 
of the precept it is evident that the culminating 
feature was its serving to bear the breast-plate. 
The material of the shoulder-piece is of as costly 
work, in all the four colors of the covenant, as 
the veil of the Holy of holies, "except that in- 
stead of the figures of cherubim woven into the 
veil, this is to be artistically inwrought with 
gold, j. d., goldthreads" (Keil). According to 
Knobel, the ephod consisted of one piece, which 
bad holes slit in it for the arms. But this leaves 
us no clear conception of it, for in this case there 
must have been another slit for the head too ; 
and moreover in that case the symbolic reference 
to the two shoulders would be lost. According 
to Keil's representation, the two shoulder-pieces 
seem to be too much separated ; but they are not 
"connecting" so much as connected. The Bab- 
binioal conception which he accepts seems quite 
untenable. It seems almost necessary to suppose 
that there was a connection not only on the front 
side, but also on the back ; for only on this con- 
dition could the girdle, of like material and co- 



lor, fasten the ephod.* The girdle itself also is 
of one piece with the ephod; for firmness and 
colleoteduess are necessary in order to bear the 
burden of the people on the shoulders. That 
this was to be done by the high-priest, is ex- 
pressed by the onyx (ahoham) stones which were 
fastened on the right and left shoulder-pieces 
and had engraved ou them the names of the sons 
of Israel in the order of age— a foreshadowing of 
the names on the breast-plate, as the cherubim in 
the veil foreshadow the cherubim in the Holy 
of holies itself, and the altar of burnt-offering 
(used also for sin and trespass-ofteriugs, and for 
the great sin-offering) foreshadows the propi- 
tiatory lid or mercy-seat. Finally in the ephod 
are to be considered the golden settings or rings 
with their golden chains, by means of which the 
breast-plate is to be fastened to the ephod. 

Now follows the moat important article the 

breast-plate— ye.TB. 15-30: the breast-plate of ju- 
dicial sentence. By this phrase would we repre- 
sent the meaning of OSE'D, because it comprises 
both factors, light and right [Urim and Thum- 
mim], the sentence of salvation or of righteous- 
ness, and the sentence of judgment. The source 
and combination of both elements is found in the 
sympathy of the high-priest with the people of 
God, The material of the breast-plate is like 
that of the shoulder-pieces. Its form is square ; 
for the people of God signify symbolically God's 
perfect world ; they are eventually to dwell in the 
Holy of holies (Rev. xxi. 24). The doubling of 
it, aside from any other reference (e.g., to make it 
a pocket for the stones used in drawing lots), may 
have this meaning : that the inner fold represents 
the divine justice; the outer one. the people. The 
people are laid upon the heart of the high-priest, 
with the twelve precious stones set in four rows: 
four, the mundane number [the four points of 
the compass], multiplied by three, the number 
of the spirit [intellect, feelings, will], thus point- 
ing to the world as made complete in and by the 
people of God. The twelve precious stones de- 
note the variety, manifoldness, and totality of the 
natural and gracious gifts bestowed on the 
people of God, and united in the one spirit 
of heavenly preciousness. This wonderful idea 
goes from the twelve sons of Jacob through 
the whole Bible, and at last, proceeding from the 
number of the twelve apostles, attains its com- 
plete expression in the Apocalypse, vid. Comm. 
on Revelation, p. 385. The rows are as follows: 



SARDIUS. 
(Flesh Color.) 



TOPAZ. 

(Golden-Yellow.) 



EMERALD. 

(Brilliant Green.) 



CARBUNCLE. 

(Red.) 



SAPPHIRE. 

(Sky-Blue) 



DIAMOND. 

(Transparent or Reddish-Yellow.) 



LIGURE (HYACINTH?) 
(Pale — ^Tariegated.) 



AGATE. 

((31istening— Variegated.) 



AMETHYST. 

(Mostly Violet.) 



BERYL (CHRYSOLITE.) 

(Yellow-Green.) 



ONYX (BERYL.) 

(Greenish.) 



JASPER. 

(Dull-Red— Cloudy.) 



* [The meaniner of this apparently is that the ehoulder-pieces were joined not merely to the two parts of tlie ephod, 
but also to one another, botii in front of, and behind, the neck, so that the girdle passing arounfi at the bottom of the 
e()ho(1 wonld close it toaeiher thoroughly, not leaving the upp t parts loose, as they would be if they were only conoected 
by two ..i-i'onnected pifces p<issing over the shoulders.— Ta.] 



120 



EXODUS. 



For archaeologioiil and olhtr details, see Eno- 
bel, p. 283, aud my Vermischte Schriflen, I. p. 18. 

The fastening of the breast-plate to the ephod 
was an important task ; no part was to be injured 
in the process. The description is hard to un- 
derstand. We find a clue by the use of two sug- 
gestions. First, by determining that two golden 
chains hang down from the ephod towards the 
breast-plaf e. Secondly, by determining that the 
breast-plate must be loose at the top, as a pocket, 
for which reason also only two corners, viz., those 
at the bottom, are spoken of. On these corners 
two golden rings are fixed, into which the golden 
chains of the ephod are inserted, they themselves 
passing down by the breast plate and then return- 
ing into the connecting hooks of the ephod. Thus 
the breast-plate is held secure from falling, but 
may still become displaced. Hence two more 
golden rings have to be put upon the corners of 
the edge of the pocket, towards the inner part, 
i. e., on the inside part of the pocket, in order 
that the pocket itself may be left open. These 
rings correspond to two golden rings on the 
ephod which are fixed upon the breast side of it 
above where the two parts are joined together. 
These corresponding rings are tied fast together 
with a purplish-blue cord. So much importance 
and particularity belong to the business of fast- 
ening the breast-plate to the high-priest's breast ; 
and this fact has doubtless its significance. Kno- 
bel has a difi'erent conception.* The ordinance 
that Aaron must appear with the breast-plate 
before Jehovah (ver. 29) is designed to be a sym- 
bolical reference to the high-priestly interces- 
sion : and so the opposite of this is quite appro- 
priate, viz., the direction that he shall proclaim 
light and right to the people in the name of Je- 
hovah, with royal authority, aa it were, after he 
has consecrated this commission in .Tehovah's 
presence, ver. 30. Vid. Num. xxvii. 21 ; Deut. 
xxxiii. 8. Comp. Comm. on John, xi. 61. On 
the various explanations of D'lIK and D'Bfl [Urim 
and Thummim] see the Dictionaries and Com- 
mentaries. Luther's translation, "lAcht und 
Recht" ["light and right (justice)"] is much 
better than that of the LXX., d^iaacg koX akij- 
■dtia, or that of the Vulg., doctrina et Veritas. 
We translate: "Lights and decision," connect- 
ing OP with the meaning "to be finished," "to 
be at an end," which Dan has in Kal; and "to 
finish," "to terminate," in Hiphil. So also 
Symmachus and Theodotion translate cpaTia/iol 
Kal TeXei6(!sic. As to the question what the ob- 
ject of them was, as staled in Num. xxvii. 21, the 
Urim and Thummim mark a kind of permanent 
judgment-hall where prophetioo-royal decisions 
were rendered. There were not always prophets 
in Israel, and also not always kings; but the 
priest was always to be found, and so also the 

* [Knobel'B desr.rlption is as fol'ows : The two chains which 
pass down from the shonldi-r-piereB of the ephod (vers. 13, 26) 
are oonnooted with two rinss at the upper corners of thn 
breast-pliitH. Then two more rings iit the lower corners of 
the same are connected by means of two more chains to two 
lings "underneath, on the forn part" of the ephod (ver. 27), 
t. e., lower down than the shoulder-pieces, but " close by the 
coupl ng," i. e., at the place where the shoulder-piect-'s »re 
connected with the upper part of the ephod. Thus the lower 
part of the hreast-plate is joined by the chains to the upper 
part of the eph>,d.— Tb.] 



living God, who was the King of Israel, and after 
whose will Israel was always to inquire. Hence 
it was the high-priest's duty, when the prophetic 
voice was wanting, always to give answer when 
the people asked what was to be done. Herein 
the priest was the vicar of the prophet, as iu 
other cases the reverse happened. But because 
the priest was a hereditary one, he was as such 
neither prophet nor king, and could therefore 
give answer only through a special medium, the 
oracle of the Urim and Thummim. In many 
cases the answer of Jehovah was at once light 
and right; in favorable cases, when the inquirers 
were pious, as is assumed in the case mentioned 
in Num. xxvii. 21, it was Urim ; also in the worst 
case, such as is implied in John xi. 61, the de- 
cision, necessary in all cases, took the form of 
Thummim in bringing on judgment. It was re- 
garded as a condition of peculiar distress when 
there was at hand neither a prophet, nor a king, 
nor the priest with Urim and Thummim (Ezra 
ii. 63; Neb. vii. 65), or when the oracle Urim 
gave no answer — a circumstance which might 
grow out of the institution itself (1 Sam. xiv. 37) 
or out of a variance between the high-priest and 
the inquirer. As to the question what the Urim 
and Thummim were, they could not have consisted 
in the stones of the breast-plate themselves, 
which, as Josephus and Saalschiitz suppose, in- 
spired the high-priest as he looked down upon 
them ; still less in two small oracular images, te- 
raphim, which, as Philo probably or perhaps con- 
ceives, were inserted in the orifice of the breast- 
plate. The Urim and Thummim must certainly 
have been an object distinct from the breast- plate 
itself, and something which Moses was to put into 
it. The Rabbins conceived that in the inside of 
the breast-plate was the sacred tetragrammaton 
(Jehovah), and that this illuminated the names 
on the breast-plate; the Cabbalisis assumed, in- 
stead of this, two similarly efficacious names of 
God. Ziillig understands the object to have been 
two diamond dice to be used in drawing lota 
(Apokalypae, I. p. 408). So much is established, 
that the phrase " to ask of Jehovah " may be ex- 
plained both by the phrase "ask of the Urim and 
Thummim," and by the notion of decision by 
lot (1 Sam. X. 20 ; xiv. 36). It is noticeable that 
in 1 Sam. xxviii. 6 the lot is not mentioned in 
connection with Urim. Comp. on the lot Winer, 
Realworlerbuch, II. p. 31. On the derivation of 
the Urim and Thummim from an Egyptian judi- 
cial symbol, vid. Winer, II. p. 644 [and Smith's 
Bible Dictionary, Art. Urim and Thummim]. Re- 
ference can only be assumed to something ana- 
logous in the Egyptian institnticn. The main 
point is that the resolute spirit of the Holy Scrip- 
tures regarded hesitation as the evil of evils— 
e. g., in the life of Saul and of Judas. Hence the 
lot, hence the need of decision. In accordance 
with his coarse anthropopathic conceptions. Kno- 
bel holds that the precious stones were in the 
proper sense to remind Jehovah of Israel, p. 287. 
The directions concerning the Urim and Thum- 
mim seem to have been intentionally made very 
brief and kept mysterious. Vid. more in 
Knobel. 

The outer robe, ver. 31. Luther's translation 
is here very arbitrary, but was probably occa- 
sioned by the desire to leave the breast-plate 



CHAP, XXV. 1— XXXI. 18. 



121 



unoovered : " Thou shalt also make the silk robe 
under the uoat all of yellow silk." For if a 
'j'^n, a covering (not to be absolutely confounded 
witii the ordinary /'J^D), was made for the ephod, 
such an over-garment must necessarily have co- 
vered the breast-plate also, if it was a long robe 
closely fitting (according to Keil), reaching to 
the knees, and, according to the Alexandrians, 
even reaching, as nodiipriq, to the feet. Against 
both assumptions is not only the fact that in that 
case the breast-plate would have been covered, 
but also the manner in which the robe was put 
on, via., over the head, by means of an opening 
(as in the case of a coat of mail) — which also 
implies the absence of sleeves. Besides, there 
would then come two girdles at nearly the same 
place, since the coat had its own ■girdle, vid. ver. 
39. The representation in Lev. viii. 7 seems, it 
is true, somewhat inexact.* The significance 
of this hyacinth-colored, dark-blue, purple orna- 
ment may be sought in this, that the burden of 
the high-priest symbolized by the ephod was not 
to be made a spectacle to the world, but was to 
be hidden by a symbol of the royal splendor of his 
vocation. Two questions are raised by this con- 
ception of the covering for the ephod. First : 
If the robe was so short, what was the case with 
the rest of the garments? This is answered by 
ver. 39 and the parallel description, xxxix. 27. 
They made the coats (^i^3r\) of white byssus. 
Secondly : How could the bells ring, if they lay 
so high up that even the breast-plate was to be 
exposed? This question Is solved if we take 

I'SlE' ["its skirts"] in its original sense, i.e., 
not as its hem, but its train, and assume that the 
robe was so cut that it left the breast-plate free, 
while it flowed out sidewise in trains. 

On the various interpretations of the bells and 
pomegranates, vid. Keil.f According to Keil or 
Bahr, the pomegranates are symbols of the word 
and testimony of God ; the bells, with their ring- 



* [Lange's notion of the robs Beems to be rather ppculiar, 
w!2.,that it was a very short garment, covering the Khoulder- 
piecea of the ephod, but leaving the breast-pUte exposed un- 
der it. He se»ms to assume that the ephod and breast-plate 
were to be put on before the robe, though for what reason it 
is difiicult to imagine. The reason cannot be found in the 
circumstance that the robe is described aft&r the ephod and 
breast-plate; tor the coat is described still later, and the 
linen breeches last of all. Besides, we have in Lev. viii. Y a 
clear indication of the order in which these articles were put 
on. .losephus {Ant. IH. 7, 4) s«ys that the robe, though 
without sleeves, had arm-'>oles, and this sufficiently harmo- 
nizes nil the apparent dilficulties. — Tr.] 

t [Keil rejects the view propounded by the son of Sirach 
ixlv.9, "that as he went there might be a sound, and a noise 
made that might be heard in ttie temple, for a memorial to 
the children of the people "), on the ground that the last 
clause of the verse is evidently borrowed from Ex. xxvlii. 
12, where the stones of the epliod are spoken of, and aiso on 
the ground that the clause " tnat he die not " is not explained 
by tnis hypothenis ; for the assumption is that the high- 
priest's life would be endangered if he went into th*- Holv of 
holies without being accompanied by the prayers of his peo- 
ple—which would make his life depend on their capri' e, ir- 
resppctive of his own character. He also rejects as trivial the 
notion that the ringing of the bells was intended to lie equi- 
valent to rapping at the door, so as not to enter into the pre- 
sence of Jehovah unannounced, as well as Knobel's notion 
that the sound was to stand for a reverential greeting and a 
musical ascription of praise. Keil holds that the reason 
for Aaron's not dying lies " in the signiflcauce that belongs 
to the ringing of the bells or the garments of Aaron, witli 
their appendages of artificial pomegranates and ringing 
bolls."— Te. J 



ing, symbols of the sound of this word. But in 
this case Moses the prophet would have abdi- 
cated his functions to Aaron the priest. The sym- 
bolic meaning of the pomegranate is very hard to 
fix (vid. Friedrich, Symbolik und Mythologie der 
Natur); perhaps the most natural assumption is 
that in the alternation of pomegranates and bells 
is to be discerned the connection of nature, as 
represented in its abundance and beauty by the 
pomegranate, with the theocracy as designed to 
manifest itself in the sacrificial vocation of the 
high-priest through holy time, and through the 
awakening voice of the thunder, the trumpet, and 
the bells. The gifts of nature and of grace are 
the offerings which the high-priest brings to Je- 
hovah over his shoulders. 

The clause, " that he die not," can hardly 
mean that sudden death would follow the neglect 
of the precept, but that this would be an ofBcial 
misdemeanor worthy of death, an offence con- 
sisting chiefly in contempt of Jehovah and of the 
customs of the sanctuary, but also particularly in 
the fact that the connection between Jehovah 
and the congregation is not only effected in 
general by means of these bells, but is also 
enlivened by the sacred moment [the advent 
of which they announce]. From the farthest 
distance, as it were, the sound of the bells is 
heard, indicating holy time (as the organ indi- 
cates the holy place), although the large bell is not 
immediately derived from an enlargement of these 
small ones. 

The plate of gold for the forehead, ver. 36. A 
plate of gold fastened to the turban by a dark- 
blue purple string, with the inscription, " Holi- 
ness (or holy) to Jehovah," and designated iu 
xxxix. 30 as the holy crown. The meaning is 
that Aaron is to bear the expiation ([1^,, i. e., ex- 
piation of the guilt) of the gifts of the sanctuary, 
which the children of Israel shall hallow, etc. 
That is, the high-priest has to effect the expia- 
tion of the expiations before Jehovah. The chil- 
dren of Israel also bring expiatory offerings of all 
kinds before Jehovah ; but guilt cleaves even to 
their offerings; the high-priest, however, is 
symbolically to accomplish the expiation of all 
these guilt-stained expiations. Thus, then, the 
high-priest's plate of gold points to the chief 
function which he was to discharge on the great 
day of atonement, on which day, even on his en- 
trance into the Holy of holies, he had, if not ex- 
actly to supplement, yet to complete, the whole 
abundance of the expiatory offerings of the chil- 
dren of Israel, to cleanse them from the stain 
of guilt (the negative guilt of deficiency, and the 
positive guilt of wrong-doing) which cleaves 
to them. How rich in instruction this sym- 
bol is in its relation to the high-priesthood 
and sacrifice of Christ! From the instituting 
of this plati to the fulfilment of the prophecy in 
Zech. xiv. 20 is a great distance. The general 
fulfilment is announced in John xvii.: the eseha- 
tological fulfilment is pictured in Revelation, oh. 
jxi. Knobel, referring to ancient heathen cus- 
toms, resolves the thing itself wholly into sensu- 
ous conceptions, speaking of "external lapses 
of the children of Israel in connection with their 
offering of gifts— the conciliatory appearance of 
the high-priest," and referring to a custom of 
the ancients, in offering sacrifices to put garlands 



122 



EXODUS. 



on themselves and on the victims. But vid. the 
quotation from Calvin in a note in Keil, II. p. 
204 : ['' The iniquity of the saored offerings was 
to be borne and cleansed by the priest. It is a 
frigid explanation to say that whatever error 
crept into the ceremonies was remitted through 
the prayers of the priest. For we must look 
further back, and see that the iniquity of the of- 
ferings was obliterated by the priest for the rea- 
son that no offering, so far as it is man's, is wholly 
free from defect. It sounds harsh and almost 
paradoxical to say that holy things themselves are 
unclean, so as to need pardon ; but it is to be held 
that there is absolutely nothing so pure but that 
it contracts some stain from us. . . Nothing is more 
excellent than the worship of God; and yet the 
people could offer nothing, even when it was pre- 
scribed by law, without the intervention of pardon, 
which they could obtain only through the priest."] 

Aaron's coat, ver. 39. The tunic proper, with 
which also his sons were clothed. It reached to 
the ankles, and was also provided with sleeves. 
It was made of white byssus ; but Aaron's coat 
was di-stinguisbed by being more artistically 
wrought. The girdle of his coat was also of 
variegated work. According to Josephus {Ant. 
III. 7, 2) purple and crimson flowers were woven 
into the linen girdles of the priests. 

The clothing of the sons, ver. 40. Of Aaron's 
assistants, or the ordinary priests. It consisted 
in the coat of white byssus, the girdle, and the 
cap. These articles are not included in the de- 
scription of Aaron's clothing, because there were 
differences. The sons do not receive the preroga- 
tives of the high-priest; and Aaron's head-gear 
is the turban with the gold plate, while the sons 
receive caps. " nU3J0 is only used of the head- 
dress of the common priests, xxix. 9; xxxix. 28; 
Lev. viii. 13. The word is related to JTiJ, gob- 
let, cup (rxv. 31), so that these head-tires 
seem to have had a conical form. This was also 
customary in reference to other sacerdotal per- 
sons of antiquity" (Knobel). The passage, 1 
Sam. xxii. 18, seems to merge the whole family 
of priests into one, as inheriting in that capacity 
the high-priesthood, and therefore the ephod. 
A different point of view would lead critics to 
make a sharp distinction between the time of the 
original giving of the law and the time of Samuel. 

The investment, anointing, and consecration of 
the priests, ver. 41. This equipment is common 
to all, but conferred wholly by Moses, not even 
in part by Aaron after he himself has been 
equipped. Nor does Aaron anoint even his sons, 
but the prophet does it. That which was genea- 
logically tranimitted from Aaron to his de- 
scendants must therefore be continually sup- 
plemented by the transmission of spiritual 
life in the theocracy. The clothes denote 
the dignity and burden of the oflBee; the an- 
ointment is a symbol of the Spirit; the hands 
filled are the signs of the sacrificial giftsfurnished 
by the congregation, — of the emoluments which 
they themselves first of all have to bring as an 
offering to Jehovah, With this investment is 
completed the potential sauotifioation or conse- 
cration; the strict, actual consecration of the 
priests is yet to follow. 

The breeches and the object of them, vers. 42, 43, 



This ordinance forms a transition to the actual 
consecration of the priests. It is significant 
that it follows the official investment. The offi- 
cial clothing in the narrow sense conferred dig- 
nity and ornament; these, on the other hand, 
were only to avert dishonor and disgrace. The 
reason for this covering, according to Baumgar- 
ten, lay in the fact that "the sins of nature have 
their principal seat in the 'flesh of nakedness!' " 
According to Keil the physical membiTB men- 
tioned, " which subserve the natural secretions, 
&Te pudenda, or objects of shame, because in these 
secretions is made evident the mortality and cor- 
ruptibility of the body which througli sin has 
permeated human nature." Neither the first 
theosophic explanation, nor the latter, most pe- 
culiarly orthodox one, can be derived from 
Gen. iii. The organs of the strongest impulses, 
those which through sin have been morbidly 
deranged, belong, even physiologically, to the 
dark side of life, and are therefore to be kept 
mysterious, like births themselves, in conuec- 
nection with which there can be no thought of 
lust ; but in an ethical respect, affecting the whole 
human race, they are not objects of a dispassion- 
ate aesthetic contemplation, but confusing to the 
senses, for which reason also there is a difference 
between naked children and naked adults ; reli- 
giously considered, finally, they are indeed signs 
of the moral nakedness of man, of his natural and 
hereditary guilt. Furthermore, " religious reve- 
rence demands that, when they officially approach 
the altar, they should cover still more the above- 
mentioned parts, which, even in common life, 
through natural bashfulness are carefully covered, 
whereas for the rest of the body a single cover- 
ing suffices" (Knobel). But in a sense the altar 
also becomes to the mind of the priest, accord- 
ing to chap, xxiii., u symbol of God as seeing. 
This duty, too, is declared to be most holy for 
ever, and so it obtains also a symbolic character, 
signifying that everything sexual is to be avoided 
in the service of the sanctuary. Itmarks the oppo- 
site extreme of thevoluptuousritesof the heathen, 
and of the commingling of sexual passion with the 
religious fanaticism. But as shamelessness in 
worship is particularly designated as a capital of- 
fence, so in general every other shameless act, 

3. The Consecration of Hie Priests, xxix. 1-36. 
The direction here given for the actual conse- 
cration of the priests is not carried out till Lev. 
viii.-x. This raises two questions : First, why 
does not the execution of the precept, as of all 
the preceding ones, follow in Exodus, where it 
might be regarded as simply omitted in ch. xxxix. ? 
Secondly, why nevertheless are the calling and 
investment of the priests, which have been here- 
tofore considered, described in Exodus ? As to the 
first question, we see from oh, xl. that even the 
sanctuary had to be erected and arranged, and con- 
secrated by the first-fruits of the offerings, not by 
Aaron, but by Moses, the royal prophet himself, 
j ust as he had also called and invested, or prepared^ 
the priests. For the tabernacle was designed in a 
universal sense for Jehovah as presiding over 
all three forms of revelation, the prophetic, the 
ritual or Levitical, and the princely or royal, i.e., 
Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers; but the initia- 
tive belonged to the prophetic office. This rela- 



CHAP. XXV. 1— XXXI. 18. 



123 



tion would have been wholly altered if the actual 
consecration of the priests had preceded the erec- 
tion of the tabernacle. Thus is answered also the 
second question, why the actual consecration of 
the priests is prescribed so early? The answer 
lies in the fact that the priesthood has a, more 
universal significance than the merely ritual 
one. In relation to the prophetic ofBce the 
priesthood has to represent symbolically reli- 
gious ideas in itself, in its clothing, and in its 
functions; in relation to the ritual worship, how- 
ever, it has not only to symbolize the ethical 
idea's of sacrifice, but also to conduct the edu- 
cational training of the people of Israel — in the 
Middle Ages of the Old Testament — by means of 
the sacrificial service and the administration of the 
laws of purification; but in relation to the politi- 
co-theocratic side of the theocracy, the high-priest 
carries on his breast, for times of exigency, the 
oracular Urim and Thummim, which make 
good the temporary failure of the prophetic 
word and the royal government; and the Levites 
as bearers of the ark of the covenant have to at- 
tend to the banners of the host of the Lord. But 
since nevertheless the sacrificial worship is the 
chief vocation of the priests, the actual consecra- 
tion of the priests serves to introduce the sacrifi- 
cial system as developed in Leviticus. — Keil finds 
it most Suitable to his purpose not to explain 
the consecration of the priests till Lev. viii. On 
this point, however, Knobel has yielded to the 
requirements of the text. 

The preparation of the offerings which Aaron and 
his sons are to bring, vers. 1-3. The three fun- 
damental forms of offering, already involved in 
the Paschal rites, are here indicated by the ani- 
mals specified in the command : (1) The bullock 
is appointed for a sin-offering, the great sin-offer- 
ing such as the guilty priest has to bring accord- 
ing to Lev. iv. ; in this sin-offering the more spe- 
cific sin-offering, the trespass-offering and the sin- 
offering of a lower grade, are implicitly included. 
The first ram is then made the centre of all the 
offerings. (2) The burnt-offering has likewise its 
ramifications, viz., in the morning and evening sa- 
crifices, in daily offerings, in offerings for the Sab- 
bath and feast-days, according to Num. xxviii. 
The other ram is designed for an offering of abun- 
dance or heave-offering of the priests from the 
peace-offerings of the children of Israel, i. e., it 
is the peace- or thank-offering of the priest, who 
has no property or means of earning it, and 
whose hands must therefore be filled by the con- 
gregation with a heave-offering or sacred tribute 
which is regarded as a surplus from the peace 
offerings of the people. (3) The peace-offering 
also is subdivided into three parts : the thank- 
offering, the vow, and the free-will offering (Lev. 
vii.). A basket holds the three principal formi 
of the meal-offering or bloodless offering, aa 
originally connected with the burnt-offering. 
The principal material of the three kinds of 
baked articles is wheat flour, prepared in three 
ways, but always unleavened. The bread and 
the cake are mixed with oil ; but the wafer or 
flat cake is to be smeared with oil (on the prepa- 
ration of them vid. Lev. ii. 4 sqq.). The meal- 
offering is subdivided still further into the 
meal-offering in the narrow sense, the drink- 
offering, and the offering of baken flour and of 



roasted fruits, and is to be as scrupulously sup- 
plemented with salt, oil, and frankincense, as it 
is to be kept free from honey and leaven, the 
last being excepted in case of the feast of har- 
vest; on which point more hereafter. 

The washing and the investment. Moses has to 
bring Aaron and his sons to the door of the tent, 
i e , into the court, and there administer to them 
a symbolic ablution. It is an interpolated notion 
of Eeil's, that Moses had them wash themselves; 
and he also misconceives the symbolic nature of 
the initiatory act, when he says: " without doubt 
the whole body, not only the hands and feet." 
Were they to bathe themselves, or at any rate 
exhibit themselves naked, in the presence of the 
iisaembled congregation in the court? The wash- 
ing is the symbolic expression of purification 
from the stains and defilement incurred in real 
life, whilst the sacrifices removed not only the 
daily weaknesses, but also the guilt of life down 
to its foundation in the sinful nature; vid. John 
xiii. 10. In the description of the investment 
every article is specially mentioned, and its im- 
port emphasized. 

The unction. As the clothes symbolize the 
burden and the dignity of ofEce, so the anointing 
with oil, profusely poured out on the high-priest's 
head, symbolizes the promises of official grace, 
of endowment with the Spirit of God. The 
anointing of Aaron's sons is not here treated of, 
as Keil assumes. Nor in Lev. viii. 10, where yet 
further on reference is made to a sprinkling of 
the sons of Aaron with the blood of the ram of 
consecration and with anointing oil, in connection 
with the sprinkling of their father, ver. 30. It is 
also a strange notion of Keil's (II. p. 337) that the 
vessels of the sanctuary were by the sprinkling 
made media and vessels of the blessings of grace 
and salvation. 

Still harsher seems Keil's explanation of the 
notion of sanctifying. Even of the altar of burnt- 
offering, he says : " To sanctify means not merely 
10 set apart to sacred uses, but to endow or fill 
with powers from God's sanctifying Spirit." 
Here is not only all distinction between the 0. and 
N. Testaments obliterated, but also all distinc- 
tion betw een the altar and the priest, to say nothing 
of the distinction between the different altars. 

The investiture of Aaron and his sons as priests, 
vers. 8 and 9. The characteristic garment of the 
common priest is the white wrought coat, and 
with it the girdle of the coat, of embroidered 
work ornamented with the four colors of the 
sanctuary, and the white cap of the priest. In 
the girdle is exhibited the likeness of the com- 
mon priest to the high-priest; in the white coat 
and the conical cap* is exhibited the likeness of 
the high-priest to the common priest. The dress 
in which, according to Lev. xvi. 4, the high- 
priest is to enter the Holy of holies is even )ntV- 
rior to that of the common priest. And thougli 
Aaron is distinguished by having the high- 
priestly unction, yet at the sacrifice by whicli 
he is purified and consecrated he must he aa- 



* [This can refer only to the materiiit of the cap, not its 
form. At least, the head-iear of the high-prieBt is always 
called by adiffereat name (nSJVO) from "lat "f "i« '=°'^- 
mon priest (n;;3JD). The former is commonly (also by 

Lange) called a tiirhan, and therefore can hardly be con- 
ceived as conical. — Tr.J 



124 



EXODUS. 



sociated with his sons. Also his bands must be 
filled together with those of his sons. ["Fill 
the hands of" — the literal translation of the 
Hebrew phrase rendered in A. V. " consecrate," 
e.g., xxviii. 41]. For the poor priest has nothing 
of his own; the congregation must provide for 
him, and, first of all, even the sacrificial gifts which 
he needs to offer. Thus then the hands of him 
and his sons are filled, they being declared to 
be the owners of the objects of sacrifice. And 
so Aaron does not make himself a priest. Moses, 
the servant of God, commissioned by Jehovah, 
must consecrate him to the office. The prophet 
stands as high priest over against the candidate 
for the priestbood; the future high-priest stands 
over against the prophetical Levite almost in the 
attitude of a layman. 

The bullock for the sin-offering, vers. 10-14. Not 
every sacrifice ia a confession of mortal guilt ; 
but every sacrifice is a confession of such a culpa- 
bility of the life as makes it unable, in real spi- 
rituality, to satisfy the righteousness of God ; 
for which reason the symbolic representation of 
satisfaction by means of sacrifice is introduced, — 
sacrifice as a confession of guilt, as a longing 
after willingness to surrender one's self to the 
divine judgment, as a prayer for pardon, and as 
a vow. But as soon as the congregation of God 
is organized as symbolically holy, sacrifices as- 
sume a threefold purpose. (1) As national off'er- 
ings, they assume the form of the discharge of a 
legal obligation, the expiation of a violated na- 
tional law ; and iu this sense they may also be 
said to work justification. (2) As Mosaic off'er- 
ings, they become a symbolic expression of moral 
offences against the law, and of the need of ex- 
piatory surrender. (3) As the continuation and 
symbolic expression of the Abrahamic faith, they 
become a typical adumbration of the absolute 
realization of the sacrificial idea in the future 
kingdom of the Messiah. Vid. Comm. on Oene- 
sis, pp. 256, 470. 

In the act of laying his hand on the victim 
the offerer confesses as his own the debt of guilt 
which the animal pays for him as his symbolic 
substitute. The loss of the animal, the animal's 
innocence, its dying pain, form in their union an 
emphatic expression of his condition ; the ani- 
mal symbolically takes the place of his life. 
In all oases he lays symbolically his guilt and 
his deficiencies upon the animal — even in the case 
of the peace-offering. The hand in this con- 
nection is the symbolic and mystical conductor 
of the soul's life; as in other cases, of its spiritual 
fulness, so here, of its defects and need of ex- 
piation. 

The killing of the animal is done by Moses be- 
fore the Lord, i. e., before the door of the taber- 
nacle. But even the sin-offering is not the sym- 
bol of a death-sentence, but the expiation of a 
guilt which would have led to death if it had 
not been atoned for before the gracious Jehovah. 
For a known mortal sin (Num. xv. 30) is not 
expiated by offerings, but is punished with death ; 
it makes the sinner a hherem. The system of 
sacrificial expiation in general is instituted only 
for sins committed in weakness (Lev. iv. 2, 27). 
Hence the sin-offering is composed of different 
elements. First, the offering of blood. With- 
out the shedding of blood there is no expiation 



(Heb. ix. 22) ; it designates the deathly earnest- 
ness, the death-defying courage, by means of 
which all the disorders of the religious and moral 
nature are rectified. A part of the blood of the 
sin-offering is put on the horns of the altar, thus 
perfecting the sinner's refuge: the greater part 
of it is poured out at the base of the altar; i. t., 
submission to the judgment of God constitutes 
expiation. It is an incorrect representation of 
Keil's that, "whereas, according to the general 
rule for the sin-offerings whose flesh was burned 
outside of the camp, the blood was brought into 
the holy place itself (Lev. vi. 23 [30]), it is here 
only put on the altar of burnt-offering, in order to 
give this sin-offering the character of a consecra- 
tory offering." Tuis is contradicted by Lev. iv. 
7, 18, 25, 30. The blood was always poured out 
at the foot of the altar of burnt-offering, while 
only a little of it comes into the holy place, espe- 
cially upon the horns of the altar of incense, vH. 
Lev. iv. 7 sqq. The difference, therefore, can be 
only that here the blood of sprinkling was put 
upon the horns of the altar of burnt-offering, and 
it is to be remarked that nothing has yet been 
said of the altar of incense. — And the fat. 
The bloom of life, even iu the case of the tragi- 
cally guilty, — that which is deposited on his 
entrails, his physical nature, on his liver or on 
his nobler affections, on his reins, which through 
their effects might symbolize the conscience (Ps. 
xvi. 7), — this falls to Jehovah as His part; that 
it has ministered to Him in His actual govern- 
ment of men, is expressed by their being offered 
to Him in fire on the altar. Thus one feature of 
the burnt-offering belongs also to the sin-offer- 
ing. The fat of the offering, or the bloom of 
life, all falls to Jehovah as His part (Lev. iv. 31, 
85). But the sin-offering has also one feature 
that belongs to the hherem: the flesh, skin, and 
dung of the sin-offering are burnt outside before 
the camp; they are given back to the old earth of 
the old man as a symbol of the sinner's outward 
mode of life. — It is a bnrnt-oSering, vers. 15- 
18. The first ram denotes the offering up to 
Jehovah of the whole conduct of life, not through 
death, but in life itself (Bom. xii. 1). Here the 
blood is sprinkled round about on the altar: this 
expresses one's complete, voluntary surrender, 
and readiness to die while yet living. The whole 
ram (after the removal of the skin and the un- 
clean parts) is cut in pieces and burnt upon the 
altar together with the inwards and thighs; it all 
goes up in the fire of that gracious sovereignty 
which saves while it judges ; and surely such an 
offering of life is a sweet savor, a fire-offering to 
Jehovah. The other ram, designed as an offering 
of consecration, or as Aaron's peace-offering, or 
as a welfare offering (vers. 19-28), is likewise 
offered in accordance with its design. The blood, 
or the readiness for death, is first of all put upon 
the ear-lap of Aaron and his sons: obedience, 
as spiritual hearing, is the first duty, especially 
of the priests. Next, the hand, as symbolizing 
human activity, is specially consecrated by being 
sprinkled with blood; finally, the great toe of 
the right foot, as symbolizing the walk of life in 
general. After this the blood, which in this case 
also is sprinkled around the altar, in order to 
express the most complete surrender, is taken 
again in part from the altar, and together with 



CHAP. XXV. 1— XXXI. 18. 



125 



Bome of the anointing oil is sprinkled upon Aaron 
and his clothes, and on his sons and their clothes. 
Devotion to Ood and to a spiritual life is to con- 
secrate, first of all, the priests' character, tut 
also their official life. Next follows the burnt- 
offering as a fiictor in the conseoratory offering 
of the priests. Together with the fat already 
specified, the ram's tail also and the kidneys 
themselves are devoted to the fire; i. e., the vigor 
of life, comfort, and conscientiousness are conse- 
cratea to God, being united with a part of the 
meal-offering, closely related as it is to the 
peace-offering, viz., with three different articles 
from the basket. These sacrificial gifts, how- 
ever, are not at once burnt up. It must be made 
evident that they are offerings of the priests; 
hence they are laid upon their hands. But, to- 
gether with their hands, they are waved, i. e., 
moved to and fro. What does that mean? It 
costs labor, a struggle, a shaking loose, before 
the priests are ready voluntarily to give back 
their emoluments, their fulness, to Jehovah ; as 
history teaches. All the more then what is really 
offered is a sweet savor before the Lord, a fire- 
offering to Him. But now Moses himself gets 
his part of the priestly offering, the breast of 
the ram. History also amply proves that this 
part of the fulness of the sacerdotal revenue that 
is given back to the prophet and prince, to the 
spiritual and political lite in the theocracy, must 
be waved, must be shaken loose. The thigh, 
however, falls to Aaron and his sons; in this 
connection the waving is less prominent than the 
heaving, or is altogether given up. As nothing 
is said of the disposition of other parts of the 
ram, it is probable that the neck and head were 
joined with the breast for Moses, and that all 
the rest of the body went with the tliigh. In 
this sense the heave-offerings were to revert to 
Jehovah; they are tKken away from the peace- 
offerings and heave-offerings of the children of 
Israel, and He gives them to His priests. Vid. 
also ver. 3'2. 

The prerogatives of the priests, vers. 29-35 (vid. 
also ver. 28.) In the foregoing verse the reversion 
of the greater part of the conseoratory offering 
to the priest is designated as also belongiug to 
the sacerdotal prerogatives. It is the central 
item in his revenue, the particvilars of which are 
specified afterwards. In what now follows the 
hereditary prer gatives of the priests are first 
named. The sacerdotal dignity of Aaron passes 
over, with its symbol, the sacred garments, to 
his sons, according to the right of primogeniture 
of course, and gives them a right to the anoint- 
ing and to the filling of the hands. The rite of 
consecration is to last seven days. During this 
time Aaron and his sons live on the offering of 
consecration in the court; their food is exclu- 
sively sacred food belonging to priests and to fes- 
tivals; hence what is left over is burnt. Further- 
more one bullock a day is slaughtered as a sin- 
offering. 
4. The Sanctification of the Altar. Vers. 36-46. 

The consecration of the priests is acRompanied 
by that of the altar. When Moses brings the sin- 
offering for the priests, he at the same time 
niakes atonement for the altar, which, although 
hnly in itself, was built by sinful men, and in a 
tyiuboiic sense is to be cleansed from defilement. 



( Vid. Keil on Lev. viii. 15) [who explains the cere- 
monial uncleanness of the altar as caused by the 
sinfulness of the officiating priests]. But as yet 
there can be no reference to this source of im- 
purity; for in that case how could the priests 
ever make atonement for the altar ? It was to 
be consecrated by two acts: negatively, by the 
atonement, positively, by the anointment. The 
anointment of the altar can signify only that it is 
to be dedicated exclusively to the spiritual life, 
to the spiritual object of the altar service. At 
the same time the altar is declared to be designed 
for permanent use. Two yearling lambs are 
offered each day, one in the morning, the other 
at evening, i. e., in their tender youth the peo- 
ple of God are to dedicate themselves to Jeho- 
vah, not only for the life of the day, but also for 
that of the night. The meal-offering, like the 
sacrifice, is the same for the morrjing as for the 
evening. The tenth part (of an ephah), or the 
issaron (an omer), as a measure of grain or flour 
is variously reckoned (vid Knobel, p. 295): pro- 
bably, according to Knobel, somewhat more than 
a Dresden measure, or 2\ Dresden pounds.* The 
oil with which the flour is mingled is to be ob- 
tained by pounding. "In the case of no other 
offering is beaten oil prescribed " (Knobel). The 
hin, as a liquid measure, is the sixth part of a 
bath, and contains 12 logs, reckoned by Thenius 
(Studien und Kritiken, 1846) as equivalent to 3 
Dresden cans [such a can containing nbuut 71 
cubic inches, or about 1 English qiiartj. The 
wheat symbolizes vital force, or even fat; the 
wine always symbolizes joy. This burnt ottering 
is the whole-offering, signifying that the life all 
goes up in self-surrender to Jehovah; hence 
also this will be responded to by a complete si-lf- 
communication of Jehovah, a revelation of His 
glory, this itself having been in fact the cause of 
Israel's self-surrender or holiness (vers. 43, 44). 
The text plainly distinguishes a higher kind of 
panctiflcation from the symbolic one of the law, 
which proceeds from man. That higher sancti- 
fication is to proceed from Jehovah Himself. The 
place of the offering is to be sanctified by the glory 
of Jehovah; in particular, the tent, the altar, the 
high-priest and his sons. The aim of this institu- 
tion points on into the N. T. and the Apocalypse: 
Jehovah desires to dwell in the midst of Israel 
and to be the God of His people. 

5. The Altar of Incense Chap. xxx. 1-10. 
The reason why the directions concerning the 
altar of incense are given so late is seen in the 
design of it, which puts it among the things 
direc'ly connected with the ritual worship; also 
in the fact that it marks the last point iu the 
movement of the priest towards the Holy of ho- 
lies, the highest point in the ritual before the 
entrance into the Holy of holies. This eminent 
position is even indicated in the circumstance 
that, being slender in form, gilt all over, adorned 
besides with a golden rim, furnished with golden 
rings, even with golden staves to carry it with, 
it stands at the middle of the veil of the Holy of 
holies, bearing a direct relation to the mercy- 
seat. For this reason we would rather find a 

* [Accordinff to Smitti*B Bible Diotioimry, Art. Weights and 
JtfflfWMrejt, pnibably H litile )eP8 ihan two quarts. But Jo»e- 
phua makoH it about twice as much. — Tr.]. 



126 



EXODUS. 



theological idea than an arohseologioal error in 
that passage of the Epistle to the Hebrews (;x. 
4) which puts it in the Holy of holies. For this 
is the altar which by its incense symbolizes the 
prayer of the high-priest (Rev. t. 8; Heb. v. 7J. 
On the day of atonement (according to Lev. xvi. 
13) the incense is to be carried into the Holy 
of holies and fill the whole room. The morning 
and evening sacrifice on the altar of burnt-ofi'er- 
ing are here to find their higher expression in 
the fragrant incense which Aaron has to offer 
morning and evening in the holy place ; and it 
is not without significance that this incense is 
intimately connected with those sacrifices. In 
the morning he is to burn incense when he 
(rims the lamps, and in the evening when he 
lights them; for without illumination and the 
light of knowledge even his prayer does not 
attain its higher form of sacerdotal intercession. 
The incense, moreover, is to be a perpetual one 
before Jehovah, and so to continue throughout 
the future generations. This implies the exclu- 
sion, in the first place, of common incense, for 
not all prayers are true prayers, e. g. those of 
selfishness and fanaticism ; secondly, of the 
burnt-oflFering, for here the material point is the 
offering of the heart, not mortifications of the 
body ; finally, of meal-offerings and drink-offer- 
ings, for prayer requires abstemiousness. Fi- 
nally, the altar of prayer is to have its horns 
sprinkled once a year with the blood of the sin- 
offering as an atonement. This doubtless was si- 
multaneous with the sprinkling of the mercy-seat, 
but had not the same meaning. The expiation is 
offered to the mercy-seat; the altar of incense is 
covered with the expiation newly dedicated by it. 

6. The Assessments for the Temple. Vera, 11-16. 
It should be here observed that in this section 
there is no reference to the temporary work of 
building the tabernacle, but to those things 
which enter into the regular ritual service which 
is to continue through future time. It is there- 
fore certainly an error when Keil and Knobel 
start out with the notion that the shekel or half- 
shekel of the sanctuary is to be expended once 
for all on the erection of the tabernacle. The 
tabernacle itself was to be built from voluntary 
contributions (xxxv. 5), not from legally imposed 
taxes, and in this voluntary way more was given 
than was needed (xxxvi. 5 sqq.) Moreover, 
the designation of the use of the money, 

•\ym Sns rmy_-^yi_ ["for the service of the 
tent of meeting," ver. 16], does not mean: for 
the work of the building, but : for the perpetual 
service of God in the building. This is implied 
also in Luther's translation [and in the A. V.]. 
Moreover, it is said, that this tax is to be col- 
lected from the Israelites when the census of the 
adult males is taken. But such an enumeration 
did not take place till after the tabernacle was 
erected (Num. i. 1-18).* These enumerations, 
too, had to be repeated from time to time. The 
question is easily solved when we reflect on the 



* [Keil and Knobel infer from xxxviii. 26 that a census 
was talteo before tlie tabernacle was flnlsbed, and that the 
one mi-Titioned in Num. i. la the same thing more formally 
executed and recorded. The identity of the numbere in 
xxxviii. 26 and Num. i. 46 aeems to favor tliis supposition. 
—IE,] 



continuous pecuniary demands made by the 
sacrificial service. Besides the personal occa- 
sions for special offerings (Lev. i. sqq. ), a per- 
pelual sacrificial service was ordained. For 
this service (xxix. 38 and in this place.), 
which is to be distinguished from the great 
offering at the dedication of the tabernacle 
(Num. vii.), and not less from the consecratory 
offerings or heave-offerings for the priests 
(Ex. xxix. 9sqq. ). a legally-imposed tax for the 
temple was necessary ; for the priests had them- 
selves no means for it. This explains also hoir 
this contribution serves for expiation (ver. 12) ; 
it did not do this directly, but because it served 
for the permanent expiation of the people by 
means of the offerings. In this connection it is 
important to observe the directions, that only 
adult men make the contribution for this expia- 
tion, and that every man, as representative of 
the whole congregation of the people, without 
distinction of poor and rich, contributed the 
same amount, vii. half a shekel. As a conae- 
quence of the census this tax had also to be 
paid by the Levites. The sacred shekel, differ- 
ent from the common one, is afterwards more 
exactly defined; and as the half-shekel amounted 
to 13 groschen [t. e., 31 cents, or 1 shilling and 
3 pence ; but vid. note on p. 91], the tax could 
not fall heavily on any man able to bear arms. 
Only it is to be remarked, that the taxation— 
as well as the census itself — is imposed on the 
adult members of the political congregation of 
the people. By this payment the consecrated 
congregation of the people is distinguished from 
a people in the unoonsecrated state of nature.- 

133 is the term applied to the payment on 
account of the nse for which it was designed. 
So also the enumeration is indirectly an enume- 
ration, or review, which Jehovah institutes with 
His people. It is true that in the voluntary 
gifts of silver for the building of the sanctuary 
the precept concerning the half-shekel was taken 
as a standard.* 

7. The Laver. Vers. 17-21 (xxxviii. 8). 

The command concerning the copper laver is 
not, as some would think, to be regarded as a 
supplementary direction: it is connected with 
the foregoing as being the last thing through 
the medium of which the regular services of the 
tabernacle were carried on. The expiation 
which the Israelites have to pay for with the 
half-shekel applies to the Levites and priests 
(comp. Matt. xvii. 25, where no exception seems 
to be made). Besides this there were special 
expiations for the priests, when they were con- 
secrated, and on the day of atonement. But all 
this was not sufficient to make them appear as 
pure men in reference to their daily deportment. 
They were obliged on penalty of death to wash 
their hands and feet, when they were about to 
enter the inner sanctuary, or even only to ap- 
proach the altar of burnt-offering to minister. 



* [This refers to the abovG-mantioned correspondence Iw- 
tween xxxviii. 26 and Num. i. 46. Lange apparently nw^«8 
tlie fni mer describe the voluntary contributions of the people 
lor the construction of the tabernacle. But if it was, it w 
sinaular that a purely volumary contribution, when BnmmM 
up, should have proved to amount to exactly one-half a ehekel 
for each adult male. — Tr.] 



CHAP. XXV. 1— XXXI. 18. 



127 



This washing symbolizes a purification from the 
daily (even unconscious) defilements. Later 
the Pharisees applied the practice of washing 
the hands also to preparation for the daily meals 
(Mark yii. 3 sqq. ); and little as Christ sanc- 
tioned this ordinance, He yet made the washing 
of the feet a highly significant transaction be- 
fore the Passover meal and the first Lord's sup- 
per, — Ah to the base (|3) of the laver in parti- 
cular, the passage xxxviii. 8 has led to extended 
discussions. The expression nS")D3, etc., may 
mean "from [of] the mirrors,'' as the LXX. 
and Vulg. translate. This explanation is re- 
duced to an ascetic or pietistic form by Heng- 
stenberg, who says that what heretofore had 
served as a means of gaining the good-will of 
the world was henceforth to become a means of 
gaining the good-will of God. According to 
this, then, there ought to be no mirrors in pious 
households, and especially none in a pastor's 
robing-room. We would confidently [witli Bahr] 
render : " [provided] with women's mirrors," 
were it not that brass itself had been used for 
metal mirrors, and that 3 might also mean 
"as," "in the chiracter of," according to which 
the passage would mean: "to serve as mirrors 
for women."* — Observing here again the general 
connection, we see that the topic is not the erec- 
tion of the tabernacle, but life in the tabernacle 
as marked by the sacred utensils permanently 
belonging to it. Firrthermore, it is clear that 
reference is made to crowds of women who were 
to come into the cciurt. Keil, it is true, observes 
with regard to the character of these women: 

"The ni53il are indeed, according to 1 Sam. i. 22, 
women; not washer-women, however, but women 
who devoted their lives to pious exercises," etc. 
But, it may be asked, might not the pious exer- 
cises consist just in the washing of the sanctuary 
and keeping it clean ? Or could not the women 
who did the washing be pious women ? Luther, 
it is well known, thought otherwise. Knobel 
remarks, with entire correctness, that before 
the erection of the tabernacle there could be 
nothing said of women coming into the court of 
the tabernacle; but he adds a most singular 
explanation of the passage. Furthermore, we 
must ask, what could here be the use of the ex- 

* [This certainly is not a Batisfactory explanation. Not 
to meDtion ttiat grammatically it is the lea«t probable, it is 
almost inconceivabln that it should be sai'i, that the laver 
was made of brass in order thai it might sene as a mirror 
for the women who ministered at the tabernaclel If Ileng- 
stenberg'a interpretation partakes of a pietintio spirit, surely 
this is the opposite extreme. Knobel renders nJ<"1D, etc., 

by " Anblicken," i .e., views, or flgnrcs, "of women marking 
np to the door of the tabernicle." He adds: "Pmbahly 
they were Levite women who nt particular times preiented 
themselves in a sort of procession at the sanctuary, in order 
there to wash, to clean, to furliish." But we can hardly 
agree with him that "such figures were appropriate on the 
vessel which was for the priests to wash from. Grammati- 
rallv too this ri-ndering is open to the same objection as tha,t 
ofBahr's, Ufa. that 3 cannot naturally tie rendered "with, 

in the sense of "accompanied tiy" or "furnished with." 
Keils statement, that 3 "never signifies vnth m the sense 

of ontward addition," Is too stron? (comp. Ps. Ixvi. 13) ; but 
certainly that is a rare use of the preposition. The transla- 
tion, " made the laver of brass .... of the mirrors, etc., is 
the eapio»t ; but it is not necessary in adopting it to adopt 
■aangatenberg's theory of the significance of the thing. 
•>-TB.l 

12 



pression, "out of the mirrors of the women," 
since it is related beforehand that all the mate- 
rials for the building and its furniture were fur- 
nished voluntarily and in the mass?* The LXX. 
seem first to have invented this ascetic notion — 
one which in the connection has no sense at all. 
As to this ciinnection, however, , we are to ob- 
serve that this base sustained the laver of the 
priests. If now they had to cleanse themselves 
in preparMtioQ for their service, is it uot to be 
expected that a similar command was imposed 
on the women who kept the court in order? 
To be sure, they could not wash themselves in 
the court, at least not their feet, from considera- 
tions of modesiy; and they did not need to do 
it, since they did not have to touch the altar. 
But they were quite fittingly reminded of their 
duty to appear comely by the mirrors of the 
base,f on which the laver rested, and in which 
the priests were to cleanse themselves. It is 
easy to see that this use of the base was for the 
purposes of symbolic admonition rather than 
of the toilette. We also find it more natural 
that the mirror, at its first appearance in the 
Scriptures, should receive this higher symbolic 
significance, according to which the law is al-o 
called a mirror, than that it should at the outset 
be proscribed with the remark, that henceforth- 
the pious women used no more mirrors. In its- 
spiritual sense the washing of the priests is alsoi 
a perpetual ordinance. 

8. The Holy Anointing Oil. Vers. 22-33. 

In the case of the anointing oil, it is at once 
obvious that it is not designed to be used simply 
at the erection of the tabernacle. In the first 
place, direction is given of what materiuls and 
in what proportions it shall be compounded ; 
next, the use of the oil is stated, i. e., to anoint 
the several parts of the sanctuary; finally, there 
is enunciated the sternest prohibition against 
any imitation of this sacred anointing oil for 
common use. The number four being the mun- 
dane number [the four points of the Compass], 
the union of four fragrant spices with olive oil 
indicates that the sanctuary is to be dedicated 
with the noblest of the world's products, as com- 
bined with the oil of unction, the spirit of the 
sanctuary. If one were to look for pairs of op- 
posites. myrrh and cinnamon might be taken as 
related to one another; so calamus and cassia. 
It might be said of the myrrh, that it denotes that 
fine, higher kind of pain which enables one to 
overcome natural pain ; cinnamon denotes the 
warmest feeling of light and life; the bitterness 
of calamus might also be noticed; but the signi- 
ficance of the cassia is difficult to determine. 



* [The use of the observation was to state a fact. And 
this supposition is in no way interfered with by the circum- 
stance that the cootributions for the tabernacle were maile 
Toluntirily.— Tr.] 

t [Lange understands that only the base, not the whole 
laver, was made to serve for this purpose. The attempt 
made in what follows to meet the obvious objection to his 
theory, viz that the use attributed to this copper base is 
quite out of keeping with the tenor of the narrative, is rather 
strained. The symb-)lic use certainly cannot exclude the 
lite al use. The declaration, therefore, must stand that the 
base (or the whole laver) waa made in order to serve for the 
purpose of mirrors for the attendant women. But if the 
symbolic use was the chief or only oue, why confine it to the 
women ? Did not the priests need such admonition as well aa 
they* -<rfe.J 



128 



EXODU^ 



With this ointment everything in the sanctuary 
is anointed, Aaron not excepted. But it is pro- 
nounced to be a most severe and punishable 
oifenoe for common men to aspire to mike this 
composition (this reconciliation) of the spiritual 
perfumes of the world and the spiritual oil of 
the sanctuary. On the anointing oil vid. Bilhr, 
SymboUk II., p. 173. The correct method of pre- 
paring it is called a sacred art. 

9. The Holy Incense. Vers. 34-38. 

As in the anointing oil four kinds of spices are 
combined with oil as the base of the ointment 
and are subsidiary to it, so it is here the pure 
frankincense which constitutes the base; but the 
spices combined with it are three in number. 
Inasmuch as the incense certainly symbolizea 
prayer (Ps. cxli. 2), we may naturally look for 
three principal occasions of prayer. The first 
and noblest resembles the spontaneous exuda- 
tion of trees, suggesting the breathings of prayer 
prompted by the higher life. The second sub- 
stance is a pulverized shell of a mollusk — some- 
thing obtained by crushing; the meaning of this 
is readily understood, vid. Ps. li. 19 [17]. "Ac- 
cording to modern authorities, when burnt alone 
it (the onycha) has a bad odor; but everywhere, 
e. g., in India, it is made the fundamental ingre- 
dient of incense, and imparts to the materials 
of the incense their real strength" (Knobel). 
The third substance, gatbanum, being used as 
an antidote to the most diverse injurious forces, 
seems fitted to denote the divine remedial force 
in the soul, as being liable to be irritated by the 
most manifold injurious influences. Says Kno- 
bel: "I had the sacred incense of the Hebrews 
prepared in the laboratory of Prof. Mettenheimer 
in Qiessen; I tested it, and found its odor strong, 
refreshing, and very agreeable." In this case the 
ingredients are of equal weight; the rigorous pro- 
hibition of imitation for common use is the same. 
This may symbolize that prayer is not to be used 
for selfish or worldly purposes. It is incorrect, 
with Knobel, to say that the incense consists of 
the same number of ingredients as the anointing 
oil. 

IV. The Architects. Chap. xxxi. 1-11. 

The summoning of Bezaleel and his assistants, 
Aholiab and other master-workmen, is at once 
a definition of sacred art and a recognition of 
natural artistic talent. The idea of the sanctu- 
ary is indeed a gift nf Jehovah, transmitted by 
Moses to Bezaleei. Yet even in the wider sense 
the fact respecting art is that the artist exhibits 
himself more purely, the more he follows objec- 
tive images, found in actual life, and formed by 
God. This limitation does not exclude the ori- 
ginality of the wise-hearted ; but it shows itself 
in four ways: (1) In the plastic impulse, or the 
talent of construction, such as was shown by 
Wisdom, as artist, at the formation of the earth 
(Gen. i. ; Prov. viii.). Wisdom effects the execu- 
tion of the impulse in beautiful phenomenal 
forms. (2) But what she creates in general, 
must be realized in particular by perception, or 
good sense, in its patient studies. Then (3) in 
order to true creation there is needed further- 
more, on the one hand, knowledge, in the form 



of ideal reflection, standing over the plastic im- 
pulse, and, on the other hand, (4) practical un- 
derstanding, such as enables one to work up the 
material. But the artistic talent of the " wise- 
hearted" becomes sacred art only through the 
Spirit of God. Ke'l understands by this a super- 
natural endowment. It is not to be denied that 
there is something supernatural in every sancti- 
fication of a natural endowment. But it is a 
cuestion whether he so meant it. As to the 
names Bezaleel and Aholiab, vid. the Encyclo- 
pedias. On the obscure expression llE'n nj3, 
comp. Keil. The context confirms his assump- 
tion, that this phrase denotes those garments 
which belonged to the high-priest alone, while 
the other garments belonged to him and his sons 
alike. See other very divergent expla<nation8 in 
Keil. Gesenius refers the word to the curtains 
of the tabernacle — an interpretation which does 
not accord with the explanatory expression, ''to 
do service in the holy place" [xxxv. 19]. Per. 
haps, in accordance with the meaning of "yvs II. 
[in Gesenius], the phrase may designate an ex- 
ceptional kind of clothing, to be distinguished 
from all other garment.s. 

V. The Condition of Vitality in the Ritual Wor- 
ship, the Sabbath, vers. 12-17. Conclusion, 
ver. 18. 

The reason why (he observance of the Sabbath 
is here again so strictly inculcated, Keil findn in 
the fact that one might easily regard the neglect 
of the observance as permissible in the construc- 
tion of a great work de-'igned for the worship of 
Jehovah. Similarly Knobel. But the perpetual 
observance of the Sabbath is here enjoined — a 
fact which Keil himself afterwards notices, but 
which does not accord with this merely outward 
reason for the injunction. It should also be ob- 
served that in xxxv. 1 sqq. the command respect- 
ing the Sabbath recurs again, and this time pre- 
cedes the order concerning the erection of tlie 
tabernacle. The Sabbath belonged as essentially 
to the tabernacle and the temple as the Christinn 
Sunday to Christian worship. — A sign between 
me and you. /. e., eo to speak, the public 
symbol of the relation between Jehovah and 
Israel. Hence breaking the Sabbath is punished 
as a capital crime. This doom is twice de- 
nounced, and the Sabbath itself is called by the 
emphatio name tinSE/ n3E'. " Properly," says 
Knobel, "rest of restfulness [^Suhe der Ruhinkeit] 
i. e., entire rest, complete abandonment of busi- 
ness, the combination of synonyms (?) enhancing 
the notion {vid. x. 22). This term is applied 
only to the Sabbath (xxxv. 2; Lev. xxiii. 3), the 
day of atonement (Lev. xvi. 31 ; xxiii. 32), and to 
the Sabbatical year (Lev. xxv. 4)." — Keil feels 
constrained to take the words of ver. 18 literally 
According to xxxii. 16 the tables also are awork 
of God. Only, he says, we are not to think of 
a bodily finger of God as implied in the stute- 
ment about the tables being written with His 
finger. It is true that Moses' co-operation with 
Jehovah (for he did not need to be on the moun- 
tain forty days merely in order to receive the 
tables) is to be conceived as absolutely merged 
in God's authority and authorship. Conjectures 



CHAP. XXXIT. 1-36. 129 



on the size of the tables vid. in Keil.* Alleged I wide, ani thick enough not to break with their own weight, 



coDtradictions vid. in Knobel, p. 310. 

* [The tables, Eeil remarks, could hardly hare heen as long 
and wide ae the interior of the ark (into which they were put) ; 
for two stone tahleTs, each four feet long and over two feet 



must have been too heavy for any one but a Samson to carry 
down the mountain. As they were written on both aid s, 
and had to contain only one hundred and seventy-two words, 
a length of about two feet and a width of one and a half feet 
would have heen ample, — Ta.] 



THIRD DIVISION. 

THE LEGISLATION AS MODIFIED BY THE LAPSE OF THE PEOPLE, AND THE INTENSI- 
FIED DISTINCTION BETWEEN JEHOVAH AND ISRAEL AS EXPRESSED IN THE 
MOKE HIERARCHICAL CONSTITUTION OF THE THEOCRACY. 

Chaps. XXXII.— XXXIV. 

FIRST SECTION. 

The Erection and Worship of the Golden Calf. God's Judgment and Moses' Inter- 
cession. His Anger. The Sentence of Destruction on the Golden Calf, and of 
Punishment on the People. The Conditional Pardon. 

Chap. XXXII. 1-3.5. 

A.— THE GOLDEN CALF. 
Vers. 1-6. 

1 And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of [down from] 
the mount, the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron, and said unto him, 
Up, make us gods^ which shall go before us ; for as for this Moses, the man that 

2 brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we wot [know] not what is become of him. 
And Aaron said unto them. Break [Pluck] off the golden ear-rings [rings], which are 
in the ears of your wives, of your sons, and of your daughters, and bring them unto 

3 me. And all the people brake [plucked] off the golden ear-rings [rings] which 

4 were in their ears, and brought them unto Aaron. And he received them at [took 
them from] their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool, after he had made 
[and he made] it a molten calf:'' and they said, These be [are] thy gods, O Israel, 

5 which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. And when Aaron saw it, he 
built an altar before it ; and Aaron made proclamation, and said. To-morrow is a 

6 feast to Jehovah. And they rose up early on the morrow, and offered burnt- 
offerings, and brought peace-offerings; and the people sat down to eat and to drink, 
and rose up to play. 

TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL. 

^ [Ver. 1. D^ri ^X is here connected with a plural verb, and in ver. 4 witli a plural pronoun, so that the A. V. certainlj 

seems to be correct. Yet the term is nserl only of the golden calf, and there is no indication that it referred to anything 
else. Probably the plural veib and pronoun a-e used for the very purpos i of distinguishing the calf aa a false god — one of 
the many gods of polytheism. Tefc in other cases, e. ^., Judg. xi. 24 ; xvi. 23, 24, the singular verb is used of a heathen 
god.— Te.] 

2 [We leave the A. V. rendering, only subeMtuting " and he " for " after he had ;" but it must be confessed that the 
is obscure. Furet, Qesenius, Kuobel, Maurer, Glaire, RosenrauIIer, Cook, Kurtz, and others understand £3"in to be 



= D^in (vid. 2 Kings v. 23), meaning "a bag." It occurs only once more, mV., Isa.viii.l, where it means "a pen*' (metal 

style). If the word here means "bag," then IV^I must mean "bound up," as indeed it most naturally dc^s (coming from 

■lIV, not TV), though it is also used (but rarely) iu the sense of "f jrm" or "fashion." We are therefore compelled to 

decide mainly according to the sense. Against the A. V. rendering is to be urged that a Tnolten image would not be made 
with a graving tool. The reply, that the tool was used only to polish the image after it was cast, is a mere assumption, and 
moreover requires us to resort to the device, adopted hy the A. V., but unwarranted by the jirammatical construction, of in- 
verting the natural relation of time between the two ciauses, "fashioned it with a graving tool," and, " made it a molten 
Mlf." The other rendering would be: " He took it from their hands, and bound it up in a bag," etc. — Tr.] 



130 EXODUS. 



B.— GOD'S JUDGMENT, AND MOSES' INTERCESSION. 
Vers. 7-14. 

7 And Jehovah said unto Moses, Go, get thee down, for thy people, which thou 
broughtest out of the lan'i of Egypt, have corrupted themselves [behaved corruptly] : 

8 They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them: ihey 
have made them a molten (alf, and have worshipped it, and have sacrificed there- 
unto, and said. These be [are] thy gods, O Israel, which have brought thee up out 

9 of the land of Egypt. And Jehovah said unto Moss, I have seen this people and 

10 behold, it is a stiff-necked people: Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may 
wax hot against them, and that I may consume them : and I will make of thee a 

11 great uatiou. And Moses besought Jehovah his God, and said, Jehovah, why doth 
thy wrath wax hot against thy people, which Ihou hast brought forth out of the 

12 land of Egypt with great poW' r, and with a mighty hand ? Wherefore should the 
Egy|itians speak, and say, For mischief [evil] did he bring them out, to slay them 
in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth ? Turn from 

13 thy fierce wrath, and repent of this evil against thy people. Remember Abraham, 
Isaac, and Israel, thy servants, to whom thou swarest by thine own self, and saidst 
unto them, I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I 

14 have spoken of will I give unto your seed, and they shall inherit it for ever. And 
Jehovah repented of the evil which he thought [threatened] to do unto his people. 

C— THE TRIAL AND PUNISHMENT OF AARON. 
Vera. 15-24. 

15 And Moses turned, and went down from the mount, and the two tables of the 
testimony were in his hand : the tables -were written on both their sides ; on the one 

] 6 side and on the other were they written. And the tables were the work of God, 

17 and the writing was the writing of God, graven upon the tables. Aud wheu 
Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said unto Moses, 

18 There is a noise of war in the camp. And he said, It is not the voice of them that 
shout f)r mastery [noise of the cry of victory], neither is it the voice of them that 
cry for being overcome [the noise of the cry of defeat] : but the noise of them that 

19 sing [of singing] do I hear. And it came to pass, as soon as he came nigh unto 
the camp, that he saw the calf, and the dancing: and Moses' anger waxed hot, and 

20 he cast the tables out of his hands, and brake them beneath the mount. And he 
took the calf which they had made, and burnt it in the [with] fire, and ground it 
to powder, and strawed [scattered] it upon the water, and made the children of 

21 Israel drink of it. And Moses said unto Aaron, What did this people [hath this 
people done] unto thee, that thou hast brought so great a [a great] sin upon them? 

22 And Aaron said. Let not the anger of my lord wax hot : thou knowest the people, 

23 that they are set on mischief [evil]. For [And] they said unto me. Make us gods, 
which shall go before us : for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of 

24 the land of Egypt, we wot [know] not what is become of him. And I said unto 
them. Whosoever hath any gold, let them break [pluck] it off. So they gave U 
me : then [and] I cast it into the fire, and there came out this calf. 

D.— THE PUNISHMENT OP THE PEOPLE. 
Vers. 25-29. 

25 And when Moses saw that the people were naked [unrestrained], (for Aaron had 
made them naked unto their shame [had left them unrestrained for a hissing] among 

26 their enemies :) Then Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said, Who is on the 
Lord's side ? [Whoso is for Jehovah,] let him come unto me. And all the sons of Levi 

27 gathered themselves together unto him. And he said unto them, Thus saith Jehovah, 
God [the God] of Israel, Put [Put ye] every man his sword by his side, and go in 
and out [go to and fro] from gate to gate throughout the camp, and slay every man 



CHAP. XXXII. 1-35. 



131 



28 his brother, and every man his companion, and every man his neighbor. And the 
children of Levi did according to the word of Moses : and there tell of the people 

29 that day about three thousand men. For Moses had [And Moses] said, Consecrate 
yourselves to- day to Jehovah, even every man upon [against] his son, and upon 
[against] his brother; that he may bestow upon you [su as to bring upon yourselves] 
a blessing this day. 

B.— MOSES' INTERCESSION, AND JEHOVAH'S CONDITIONAL PARDON OF THE PEOPLE. 

Vers. 30-35. 

30 And it came to pass on the morrow, that Moses said unto the people. Ye have 
sinned a great sin; and now I will go up unto Jehovah; perad venture I shall make 

31 an [make] atonement for your sin. And Moses returned unto Jehovah, and said, 

32 Oh, this people have sinned a great sin, and have made them gods of gold. Yet 
now, if thou wilt forgive their sin ; — and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book 

33 which thou hast written. And Jehovah said unto Moses, Whosoever hath sinned 

34 against me, him will I blot out of my book. Therefore now go, lead the people 
unto the place of which I have spoken unto thee : behold, mine angel shall go before 

35 thee : nevertheless in the day when I visit I will visit their sin upon them. And 
Jehovah plagued [smote] the people, because they made the calf, which Aaron 
made. 

conception of the reason why, in xxxiii. 7, Moses 
is said to have removed the tent (by which un- 
doubtedly is meant the chief or central tent 
which as a matter of course any army must 
have had before the building of a tabernacle) far 
away outside of the camp, and erected it at a 
distance from the camp; although the reason is 
unfolded throughout cUaps. xxxiii. and xxxiv. 
in the thought of a conditional separation be- 
tween Jehovah ,and the camp of the sinful people, 
or of an intensified unapproachableness of Jeho- 
vah, expressed in a stricter form of the hierarchy. 
As the people at first (xx. 18, 19) gave provocation 
for the hierarchical mediatorship which Moses 
still provisionally administers, so now by their 
guilt they have made it stricter. Here belongs the 
circumstance that they could not endure the splen- 
dor on Moses' face. That the real tabernacle is 
not here treated of, is evident from the fact that 
Moses at once applied to this tent the name "tent 
(or tabernacle) of the testimony " in the sense 
that Jehovah was to be accessible to the people 
only at a distance from the camp.* According 
to the familiar style of criticism the idea of a 
sanctuary arises only in connection with the 
actual building, whereas, on the contrary, in 
fact the idea of the sanctuary long preceded the 
erection of the symbolic building, and might 
well have been all along provisionally repre- 
sented. See further conclusions in Knobel, 
p. 310 sqq. It is to be considered, in reference 
to this theory of a combination of different docu- 
ments, that each part by itself would yield only 
a caricature, though one may admit the thought 
of editorial changes to accord with further de- 
velopments of the same institution. On the tables 
of the law vid. archaeological observations in 
Knobel, p. 314. 

Ver. 1. When the people saw. — Moses' 



EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL. 

One of the grandest contrasts contained in 
the Scriptures is presented in the fact that 
Moses on the top of the mountain was having 
his vision of the tabernacle, i e., was receiving 
the revelation of the true system of worship, 
and, as the central feature of it, the tables of 
the liiw, whilst the people at the foot of the 
mountain in their impatience resorted to the 
worship of the golden calf, and in this lapse even 
secured the services of the man just called to be 
high-priest. The Bible, it is true, is rich in 
kindred cmtrasts, e. g., the transfiguration of 
Christ on the mount contrasted with the scene 
of the impotence of the disciples in relation to 
the demoniac in the valley; or the institution of 
the Lord's Supper contrasted with Judas's trea- 
son. But this Old Testament contrast is distin- 
guished above others by its scenic and artistic 
grandeur. For all periods of the history of the 
kingdom of God and of the church the fact is 
here set fonh, that every individual period of 
time has a double history — the one above on the 
mount, the other beneath in the valley : whenever 
the popular rabble, with the connivance of high- 
priests, are dancing around the golden calf, there 
is taking place above upon the mountain of light, 
of terror, and of salvation something new and 
mysterious, which also in due time manifests 
Itself in judgment and deliverance. 

a. The Golden Calf. Vers. 1-6. 
Knobel calls the account of the tables of the 
law and of the golden calf a Jehovistic interpola- 
tion, p. 310. The manner in which he unfolds 
his thought strikingly illustrates the dulness in 
apprehending the spirit of the text which charac- 
terizes the theory that the text is a patchwork 
of two heterogeneous elements. According to 
him, xxxiii. 7-11 presents an account of the ta- 
bernacle, whereas the Elohist does not narrate 
the erection of it till as late as chap. xxxv. This 
style of criticism seems not to have the faintest 



* [This is oV'Bciiro. Tf the rpferenco ie (as apparently it is) 
to the t-nt spoken of in xxxiii. 7 sqq , then it is incorrect to 
say that Moses called it " the tent of the testimony." And 
even if he had so called it, it is not clear how that name 
would indicate that Jehovah was to be found only outside 
the camp.— Te.] 



132 



EXODUS. 



long absence made the people feel like a swarm 
of bees that have lost their queen. We must 
consider that they were waiting, idle, and in 
suspense, at the foot of the mountain; that they 
were accustomed to see in Moses a representa- 
tive of the Deity that was now wanting; that all 
the way from Egypt they had in their memory 
■visible sigus from God, and were conscious that 
they were required to go onward from Sinai. 
Moreover, they had seen how Moses went into 
the darkness and fiery flames of the mountain. 
80 that it was natural to imagine that be had 
perished. Furthermore, Aaron, on aconuut of 
his personal weakness, could not satisfy them as 
Moses' representative. Therefore impatience, 
fear, sensuous religious conceptions, vexation at 
Moses' audacious marching into the terrors of 
Jehovab and into invisible regions,— these things, 
and in addition Aaron's weiiknes.s as a sub.stitute 
for Moses, worked together to transform the trial 
of faith which was laid on the people into a great 
temptation, to which they succumbed. Their 
vexation is directed against Aaron, the second 
leader, whom they now wish violently to make 
their chief, but on condition that he yields to 
them and supplements himself by means of an 
idol. That they are not asking for foreign gods 
(pluralj, is shown by the connection. For the 
theocracy, therefore, they wish to substitute a 
hierarchical democracy and a superstitious wor- 
ship. This is not strictly an apostasy from 
Jehovah; they only want an ioaage of Him to 
symbolize His leadership. The imnge of the 

golden calf, the young bull {'7JJ<), borrowed from 
the Egyptian Apis, but designed symbolically to 
represent Jehovah, is not expressly named in 
their request, but was doubtless from the first in 
their minds. This image is to go before them, 
an ill-chosen symbol for them, since the ox, which 
afterwards again appears in the vision of the 
cherubim, acquires a significance in tne theocratic 
system only as supplemented by the lion or the 
eagle; by itself alone it represented the Egyptian 
conception of death (or the generative power of 
nature). Nevertheless the Israelites are not con- 
(■oious that their demand implies an apostasy, 
just as Jeroboam also thought that he could pre- 
serve the Israelitish faith in the form of the calf- 
worship. They intend to associate Jehovah with 
tlie image, and to go on under His guidance. 
But how hopeless they are respecting Moses' 
leadership, as if he had brought them out of 
Egypt to leave them in the wilderness (a mood 
of mind which Protestants often cherish and 
express in reference to the Reformers), is to be 
seen in their utterance concerning Moses ; and 
how far advanced they are on the downward 
road to apostasy, is shown at once by the jovial 
festival which is connected with the new worship, 
in imitation of heathen riles. 

Ver. 2. And Aaron said unto them.— With 
a mistaken cunning, such as is apt to grow up 
with a hierarchy, he hopes to deter them from 
their desire by bruskly demanding a great 
sacrifice; but he deceived himself. Religions 
that are the outgrowth of sensiMus and selfish 
passions generally produce a fanatical readiness 
to make sacrifices. 

Ver. 3. And fashioned [Lange: sketched] 



it. It seems to us more natural to refer iflK [it] 
forwards to the golden calf than backwards to 
the ear-rings, instead of which "gold" must be 
understood as the object. Moreover it would 
be an inversion of the natural order to speak first 
of the polishing of the cast with a chisel, and 
then of the casting itself. We therefore trans- 
late with Luther, "he sketched it with a pen 
(style) " — a more probable meaning of Oin 
than " chisel."* On Aaron's excuse, see ver. 24. 
That the golden calf consisted of a wooden figure 
overlaid with gold plate, is urged by Keil 
[especially from Isa. xl. 19 and xxx. 22, where 
such images are described and in the latter pas- 
sage are called even "molten images," and] from 
the circumstance that the manner of its destruc- 
tion implies the existence of wooden [combustible] 
elements. And they said. — The god is pro- 
claimed. Aaron thinks he can relieve the matter 
by building an altar and proclaiming a feast to 
Jehovah for the morrow. 

Ver. 6. And offered burnt-offerings.-There 
is nothing about sin-ofl['erings in connection with 
this new worship. The chief feature consists in 
the pea'ce-offerings and the sacrificial meal, fol- 
lowed by the merry festive games. 

b. Ood's Judgment and Moses' Intercession. Vers. 
7-14. 

Ver. 7. And Jehovah said. — It is not known 
below what is taking place upon the mountain; 
but on the mountain it is well known what is 
going on below. — Go, get thee do'wn. Lively 
expression of indignation, affecting even Moses. 
Under such a condition of God's people. His work 
on the mountain is interrupted. " Tky" people, 
it is significantly said, though Keil questions 
this [explaining the phrase as merely meaning 
that Moses, as mediator of the people, must re- 
present them.] The covenant is broken. Thus 
the people practically deny that Jehovah has 
brought them up out of Egypt. 

Ver. 8. Turned aside quickly. — As if they 
had been in a hurry about it. Hence the guilt 
was all the greater, comp. Gal. i. — And have 
■worshipped it. So Jehovah judges concerning 
the image-worship of the people ; that they intend 
to worship Him in their service, He does not 
acknowledge. Hence we translate here too, 
'•These are thy gods;" in the pretended image 
of God He sees the germ of idolatry, a deviation 
from the way of revelation which He had com- 
manded. 

Ver. 9. A stiS-necked people.- Firf. xxxiii. 
3,5; xxxiv. 9; Deut. ix. 6. Literally, "hard of 
neck." The expression seems to have been bor- 
rowed from the trait of an unruly draught-animal. 
The self-will of the people has shown itself to be 
an obstinate repugnance to Jehovah's guidance, 
hard to overcome. 

Ver. 10. Let me alone. — That which delays the 
destruction of the people is even now Moses' me- 
diatorial connection with his people, as expressed 
in his mood of mind even before he made any 
utterance. Yet the promise given to Abraham 



* [See under " Textual and Qmmmatioal." Lange'B inter- 
pretation 19 plau<iible ; but "1 V"! can hardly be made to menfl 

*' sketched " — all the less, ina-smuch as the suppi^fied olyec^ 
the call, has not yet been h.nted at.— Ta.] 



CHAP. XXXII. 1-35. 



133 



cannot fail — a fact continually re-appearing in 
the prophetic writings, and, in all its grandeur, 
in the New Testament (m'rf. Rom.iv. 11). The rem- 
nant of Israelitish fidelity is now concentrated 
in Moses ; hence God says, "I will make of thee 
a great nation." The judgment is a xpiai;, dis- 
tinction and separation. It was natural to think 
that Moses might separate himself from his 
people, and that then the people would fall a 
prey to destruction in the wilderness. The mo- 
tives contend with one another in Moses' soul, 
as if between God and Moses. The phrase "let 
me alone," according to Gregory the Great and 
Keil, was designed only to give to Moses an 
opportunity to utter deprecations. But this 
neat remark of theirs obliterates the sentiment 
of righteousness expre.ssed in the phr.ase. 

Vers. 11, 12. And Moses besought Jeho- 
vah — Here appears the original, real priest. 
He contends in a most fervent prayer with the 
face of Jehovah, with His revealed form now 
present to him; not, however, chiefly for him- 
self, but for his peopli", even with a renunciation 
of self and of the grand prospect opened to him. 
He appeals to Jehovah's self-consistency, and, 
in contrast with Jehovah's expression 'thy peo- 
ple, Moses," he says, " thy people, Jehovah, 
which thou hast brought out of Egypt." His 
appeal to Jehovah's honor, as not enduring that 
the Egyptians should scofiF at His word and revile 
Him, expresses the genuinely religious sentiment, 
which pervades the whole Bible, that the ruin of 
God's people, merited as it is on acoonn' of their 
sins, would also plunge the heathen nations into 
complete destruction. According to Keil the 
expression, " 1 will make of thee a great nation," 
was only a great temptation. Vid Num. xiv. 12; 
Deut. ix. 14.— Turn from thy fierce wrath, 
and repent of this evil. This strong anthro- 
popathic expression conveys the correct senti- 
ment, that Jehovah may assume another attitude 
towards the people, when He sees that Moses' 
compassion for, and adheren'-e to, his people 
opens to them a different and better prospect. 

Ver. 13. Remember Abraham. — This call- 
ing to Jehovah's mind the great promises which 
He had made to the patriarchs is seen in its full 
importance, when we consider that Moses not 
only has declined the splendid offer of becoming 
the patriarch of God's people, but also in his 
humility is not conscious of the fact that his own 
intercession for the people has any weight. 

Ver. 14. And Jehovah repented of the 
evil. — In the sphere of personal life, of the theo- 
cratic world, of the kingdom of God, the believer 
may talk, — may even reason, with his God. It 
is not here man's part to be absolutely silent 
before the silent infliction, and give way to ran- 
cor and despair, but as a personal being to talk 
with the personal God, as a child with his mo- 
ther. Of course headstrong selfishness is in 
this case entirely forbidden ; but to make in- 
quiry of Jehovah is not only allowable, but is in 
accordance with the spiritual nature; and it is 
only by way of inquiry, wrestling inquiry, that 
man obtains the answer which brings at once 
tranquillity and knowledge, and whose consum- 
mate result is that lofty absence of will which 
consists in surrender to, and union with, the will 
of God. Thus then Moses asks, "Wherefore?" 



as afterwards so many saints, and as at last 
Christ did in Gethsemane and on the cross. 
With man'? attitude towards God, however, 
God's attitude towards man Is changed; and He 
repents of the threatened evil, beciuae He is the 
unchangeable one, not in fatalistic cnpriee, but 
in truth and grace. On ver. 14 Keil remarks, 
by way of correction, "This is a remark which 
anticipates the history. God dismissed Moses 
without any such assurance, in ordfr that He 
might disclose to the people the full severity of 
the divine wrath." This explanation destroys 
the fine contrast between the two facts that, on 
the one hand, Moaes in the mountain presents 
nothing but intercessions to God, and also re- 
ceives the assurance that the people are par- 
doned ; while, on the other hand, at the foot of 
the mountain he denounces a stern judgment on 
the sin of the people with an anger which is 
heightened especially by the sight of the apos- 
tasy. The full severity of the divine anger 
would have been the destruction of the people. 
Moses' intercession in ver. 32 does not refer to 
the existence of the people, but their covenant 
relations. Peter, too, needed a twofold assurance 
of pardon, vid. John xx. 21. 

c. The Trial and Punishment of Aaron. Vers. 15-24. 

Vers. 15, 16. And Moses turned. Special 
mention is made of the fact that he was carrying 
in his hand an invaluable treasure, the two tables 
of the testimony. The tables themselves had 
been prepared by God, the writing also by God; 
and the tables were written all over. It was 
therefore all the more frightful, that the people 
at the foot of the mountain had so entirely de- 
stroyed the value of the heavenly treasure, had 
so decidedly annulled the covenant writing by 
their breach of the covenant, that Moses felt 
moved to dash the tables to pieces. 

Vers. 17, 18. When Joshua heard — It is a 
very characteristic feature, that the young hero 
(vid. chap, xvii.) imagines that in the noise he 
hears the tumult of war. Keil, referring to xxiv. 
13, conceives that Moses, as he was "going away 
from God," met Joshua on the mountain. The 
text clearly represents Joshua as having gone 
upon the mountain in company with VIoses. As 
a servant he belongs to his master, and in so far 
he has the precedence over Aaron. But Moaes 
correctly detects the autiphonies of the new wor- 
ship amidst the tumult. That which was common 
to the two in their apprehension seems to have 
been the perception of two kinds of sound. — We 
are to distinguish between the Kal and the Piel 
of the verb HK?. Keil renders: "It is not the 
sound of the answer of power, and not the sound 
of the answer of weakness, i. e., they are not 
sounds such as the strong (the victorious) and 
the weak (the conquered) utter." The antipho- 
nal songs were sung for the round dance. — 
Knobel thinks there is a contradiction between 
this and ver. 7 [where it is said that Moses was 
informed of what was going on below. But it is 
not said that Joshua had been informed, and 
there is no evidence that Moses had mistaken 
the sound. — Tb.] 

Ver. 19. Moses' anger Twaxed hot. — And 
yet he is the same one who by his intercession 



134 



EXODUS. 



has saved Israel. His anger and his compas- 
sion have a common source. But he is excited 
by the actual sight. Of this power of physical 
perception the Scriptures mention many in- 
stances, e. g., " when Jacob saw the wagons," tic. 
(Gen. xlv. 27). The breaking of the tables is 
nowhere rebuked; therefore his emotion was 
justifiable. The tables as representing the enact- 
ment of the covenant had been annulled by the 
people; the breaking of them symbolizes the 
breach of the covenant. Moreover this act of 
breaking the tables shows that Moses did not 
regard the law as a law of curses, but as a great 
gift from Jehovah of which the people had made 
themselves unworthy; otherwise he would just 
at this time have been inclined to hold the tables 
aloft. But could he not have concealed them? 
This question suggests anoiher point. The tables 
of the law. in case the people repented, might 
have bi'come to them an object of superstitious 
adoration. Hence afterwards the new tables lay 
covered in the ark in the obscurity of the Holy 
of holies. So also at a later time Hezekiah had 
to destroy the brazen serpent in order to keep it 
from superstitious regard. The temple had to 
be twice consumed with fire. God's people often 
had to be driven by the terrors of God from the. 
outward to the inward ; for it is only as one looks 
within that he looks up. 

Ver. 20 And he took the calf. — First of 
all the object of their adoration, the idol, had to 
be destroyed. A calf of solid gold could not be 
burned, but it might have been put into the fire. 
The wooden image was thus burned. The golden 
phite was melted, and this was then in particular 
beaten to pieces. The whole powdered mass 
was thrown upon the water, the gold sinking and 
st-rving then only a symbolic purpose, whilst the 
ashes of the wood might have been served up to 
tlie people as a drink of penance or of cursing — 
nil which is doublless to be conceived as a sym- 
bolic act enforced chiefly on the most guilty, 
especially as the brook into which the dust had 
been thrown was a flowing one (Deut. ix. 21). 
Knobel says, " He shames them by making clear 
to them the nothingness of their god, and humbles 
them by such a treatment of it: they are obliged 
even to devour their own god — a severe punish- 
ment for the idolaters. The Egyptians had a very 
lively horror of consuming the animals reven-d 
as deities, and would sooner have eaten human 
flesh (/^wrf I , 84)." This is intelligible. But 
what Keil says is unintelligible : " This making 
the people drink was certainly (!| not for the 
purpose of shaming them by making manifest lo 

them the nothingness of their god but 

was designed symbolically to incorporate (?) for 
them sin with its consequences, to pour it, as it 
were, with the water, into their inwards, as a 
symbolic sign that they would have to bear it 
and suffer for it, just as the woman suspected of 
adultery was obliged to drink the water of cursing 
(Num. V. 24)." The cases here made parallel are 
entirely different. In the precept in Num. v. no 
guilt is to be "incorporated" by the water of 
cursing, but it is to be determined whether there 
Is any guilt. But in the present case there was 
no occasion for any process of delecting guilt; 
the Jews themselves certainly had an immediate 
consciousness of it in consequence of Moses' de- 



nunciation, whereas they would hardly have 
understood Moses' obscure symbol. If we con- 
sider the analogy of the red heifer, whose 
ashes were sprinkled as a hherem, it would be 
more natural to assume that the people by drink- 
ing the ashes of (his hherem were themselves 
marked as involved in the hherem, and so were 
prepared for a sentence which was soon after- 
wards executed. Anxiety to maintain the letter 
of the narrative has led some to speak of a che- 
mical calcination of the gold, as being necessary 
in order to its being ground fine (Rosenmuller 
and others). Knobel imputes this meaning to 
the writer in order to convict him of error, while 
Keil seems inclined to suppose that the gold for 
the most part disappeared in the melting process. 
Ver. 21 sqq. And Moses said unto Aaron. 
The question is sharp. — It makes Aaron morally 
the chief author of the sin, even though in re- 
ference to the motive it admits some excuse. 
The word T\wy ("hath done") maybe under- 
stood in two ways. Keil explains it to mean, 
" What have they done unto thee? ' so that the 
question implies that the people have compelled 
Aaron by some act of great violence. But it is 
more obvious to find in the question the sharper 
rebuke: "Has this people committed an offence 
against thee, that thou couldst let them fall into 
such a sin?" Aaron's excuse is an expression 
of his weakness of character. The best thing 
about him is, that he submits entirely to Moses' 
authority; the worst, that he throws the blame 
entirely on the people, and that he represents 
the golden calf as an almost accidental image 
produced by the fire, while he pretends that he 
himself threw the gold into the fire with a feeling 
of contempt, and for the purpose of destroying 
it. Deut. ix. 20 supplements the narrative. Tliat 
Moses makes no reply, must mean something 
more than "that he deems him not worthy of an 
answer" (Keil); his answer is involved in the 
ensuing judgment, in which it must be made 
manifest that there is a difference between 
Aaron's sin of weakness and the wickedness of 
the apostates. 

d. The Punishment of the People. Vers. 25-29. 
The ground for the severe procedure now fol- 
lowing is given in ver. 25. A real distinction is 
made between the principal sin, that of the apos- 
tate people, and the sin of Aaron (or the Levites). 
The cure of the evil is quite analogous to the 
cure eflFeoted for the people by the campaign 
against the Midianites (Num. xxxi,) In this 
case the Midianites were the tempters, the Jews 
the tempted. But they were to be healed of their 
moral torpor by being required to inflict punitive 
judgment on the Midianites. So here it is tlie 
Levites, involved in the guilty weakness, whose 
approach in response to his call Moses seems 
from the first lo have expected. Knobel can 
understand the procedure only by assuming con- 
tradictions: "The narrative," he says, "is en- 
tirely improbable ; such a bloody command one 
cannot believe Moses to have made." Of course 
he has no conception of the significance of an 
army of God, nor of the fact that the decimations 
which still take place in the modern military 
history of Christendom are not yet recorded in 
archaeological statistics, although they date from 



CHAP. XXXII. 1-35. 



135 



antiquity. — For a hissing among their ene- 
mies. Keil understaud» tliid of tuu puuishmeut 
of the people; but by this very punishment the 
hissing of the adversaries was suppressed. 

Ver. 26. Then Moses stood in the gate of 
the camp. — The eamp is unclean and lies under 
sentenoe (Heb. xlii, 13); from without the camp 
new purity must be procured. With this circum- 
stance is connected the subsequent removal of 
ttie provisional tabernacle from the camp, as 
well as Jehovah's refusal to go with the people in 
the midst of the eamp. Knobel says, " He takes 
his stand at the head-quarters of the camp" (!). 
Moses' heroic decision, expressed in the most 
energetic language, has the effect of bringing all 
the Levites to his side. But since the other tribes, 
although terrified, did not come to him, a divi- 
sion, a contest, and condemnation became neces- 
sary. Why the Levites? Keil quotes, in answer 
to this, Cornelius a Lapide : [" Because the most 
of the Levites did not join in the sin of the peo- 
ple and the worship of the calf, and because this 
displeased them."] Why not the other tribes? 
Keil quotes CaWin's answer: ["They were not 
held back by contempt or obstinacy, but only by 
shame, and all of them were so smitten with ter- 
ror that they waited in astonishment to see what 
Moses' intention was, and how far he would pro- 
ceed."]* In this matter one must guard against 
such a view of historic causes as deals with 
merely outward motives. A peculiar religious 
energy was inherited by the tribe of Levi from 
their ancestor (Gen. xxxiv.) ; and though it was 
liable to lead astray, yet here it followed a higher 
summons, as it also atoned for the wrong done 
at the water of strife. Deul. xxxiii. 8 sqq. 

Vers. 27, 28. Put ye every man his sword by 
his side. — The frightful command clearly does 
not contemplate a slaughter as great as possible. 
They are to pass twice through the length of the 
camp, going and returning. In this course every 
one is to kill his brother, friend, neighbor. Does 
that mean, simply, without any regard to exist- 
ing relations of friendship? Chiefly this, no 
doubt. But when we consider that the Levite 
had no longer any literal brother in the camp, 
the Levites having all joined Moses, it follows 
that referepce is made to figurative brotherhood 
and friendship, such as had just acted as a snare 
to the Levite. That only three thousand men 
fell indicates that a selection was made according 
to special considerations. And in this way also 
the fact is explained, tliat the terified people 
could let this punitive infliction take place. Va- 
rious solutions of the diificulty involved in this 
event are given by Keil. 

Ver. 29. Consecrate yourselves [Lit. Pill 
your hands]. — According to the context it is 
necessary to suppose that Moses uttered these 
words before the execution of the offenders, and 
in order to explain that it was like an ofl^ering for 
Jehovah, an offering of the hardest kind of self- 
denial and self-renunciation ; furthermore we 



* [It Bhould be said that Keil r6,Karii3 neither of thpse an- 
Bwera as satisfactory. On the first p lint he says that rhe 
reason assigned is not the oiJy or the chief one, but that it 
is to be found partly in the fact that " tli- Levites came mo e 
promptly to a renognition of their offence aod to a resolution 
of penitence and conversion, partly in tbetr regard for 
Moses, who belonged to their tribe." — Ta. 



must suppose that he did not mean this in the 
literal sense, but comparatively, in order in the 
strongest manner to express the truth that their 
obedience and self-denial were pleasing to God. 
The slain were indeed made a hkerem, or curse- 
offering, because after their great wickedness 
they had defiantly remained in the camp ; but 
the hherem was nevertheless not properly an 
offering for Jehovah. The addition, so that a 
blessing may be given to you, also presents 
the execution in the light of the removal of a 
curse. On the untenable explanation, that they 
were obliged, after the slaughter, to make atone- 
ment by means of an offering (Jonathan, Kurtz), 
see Keil [who says, " To fill the hands for Jeho- 
vah does not mean to bring Him an offering, but 
to provide one's self with something to bring to 

God Moreover it is incomprehensible how 

the execution of a divine command, or an act 
of obedience towards the expressed will of God, 
can be imputed to one as blood-guiltiness or as 
an offence needing expiation."] 

e. Moses' Intercession and Jehovah's Conditional 
Pardon of the Peopl . Vers. 30-35. 

Ver. 30. As in the history of the fallen Peter 
we must distinguish between the pardon which 
he received as a Christian (John xx.) and that 
which he received as an apostle (John xxi.), so 
in reference to Israel we must distinguish be- 
tween the first abrogation of the sentence of de- 
struction and the renewal of the people's call- 
ing. The first pardon is expressed in ver. 14; 
the other is first introduced by the judgment 
upon the people, and in this section it is condi- 
tionally secured through Moses' powerful inter- 
cession and mediation. Keil makes so little 
distinction between the two things that he even 
says that Moses after his first petition (vers. 11- 
13) received no assurance of favor — which is 
inconsistent with ver. 14. But we have here 
nothing to do, as Keil represents, with " an auger 
that threatens destruction." Israel might now 
indeed continue to exist as a people, but yet have 
forfeited their vocation. This is just the point 
here treated of. Hence Moses does not say to 
the people. The offence is expiated ; but he 
also does not speak of a crime which is still to 
be expiated with a hherem. He speaks of a great 
sin which, however, may perhaps be covered 
by means of an expiation. In what this expia- 
tion is to consist, he does not tell the people — for 
therein, too, his nobleness appears — but he says 
to Jehovah that he will surrender himself to the 
judgment of God in behalf of the people. Since 
now the question is here not one of existence, 
but one of vocation, Moses' offer to sacrifice 
himself is also modified accordingly. It is 
true, this intercession is vastly more intense than 
the former one (ver. 11). He would rather be 
blotted, with the people, out of the book of life, 
of theocratic citizenship, than without the people 
to stand in the book ahme. As mediating priest 
he has come as far as to the thought of going to 
destruction with the people, but not for them. 
Moreover he offers to submit to the sentence only 
hypothetically — in case Jehovah will not pardon 
the people. But he is primarily seeking for the 
pardon of only this one great sin. Thus we see 



136 



EX0DUB7 



expiation germinant in the form of suffering I033; 
it is not yet seen in its bloom and fruitage: else 
the condition would not be, "Grace or judg- 
ment," but, "Through judgment the highest 
grace." Nevertheless this is the moment when 
Moses comes into closest contact with the priest- 
hood of the New Testament. Abraham's inter- 
cession for Sodom is one precursor of it; stronger 
still is Judah's intercession for Benjamin {vid. 
Comm. on Gen. xUt. 18 E.qq.); and, as a N. T. 
analogy, Paul's language in Rom. ix. 3 has been 
adduced {vid. Comm. on Romans). In Paul's 
words appears indeed the phrase "for the Jewish 
people; " but it is a question what the exact mean- 
ing is. In intercession there are indeed degrees 
of self-denial and ecstasy in which human logic 
seems almost to be swallowed up in a sort of 
divine folly. — Jehovah brings Moses back to the 
legal stand-point, and all the more, as he has not 
yet attained the full expres'iion and full act of 
expiation, and the realization of it is conditioned 
on an antecedent visitation of the people (ver. 
34). This visitation, however, can be realized 
only as the people are conducted further on 
their way. So then there is involved a condi- 
tional re-adoption of the people in the words, 
"Go, lead the people," etc. It is conditioned, 
in the first place, by the bsoure expression. 



" My angel shall go before thee," the stern mean- 
ing of which is afterwards explained ; secondly, 
by the proviso of a future visitation which was 
to be at once a gracious and a judicial visitation. 
Thus the people are smitten doubly: first, by 
Moses' judicial punishment (ver. 27); secondly, 
by the above-mentioned conditions connected 
with their re-adoption. And this is done be- 
cause, as ver. 85 declares, the people, strictly 
speaking, had made the calf which they had in- 
duced Aaron to make. " The book whicb Jeho- 
vah has written is the book of life, or of the 
living, Ps.lxix. 29 (28); Uan.xii. 1. This concep- 
tion is derived from the custom of making a list 
of the names of the citizens of a kingdom or of a 
city" (Keil). — From this it appears that the book 
is primarily the roll of citizens of the kingdom 
of God, in the theocratic sense; and the notion 
becomes more and more profound as we advance 
through the Scriptures, comp. Isa. iv. 3; Dan. 
xii. 1 ; Phil. iv. 3 ; Rev. iii. 5. Keil finds the 
day of visitation in the judicial infliction at Ka- 
desh (Num. xiv. 26sqq.), according to whiih that 
generation was to die in the wilderness. But 
the text allows a distinction to be made between 
the day of visitation in the more general sense 
and the special retributive visitation. It desig- 
nates the whole perspective of punitive judg- 
ments as seen in the light of graoe. 



SECOND SECTION. 



stricter Separation between Jehovah and the People. Removal of Moses' Tent— 
the Provisional Tabernacle — out of the Camp. The Giacious Token. 

Chapter XXXIII. 1-23. 



A.— APPOINTMENT OF AN ANGEL TO BE ISRAEL'S LEADER, INSTEAD OF JEHOVAH'S 

IMMEDIATE GUIDANCE. 

Vers. 1-6. 

1 And Jehovah said unto Moses, Depart and go up [Away, go up] hence, thou 
and the people which thou hast brought up out of the land of Egypt, unto the 
land which [of which] I sware unto Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, saying, Unto 

2 thy seed will I give it: And I will send an angel before thee; and I will drive out 
the Cana nite, the Ainorite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the 

3 Jebusite: Unto a land flowing with milk and honey: for I will not go up in the 
midst of thee; for thou art a still-necked people: lest I consume thee in the way. 

4 And when the people heard these evil tidings, they mourned, and no man did put 

5 on him his ornaments. For Jehovah had said [And Jehovah said] unto Moses, 
Say unto the children of Israel, Ye are a stiff-necked people : I will come up into 
the midst of thee in a moment, and consume thee [were I to go up in the midst of 
thee one moment, I should consume thee] : therefore now pu off thy ornaments 

6 from thee, that I may know what to do unto thee. And the children of Israel 
stripped themselves of their ornaments, by the mount Horeb [from Mount Horeb 
onward]. 



CHAP. XXXIII. 1-23. 137 



B.— REMOVAL OF MOSES' TENT, AS A SORT OF TRADITIONAL TABERNACLE, BEFORE 
THE CAMP. THE THEOCRATIC DISCIPLINARY CHASTISEMENT. 

"Vers. 7-11. 

7 And Moses took the taberoacle [tent], and pitched it without the camp, afar off 
from the camp, and called it the Tabernacle of the congregation [tent of meeting]. 
And it came to pass, that every one whi^ h [who] sought Jehovah went out unto the 
tabernacle of the congregation [tent of meeting], which was without the camp. 

8 And it came to pass, when Moses went out unto the ta'Dernacle [tent], that all the 
people rose up, and stood every man at his tent door, and looked after Moses, until 

9 he was gone into the tabernacle [tent]. And it came to pass, as Moses entered into the 
tabernacle [tent], the cloudy pillar [pillar of cloud] descended, and stood at the 

10 door of the tabernacle [tent], and Jehovah talked -with Moses, And all the people 
saw the cloudy pillar [pillar of cloud] stand [standing] at the tabernacle door [door 
of the tent] : and all the people rose up and worshipped, every man in fai] his tent 

11 door. And Jehovah spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his 
friend. And he turned again into the camp : but his servant Joshua, the son of 
Nun, a young man, departed not out of the tabernacle [tent].^ 

TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL. 

1 [Vera. V-ll. We have left the A . V. Bubstantially unchanged out of deference to the uniform translation of the verBions 
and cnmmentators. But the lace ought to be noticed that the verbs in this section are Future verbs throughout. This fact 
baa an important bearing on the exegesis of the passage. 

There are three opinions about this tent: (1) That it is Mos s' own tent. (2) That it is 8')me old sacred tent used pro- 
visionallir as a sanctuary. (3) That it ib the real tabernacle, but that the xtasaage is out of place. The latt r hvpothpsiR, 
of court>e, should bo adopted only as a last resort. Against both the others it is to be said : (a.) The phrase " the tent '' is 

not easily to be accounted for. If it was Atoses' teut, why not i7^^{, "bia tent?" If another, nowhere else hinted at, 

T: t 

why BO indefinite a desiKnation of it? As Rosenmuller pertinently observes, it cannot well be Mobpb' own tent, since he is 
represented as '^oing iulo it only for the sp-cial piirpo-.n of commuuing with God. (b) B»ou on either of these two hypo- 
tbes -ti there is an interruption in the narra ive aa real, if not as strange, as on the theory that we have here an account of 
what was dnne with the real tabernacle before it was built. Ver. 12 is clearly a resumption of ver. 3— Moses' iiitercees on 
with Jehovah. That vern. 7-11 should here intervene, not by way of an announetment on Jehovah's part of Ui^ purpose^ but 
as a kistfincal account of the ordinary subsequentyac/, is extremely unnatural, especially as at the close of it, the same tone 
of entreaty and personal intercourse is resumed, (cj It seems improbable that anything bur the real Tent of meeting Bhould 
have het-u called 8uch before the real one was built, (d) The fact that the verbs in this section are future furnishes a natu- 
ral solution of the whole difficulty. So far as I have observed, no one baa noticed this fact at all except Knobel and Bottcher 
(Lehrbuch der Hub. Spraehe., II., p. 162). Knot)el simply refers to the case in xv. 5 as a parallel. But there, bt^ says cor- 
rectly, the Kuture is used as a graphic form lor the Present. This is an explanation not satisfa'tory here, where there is 
DO pottry, and where the very uuifi^rmity and frequency of the Tuture verbs are sufficii-nt to overthrow tiny sut;h theory. 
B6ttctier more plausibly classes this amont; the instances in which cu-tomary past actions are described by the use of the 
Future. But even on this assumption we get no reli^^f from the vaious p rplexities above described. 

Now by simply translating tbe Futures as Futures we at once see light. We thus make ita continuation of ver. 5 (ver. 

6 being pureath' tical). The reasons for so translating are simple and cogent : (l)Itis the most natural and obvious way 
to render the verbs. The burden of proof rests with those who render them otherwise. (2) It relieves us of the necessity 
of supposing thac the section is out of place. (3) It relieves us of the necessity of drawine on our imagination for ''the 
tent" so mysteriously introduced. It is neither " his (Moses') tent," nor some unheard-of old tent with sacred associations, 
but simply " the tent " which has been so minutely described and which is soon to be built. (4) The section thus translated 
is in excellent ha.mony with the context. In ver. 5 God says to the people, *'Put off thy ornaments from thee, that I may 
know what to do unto thee." What follows in vers. 7-11 is a description of what God will do unto ihem. It contains a 
general direction concerning tbe way in which God is to lead the people. This is the question considered in xxxii. 34-xxxiii. 3. 
In what now follows (ver. 12 sqq.) the same theme is still discusspd. Moses* language, " See, ihou sayest unto me, Bring up 
thin people," obviously points back to vers. 1-3. What intervener is only an expansion of tbe statement of ver. 3, " I will 
not go up in the midst of'thee." The antithesis is between going in the midet of^ and going far ffffrorri: According to ver. 

7 the tent was to be pitched " afar off from the camp ;" there J'hovah mip;ht be sought and found : and there (v r. 9) Jeho- 
vah talked with Moaes. We thus see thac the angel spoken of in xxxii. 34 and xxx ii. 2 is not s«^t over against Jehovah as 
a 8U,hBtitute for Him : tbe angel himself is not to go "in the midst of," but '■ before" tbe people. 

It remains to notice some objections: (1) Joshua was to remain in the tent, whereas, according to Num. iii. 10, 38, 
xviii. 7, only the pri* sts besides Moses could enter it.— But lo this it may be replied that, ir Joshua, as Moses' confidential 
servant, could go with him to the mountain top whf n the law wns to be given, he might accompany him into theaancfuary; 
and this fact would ueed no special mention in the pa'-sages just referred to. — (2) The object of this tent f-eema to be dif- 
ferent from that of the sanctuary ; no m'^ntion is ma^ie of Aaron and the sacrifices, but only of Moses and the people going 
to it to meet with Gr 'd.— But this ia all that it is necessary or proper to mention in this connecti'in. A nd the same thing U 
a'po said of the real Tent of meetinir ; e. g., xxv. 22, " There [by the mercy-seat] I will meet with thee [Moses "J ; xxix. 43, 
"And there fat tbe tabernacle] I will meet with the children of lBrael."~(3) These verses do not seem to be the language 
of Jehovah, being immediately preceded by the historical statement (v^r. 6), " the children of Israel stripped themselves of 
their ornaments." — This difficulty is easily removed by regarding ver. 6 as parenthetical, thus making ver. 7 sqq. a con- 
tiniialinn of the direi^tion-i b' gun in. ver. 5. Examples of such a construction, in which a historical statement immediately 
cotinccted with the topic treated of is interpolated in the midst of language quoted from another, are abundant. An exact 
parallel is found in Ex. iv. 4, 5, " And the Lord said unto Moses, Put forth thine band, and take it by the tail. (And he put 

forth his hand, and caught it, and it became a rod in his hand:) That they may believe that the Lord bath appeared 

unto thee." Precisely ao, iv. 7, 8; Matt. ix. 6; Mark ii. 10; Luke v. 24. In the paseage before us the statement of ver. 6 is 
naturally introduced in immediate connection with the corresponding command of ver. 5.— (4) The preceding objection 
seems to be strengthened by the consideration, th»t if vers. 7-11 are the words of Jehovah it is unnatural that both Jehovah 
and Moses should be spoken of here in the third pf.rson. — But such changes of person are too numerous in Hebrew to occa- 
sion any serious perplexity. In ver. 5 itself we have an instance of a looseness of this sort. We read: "Jehovah said unto 
Moset, Say unto the children of Israel, Ye are a stiflf-necked people:wereI [t. e., Moaes is to aay to the people, 'werel'] 
to go up in the midst of thee,*' €(c. The prophetical writings are full of similar instances of interchange of persoas. Ia 



138 



EXODPS. 



C —JEHOVAH'S DETERMINATION MODIFIED IN CONSEQUENCE OF MOSES' INTER- 
CESSION. THE PEOPLE HAVE A isHARE IN THE GEACE SHOWN TO MOSES. 

Vers. 12-23. 

12 And Moses said unto Jehovah, See, thou sayest unto me, Bring up this people: 
and thou hast not let me know whom [him whom] thou wilt send with me. Yet 
thou h^st said, I know thee by name, and thou hast also found grace in my sight. 

13 Now, therefore, I pray thee, if [Now therefore, if indeed] I have found grace in thy 
sight, show me now [I pray thee] thy way, that I may know thee, that I may find 

] 4 grace in thy sight : and consider that this nation is thy people. And he said, My 

15 presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest. And he said unto him, If thy 

16 presence go not with me, carry [take] us not up hence. For wherein shall it be 
known here [whereby now shall it be known] that I and thy people have found 
grace in thy sight? is it not in that thou goest with us? so shall we be [with us, 
and that we shall be] separated, I and thy people, from all the people that are upon 

17 the face of the earth ? And Jehovah said unto Moses, I will do this thing also 
that thou hast spoken : for thou hast found grace in ray sight, and I know thee by 

18 name. And he said, I beseech thee, shew me [said. Shew me, I pray thee] thy glorv. 

19 And he said, I will make all my goodness [excellence] pass before thee, and 1 will 
proclaim the name of Jehovah before thee : and will [I will] be gracious to whom 

20 I -nill be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. And he said, 
Thou canst notsee my face,for there shallnoman[forman shall not]see me, and live. 

21 And Jehovah said. Behold there is a place by me, and thou shalt stand upon a [the] 

22 rock : And it shall come to pass, while my glory passeth by, that I will put thee in 

23 a cleft of the rock, and will cover thee with my hand while I pass by: And I will 
take away mine [my] hand, and thou shalt see my back parts [back] : but my face 
shall not be seen. 

Ex. xxxiv,, J18 frfqxiently elsewhere, we have also instances of Jehovah speaking of Himself in the third person, vid. vers. 10, 
14, 23, 24, 2G. — (ii). The real tabernacle was not in fact sot up at a distance irom the camp, but in the centre of it, according 
to Num. ii. 2 sqq. But if we assume, as we must, that the sternness of Jehovah's regulations was relaxed ia consequence 
of Moses' imporiunato petition in ver. 12 sqq., there is no difQculty in the case. — T£.] 



EXEGETICAL, AND CRITICAL. 

This is one of the most mysterious chapters in 
all the three books of the covenant. It charac- 
terizes the Mosaic Middle Ages in the Old Tes- 
tament as essentially a theocratic conflict of the 
pure lave with the guilt incurred by the people 
through their idolatry. The people are par- 
doned; but their pardon is hierarchically condi- 
tioned. The first limitation consists In the fact 
that Jehovah will not go in the midst of the peo- 
ple to Canaan, because in that case they would 
expose themselves to condemnation through their 
transgressions; but that He will go before them 
by sending, or in the form of, an angel. The 
second limitation consists in the fact that Moses 
removes the provisional tabernacle out of the 
camp, by which act even the camp of the people 
of God, as being a place needing purification, is 
distinguished from the sanctuary. The third 
limitation consists in the fact that Moses himself, 
needing on account of his vocation a more dis- 
tinct revelation, is to behold, in the angel, the 
face of Jehovah — the gracious form in which Je- 
hovah reveals Himself; yet only in such a way 
that he is to see the glory of Jehovah in this apo- 
calyptic form not in a front view, as the face of 
the fnce, but from behind, i. «., in the after-splen- 
dor of the sudden phenomenal effects produced 
by Jehovah, and rapidly passing by the prophet's 



covered eyes. The first of these limitations marks 
the veiled revelation; the second, the increased 
difiiculty of holding communion with God; the 
third, the fact that the knowledge of sacred things 
is removed from the sphere of intuition, — is to be 
not so much an original perception as a matter 
of practical experience. — In his hunt for contra- 
dictions Knobel imagines that he has discovered 
several contradictions in this chapter. — "Accord- 
ing to the Elohist," he says, "Jehovah was going 
to dwell in the midst of Israel in the tabernacle; 
otherwise this account." According to the Elo- 
hist, he says again, the tabernacle was made 
from contributions; whereas here the ornaments 
delivered up were used in building the taber- 
nacle (!). Here, then, the real tabernacle is im- 
plied to be in existence before the time when it 
was afterwards built. According to the Elohist 
only the priests, besides Moses, could enter the 
tabernacle; here Joshua is represented as dwell- 
ing in it, etc. 

a. — Appointment of the Angel. Vers. 1-6. 
Ver. 1. ATway, go up. — Since the tables of 
the law were broken, and the tabernacle was 
not yet built (for the erection of it presupposed 
the existence of the new tables), the pardon of 
the people appears again in this command as a 
very limited one. God still says, "Thou and the 
people which thou hast brongiit up out of the 
land of Egypt," etc. (as in xxxii. 7). And be- 



CHAP. XXXIII. 1-23. 



139 



cause Jehovah is still determined to keep His 
word and to give the laud of Canaan to Abraham's 
seed, He will also help them to conquer it. He 
will send an angel of terror before the marching 
host to drive out the Canaanites, so that they 
shall come into the land that flows with milk and 
honey (md iii. 8). But it is not said that this 
angel is to be the angel of Jehovah in the most 
special sense of that term, the angel of His pre- 
sence, or of the covenant (the one in whom Je- 
hovah's name is, according to xxiii. 21); for the 
revelation of God has veiled itself again. The 
people obtain primarily only life, the ailvantnge 
over the Canaanites, and the promise of the land 
of Canaan "flowing with milk and honey," to 
shame them for their ingratitude. Ou the other 
hand Jehovah declares, "I will not go up in the 
midst of thee," etc. This, too, like the promise 
of the angel, is an obscure utterance. At all 
events, it implies the temporary suspension of 
legislation and of the building of the tabernacle. 
But after the people repent, the form of the 
angel becomes richer in significance, and access 
to the tabernacle is refused to the people only 
as a common matter. The reason assigned is, 
that the people in their stifF-neckedness cannot 
endure the immediate presence of Jehovah with- 
out incurring a sentence of destruction through 
their continual transgressions. This announce- 
ment of the obscuration of revelation — of the 
curtailment of the promise — falls on the people 
as a heavy infliction. Therein is recognized Is- 
rael's religious temperament, as also in the first 
pyinboUo expression of the common repentance 
of the people, ver. 4. How many heathen na- 
tions would have rejoiced, if God had declared 
that He would not dwell in the midst of them! 
This recognition of the fact that the people are 
in mourning and do not put on their ornaments as 
at other times, is not followed (in ver. 5), as Keil 
conceives, by another threat from Jehovah. It is 
nearly the same language as that in ver. 3, but 
yet is now used to give comfort. It would be 
the destruction of them, if He should go with 
them in the fullness of His revealed glory, in full 
fellowship, because this is simply beyond their 
copaoily, because they are born and grown up 
as a sliff-necked people. Here is found a key 
to the understanding of the Catholic Middle 
Ages, and of the parables of our Lord in Matt, 
xiii. How many a pietistic Christian, in conse- 
quence of an excess of religious fellowship and 
edification, in connection with a coarse nature, 
has fallen! — Nevertheless Jehovah gives them 
hope by turning into a precept their repentant 
act of laying off their ornaments. So then the 
children of Israel strip themselves of their orna- 
ments. TVe translate the words 3']l.in ino, "on 
account of mount Horeb," i. c, on account of 
the guilt here contracted, and of the divine 
punishment denounced from Horeb.* Horeb 
rests on them now as a burden. As to the 
explanation, "from mount Horeb onwards," 



* [This aeems to be an original interpretation of the phrase. 
Some understand it to mean: "returning from Horeb to 
tlieir camp;" others (with A. V.): "by Mount Horeb;" but 
the most; "from IMount Horeb onwards," i, e., the people 
from this tim.» on refrained from usins; them. To say, " from 
Mount Horeb," is certainly avery enifymatical way of saying 
" on account of the sin committed at Mt. Horeb." — Tb.J 



one cannot but ask, what is the terminus ad 
quern ? The terminua a quo also would be open to 
misunderstanding. " They put on none of th^ir 
rings, bracelets, jewels, or other ornaments, as 
was done on festive occasions, but went about as 
mourners. During the time of mourning it was 
customary to avoid all pomp, au'l not to deck 
one's self again till it was over (Ezek. xxiv. 17 ; 
xxvi. 16; Judith i. 8 sq ) " (Kuobel). 

6. Removal of the Tent of Revelation, or Central 
Tent, as a sort ofTradint nal Tabernacle, before the 
Camp. The Theocratic Chastisement. Vers. 7-11. 
The people are not restored to full communion 
with God ; but in the person of Moses this is re- 
served even for the people. Hence the new, pro- 
visional order of things. Moses removes his 
tent outside of the camp. Emphasis is laid on 
the fact thdt it was set up far from the camp, 
and also, that it was called by Moses the tent of 
meeting, showing that it was not the tabernacle 
iiself which had been before prescribed. The 
same is also shown by the fact that Joshua re- 
mains permanently in this tent to keep guard, 
and that Moses keeps up the oonnpction between 
the camp and the t-nt by remaining a part of 
the time in the camp, doubtleiss to maintain 
order, and a part of the time in the tent 
of meeting with Jehovah, to receive His reve. 
lations and commands.* Thus Moses has se- 
cured a new standpoint design!-d to bring the 
penitent people to a renewed life. The people 
must go out to him outside of the camp (Heb. 
xiii. 13), and there seek Jehovah. The effect of 
this is shown, first, in the fact that individuals 
among the people go out in order to seek and 
consult Jehovah at the tent of meeting (ver. 7) ; 
next, in the expression of reverence with which 
all the people accompanied Moses' going to the 
tent (ver. 8) ; but especially in tlie fact that all 
the people cast themselves on their faces, when 
the mysterious pillar of cloud appeared before 
the tent, i. e., where at a later time the .altar of 
burnt-offering stood, and beyond the cloud Je- 
hovah talked with Moses face to face, i. e., in 
the perfect intercourse of God with the friend of 
God, not in the full revelation of His glory (vid. 
ver. 19). Thus the people are consecrated in 
preparation for the restoration of the covenant, 
vid. Num. xii. 8; Deut. v. 4. Knobel finds here 
again a contradiction. He says, " Reference is 
made not to Moses' tent (LXX., Syr., Jarchi, 
Aben Ezra, Piscator, Baumgarten), or to another 
sanctuary used before the completion of the ta- 
bernacle (Clericus, J. D. Michaelis, Vatablus, 
Rosenmiiller), but the tabernacle," etc. That the 
camp must from the first have had a central tent, 
religious head-quarters, is in this chase after 
contradictions never dreamed of.f A strange 
assumption it is, too, that the people delivered 
up their ornaments to Moses to build the taber- 
nacle with. 

c. Modification of JehovaKs Determination in con- 
sequence of Mose^' Intercession. Vers. 12-23. 

Moses' humble request that Jehovah would 



* [But where did he sleep and eat ? Where was his proper 
abiding-place, if his own tent could be used only when he 
needed special revelations? — Tr.] 

t [On this point vid, under " Textual and Grammatical." 
— Te.] 



140 



EXODUS. 



express Himself more definitely respecting the 
promise of angelic guidance is founded partly 
on the progress of repentance manifested by his 
people, but partly and especially on the assu- 
rance of lavoi- which he had personally received. 
As before he would not hear to a destruction of 
the people in which he should not be inTolved, 
so now lie cannot conceive that he has found 
grace in Jehovah's eyes for h-mself alone; ra- 
ther, in this personal favor he finds a reference 
to his people — a hopeful prospect which he must 
become acquainted with. But he at once draws 
the inference that Jehovah must again recognize 
ns His people those whom He has before called 
thxi (Moses) people [xxxii. 7]. If I am Thine, 
1ft tiie people be Thine also — this is again the sa- 
cerdotal, mediatorial thought. Here [ver. 13] 
is to he noticed the difi^erence between 'U ["na- 
tion"] and □;> [" people"]. The former term, 
derived from nU, denotes a feature of nature, in 
which is involved the contrast of mountain and 
valley; the latter, derived from QiD;;, denotes a 
commonwealth ethically gathered and bound to- 
gether. In reply to this petition Moses receives 
the declaration, " My presence [lit. face] shall 
go." The indefinite angel (ver. 2), therefore, 
now becomes the face of Jehovah, i. e., at least, 
the angel by whom He reveals Himself, the oneof- 
ten manifested in Genesis and afterwards (angel of 
God, angel of Jehovah, an angel, Jehovah's face, 
vid. Comm. on Genesis, p. 386 sqq.) ; for which 
reason Isaiah combines both notions and speaksof 
theangelof Hisface["presence" A.V.]inlxiii.9. 
In Mai. iii. 1 occurs the expression, ''uugel [A.V. 
"messenger"] of the covenant." Moreover God 
here no longer says, "He shall go before thee," 
but "heshallgo,"gooutandgivethee rest. Here, 
then, the discourse is about something more than 
mi'k and honey. But the form of revelation is 
still obscure, and the promise is connected with 
the person of Moses, though now the people are 
at the same time included. But Moses is con- 
sistent with himself, and firmly seizing hold of 
Jehovah's promise, he again at once gives it a 
turn in favor of the people. He takes it for 
granted that, with him, the people also have 
found grace with Jehovah; thereon he founds 
the entreaty that this may not remain concealed, 
that Jehovah may make it manifest by distin- 
guishing him and his people, in His guidance of 
them, from all other nations on earth. To this 
also Jehovah assents, but explains that He does 
it for Moses' sake. But Moses in his prayer 
grows bolder and bolder, and now prays, "Let 
me see thy glory!" Heretofore all of Moses' 
requests have had almost more reference to the 
good of the people than to his own. We must there- 
fore conjecture that there is such a reference 
here. But it is entirely excluded by Keil, when 
ho says, " What Moses desires, then, is to behold 
the glory, i. e., the glorious essence of God." 
But the two notions, glory and glorious essence, 
must not be confounded. The glory (1133 66^a) 
is the apocalyptic splendor of the divine essence, 
and is to be distinguished from this essence it- 
self; it is the revelation of God in the totality of 
Sis attributes, such as that of which a dim vision 
terrified Isaiah (Isa. vi.), and such as was ma- 



nifested in its main features in Christ (John i. 
14). According to Keil, Moses desires a view such 
as cannot be realized except in the other world; 
but there is nothing about that here. Yet it is 
true that the revelation of Jehovah in His glory 
is fulfilled in the N. T. in Christ. And Mosee 
unconsciously aims at this very thing, and as 
much in behalf of his people as of himself. For 
only in the fulfilment of the promises can Jeho- 
vah's glory be revealed. This seems indeed to 
be contradicted by Jehovah's declaration, "Thou 
canst not see my face, for man shall not see me, 
and live." But we are to infer from this that 
the notion of the perfect revelation of God's glory 
in the future life, of the great Epiphany, is to he 
sharply distinguished from the revelation of the 
glory in its original form. This distinction, ne- 
vertheless, belonged to a later time than that of 
Moses. But this original form of the glory, the 
grace revealed in the N. T., which is what Moses 
must have had chiefly in mind, he was to behold 
at least in a figure. So then his petition is 
granted according to the measure of his capa- 
city, while at the same time he is made to under- 
stand that God's glory in its perfect revelation 
transcends his petition and comprehension. — 
And be said, I mt-IU make all my goodness 
pass before thee (should we render "beauty" 
instead of "goodness?" The Greek includes 
the good in his notion of the beautiful; the He- 
brew, the beautiful in the good — but not first or 
chiefly the beautiful*). Accordingly He will 
expound to him Jehovah's name, whose most es- 
sential significance is eternal fidelity in His eter- 
nal grace — a second promise, whose fulfilment is 
related in xxxiv. 5 sqq. When now Jehovah 
further says, " Thou canst not see my face," re- 
ference is made to His face in the highest sense, 
as also to His glory, which means the same thing, 
or even to the visibility of God Himself. — "For 
man shall not see me, and live." That here 
there is an occult intimation of existence in an- 
other world, should not be overlooked. A glory 
which no one in this life sees, or a view which 
can be attained only by losing this life, certainly 
could not be spoken of, if it were not man's goal in 
the future life to attain it. Preparation is now 
made for the vision which Jehovah is going to 
vouchsafe to Moses. Moses is to stand in a ca- 
vity of a rock. Jehovah's glory is to pass by. 
But while it is coming and passing by, Jehovfih 
is to hold. His hand over his eyes until His glory 
has passed by, lest he be overcome by the sight, 
and perish. But then he may look after the 
glory that has passed, and see it on the back side 
in the lingering splendor of its effects, i. <>., see 
all the goodness of Jehovah, the eternity of HiB 
grace. Who, moreover, could see Him in His 
frightfully glorious appearance and dominion 
without being crushed and snatched away from 
earth! When Christ, uttering* the. words, "Itis 
finished," saw the full glory of God on His cross, 
He bowed His head and died. Over His eyes, 
too, was gently placed the hand of Omnipotence, 
as He cried out, " My God, my God, why hast 
Thou forsaken me ?" So the hand of Omnipo- 

* [2^Q is nsecl unquestionably in both Beusea ; but as onr 
word "goodness" liaa a limited e -nse, we have substituted 
"excellence'' in the tranelati'm, ua rompreheD iing both tlie 
notion of moral goodness and that of majesty.— Tft.J 



CHAP. XXXIII. 1-23. 



141 



tenoe covers the eye of the pious man with fear 
and terror, with sleep and faintness, with night 
and darkness, whilst the heavenly day of God's 
glory passes over the world's stage in His light 
and in His judgments; afterwards faith discerns 
that everything was goodness and grace. 

On the realization of the vision, which took 
place after Moses ascended the mountain, vid., 
chap, xxxiv. Probably Moses saw beforehand 
in images the glorious meaning of Jehovah's pro 
clamation. Of Jehovah's grace in its manifesta- 
tion nothing more can he said than that Moses 
himself saw only the after-gleam of the mysteri- 
ous revelation ; yet It wag the after-gleam of the 
glory. But it is a wonderfully grand and beau- 
tiful fact, that Moses the law-giver, and Elijah 
the zealot for the law, both received in a cave in 
frightful Sinai the vision of the fulness of good- 
ness and grace, the vision of the gentle rustling* 
— the vision of the Gospel. Is this the same 
Sinai which has been so often pictured by me- 
diaeval doctors and ascetic*? "How He loved 
the people, with His fiery law in His hand," we 
read in Deuteronomy xxxiii. 3.f 

Ver. 12. Thou hast said, IknoTv thee by 
name. — Not every word of Jehovah to Moses 
neeils to have been reported beforehand. Ac- 
cording to Knobel, interpreting as usual with a 
literalneas amounting to caricature, this means, 
" Thou art my near and intimate acquaintance." 
The name is in God's mind the idea of the being, 
and accordingly this declaration of Jehovah's 
expresses a very special, personal election of 
Mosi'S. But Moses knows also, according to ver. 
13, that his election and the grace shown to bim 
involve a determination to promote the good of 
his people. 

Ver. 15. He will be led to Canaan only under 
the direction of the gracious countenance, or not 
at all. Better to die in the wilderrieas than to 
reach his goal without that guidance. 



* [This phrase, des savftPn Sausens^ is from Lather'a trans- 
lation of npT nODT Sip in 1 Kings xix. 12, ein stales 

It- tt; 1 

tanffes Somen; in the A. V., "a s'ill small voice;" literally, 
"a voice of gentle rttillueaa.*' — Tr.] 

t [A somewhat free "trans'ation and inversion of the last 
part of ver. 2 and the fir^t part of ver. 3, the former, more- 
over, of very doubtful meaaing.— Tb.] 



Ver. 18. On the climax in reference to the 
seeing of Jehovah comp. Keil, II. p. 236; but ob- 
serve the distinction between God's glory and 
His essence, as also between the primary vision 
of His glory in the New Testament and the vision 
of His glory in the other world. 

Ver. 19. I will be gracious to whom I 
will be gracious [Lange : I have been gra- 
cious, or I am gracious to whom I shall be 
gracious]. The LXX. invert the order of lime; 
" I will be gracious to whom I am gracious " 
The Vulg. led to Luther's translation [ Wnn ich 
gnddig bin, dem bin ick gnddig — " I am gracious 
to him to whom I am gracious "] by rendering, 
''miserebor cui voluero." Paul, in Rom. ix. 15, 
follows the LXX. At all events the text, taken 
literally, does not involve an expression of abso- 
lute freedom of choice, still less of caprice. It 
distinguishes two periods of time, and thus be- 
comes an interpretation of the name Jehovah, 
which compreliends the three periods of time. 
Accordingly the Hebrew expression affirms: 
" My grace is in such a sense consistent and per- 
sistent that, wherever 1 show it, it is based on 
profound reasons belonging to the past.' The 
expression in the LXX. implies essentially the 
same: "As I am gracious to one to-day, so will 
I show myself gracious to him continually." 
Luther's translation restores the distinction be- 
tween grace and compassion, which the Vulgate 
has obliterated.* Concerning the cave on Sinai, 
as well as the smaller one situated lower down, 
in which Moses, according to tradition, and Eli- 
j*h, according to conjecture, stood, vid Keil, 11. 
p. 239.f 

* [This discussion is singularly infelicitous. The two verhs 
are in rhe Hebrew both Future (the first made such by the 
Vav Ooiispcutive), so that Lange's stAtement, that the text 
" distinguishes two periods of time," and his own translation, 
*' I have been (or am) gracious to whom I shall be gracious," 
convey a misrepresentation which it is \et impossible to im- 
pute either to his ignorance ol" Hebrew or to conscious un- 
liiiruess. His comment on tho analogous exprf-ssion in iii. 
14 is open to the same critici *m. Vid. the note on p. 11. Ap- 
parently Lange's theo y of the meaning of the name mn^ 
and of the nature of the divine attributes has led him uncon- 
sciously to put into the Hebrew what cannot be got out of 
it.— Tr.] 

f [This makes the impression, for which Keil is not respon- 
sible, that both Moses and El^ah have been supposed to have 
stood in the lower cave. There is no evidence of this. Comp. 
Bobinson, I., p. 152' Palmer, Desert of the Exodus^ pp. 106, 
130.— TE.J 



142 EXODUS. 



THIRD SECTION. 

The New Tables of the Law for the People prone to a Hierarchy. Clearer Revela- 
tion of God's Grace. Sterner Prohibition of Idolatry. Stricter Commands 
concerning the Passover, the First-born, the Sabbath, and the Feasts. Return 
of Moses with the Tables. Moses' Shining Pace and his Veil. 

Chap. XXXIV. 1-35. 

A.— THE NEW STONE TABLES FOR THE DIVINE VVRITINa. 

Vers. 1-4. 

1 And Jehovah said iinto Mosos, Hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first: 
and I will write upon th'-se [the] tables the words that were in [on] the first table.?, 

2 which thou brakest. And be ready in the morning, and come [go] up in the morn- 
ing unto mount Sinai, and present thyself there to me in [on] the top of the mouDt. 

3 And no man shall come [go] up with thee, neither let any [and also let no] man 
be seen throughout [in] all the mount ; neither let the flocks nor [also let not the 

4 flocks and the] herds feed before that mount And he hewed two tables of stone 
like unto the first ; and Moses rose up early in the morning, and went up unto 
mount Sinai, as Jehovah had commanded him, and took [him : and he took] in his 
hand the [hand] two tables of stone. 

B.— .TEHOVAH'S GRAND PROCLAMATION OP JEHOVAH'S ORACR ON MOUNT SINAI- 
HENCEFORTH AN ACCOMPANIMENT OF THE TABLKS OF THE LAW. 

Vers. 5-10. 

5 And Jehovah descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed 

6 the name of Jehovah. And Jehovah passed by before him, and proclaimed, Jeho- 
vah, Jehovah God, merciful [Jehovah, a God merciful] and gracious, long-suffer- 

7 ing, and abundant in goodness [kindness] and truth, Keeping mercy [kindness] for 
thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will [sin: but he 
will]' by no means clear the guilty ; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the 
children [of fathers upon children] and upon the [upon] children's children, unto 

8 [upon] the third and to [upon] the fourth generation. And Moses made haste, and 

9 bowed his head toward [himself to] the earth, and worshipped. And he said. If 
now I have found grace in thy sight, O Jehovah, let my Lord [the Lord], I pray 
thee, go among us ; for it is a stiff-necked people ; and pardon our iniquity and our 

10 sin, and take us for thine inheritance. And he said, Behold, I make a covenant; 
before all thy people I will do marvels, such as have not been done in all the earth, 
nor in any nation : and all the people among which thou art shall see the work of 
Jehovah : for it is a terrible thing that I will do with thee. 

TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL. 

1 [Ter. 7. The A, V. here entirely Deflects the ncf^entuation, and thup almost creates a paradox out of these antithetic 
clauses. By translating np31 "8 a relative clause (and that will, etc.), it makes the impression that the same conBtruotion 
is continued, whereas not only does the Athuach precede it, bnt, instead of the p'irticiple of the preceding clause, we haW 
here a finite verb without the Relative Pronoun. The A. V., moreover, makes the chief division of the verse before " 'i'lt* 
ine," contrary to the Hebrew accentuation, which, quife in accordance with the sense, connects the last clause with the 
declaration : " he will not clear," etc.; the contusion of thought is thus made complete.— TR.J. 



CHAP. XXXIV. 1-35. 143 



C— THE GOLDEN CALF AN OCCASION FOR A MOST STRINGENT PROHIBITION OF 
INTERCOURSE WITH THE HEATHEN CANAANITES. THE MORE DEFINITE ES- 
TABLISHMENT OP THE ISRAELITISH COMMONWEALTH IN ITS NEGATIVE RE- 
LATIONS. 

Vers. 11-17. 

11 Observe thou that which I command thee this day : behold, I drive out before 
[from before] thee the Amorite, and the Canaanite, and the Hittite, and the Periz- 

12 zite, and the Hivite, and the Jebusite. Take heed to thyself, lest thou make a co- 
venant with the inhabitants of the land whither thou goest, lest it be for [become] 

13 a snare in the midst of thee: But ye shall destroy [tear down] their altars, break 

14 their images, and cut down their groves [Asherim] :^ For thou shalt worship no 
other God : for Jehovah whose name is Jealous, is [Jehovah — his name is Jealous ; 

15 he is] a jealous God: Lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, 
and they go a whoring after their gods, and do [and] sacrifice unto their gods, and 

16 one call thee, and thou eat of his sacrifice ; And thou take of their daughters unto 
thy sons, and their daughters go a whoring after their gods, and make thy sons go 

17 a whoring after their gods. Thou shalt make thee no molten gods. 

D.— LEADING POSITIVE FEATURES OF THE RELIGIOUS COMMONWEALTH OF IS- 
RAEL. SUPPLEMENTARY LAWS LIKEWISE OCCASIONED BY THE NEWLY ARISEN 
NECESSITY OF EMPHASIZING THE DISTINCTIONS. 

Vers, ia-24. 

18 The feast of unleavened bread shalt thou keep. Seven days thou shalt eat un- 
leavened bread, as I commanded thee in the time [set time] of the month Abib : 

19 for in the month Abib thou camest out from Egypt. All that openeth the matrix 
[womb] is mine : and every firstling among thy cattle, whether ox or sheep, that is 

20 mak [all thy male cattle, the first-born of ox and sheep]. But the firstling of an 
ass thou shalt redeem with a lamb : and if thou redeem him not, then shalt thou 
break his neck. All the first-bom of thy sons thou shalt redeem. And none shall 

21 appear before me empty. Six days thou shalt work, but ou the seventh day thou 

22 shalt rest : in earing [ploughing] time and in harvest thou shalt rest. And thou 
shalt observe the feast of weeks, of the first-fruits of wheat harvest, and the feast 

23 of ingathering at the year's end. Thrice in the year shall all your men-children 

24 [thy males] appear before the Lord God [Jehovah], the God of Israel. For I will 
cast out the nations before [from before] thee, and enlarge thy borders : neither 
shall any man desire thy land, when thou shalt go [goest] up to appear before 
Jehovah thy God thrice in the year. 

E.— THE THREE SYMBOLIC PRINCIPAL RULES FOR THEOCRATIC CULTURE. 

Vers. 25, 26. 

25 Thou shalt not oflfer the blood of my sacrifice with leaven [leavened bread] ; 
neither shall the sacrifice of the feast of the passover be left unto the morning. 

26 The first of the first-fruits of thy land [ground] thou shalt bring unto the house of 
Jehovah thy God. Thou shalt not seethe [boil] a kid in his [its] mother's milk. 

F.— MOSES' LOFTY AND INSPIRED MOOD AT THE RENEWED GIVING OF THE LAW. 
CONTRAST BETWEEN THE PRESENT AND THE OTHER DESCENT FROM THE 
MOUNTAIN. 

Vers. 27-35. 

27 And Jehovah said unto Moses, Write thou these words : for after the tenor of 

28 these words I have made a covenant with thee and with Israel. And he was there 

' [Yer. 13. The word HIE'X, here ^d elsewhere rendered "groves" in the A. V., always refers either to a heathen 
goddeSa or to images representing her— commonly the latter, pspecially when (as here and most frequently) it ia used in 
the plural (DniffK)- It must denote the goddess, e. g. in 1 King< xv. 13, whore it is said: "She had made an idol for 
Aaherah'VA T " in a grove "). This goddess sometimes seems to be identical with Ashtaroth. For particnlars i»d. the 
lexicons and'Encyclopedins. That the word cannot mean "grpvo" is sufflaenlly shown by such passages as 2 Kings xvii. 
10, where ihe Asherim are said to have been set up in every high hill and under ever;/ green tree; and 2 Kings xxip. b, 
Where it is said that Jobiah " brought out the Asherah frcm the lumae of the Lord. — Ta.J. 

13 



144 



EXODtJS. 



with Jehovah forty days and forty nights ; he did neither eat bread nor drink wa- 
ter. And he wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant, the ten command- 

29 ments. And it came to pass, when Moses came down from mount Sinai with the 
two tables of [of the] testimony in Moses' hand, when he came down from the 
mount, that Moses wist [knew] not that the skin of his face shone' while he talked 

30 [because of his talking] with him. And when [And] Aaron and all the children 
of Israel saw Moses, behold [and behold], the skin of his face shone ; and they were 

31 afraid to come nigh him. And Moses called unto them ; and Aaron and all the 
rulers of the congregation returned unto him : and Moses talked with [spake unto] 

32 them. And afterward all the children of Israel came nigh ; and he gave them in 

33 commandment all that Jehovah had spoken with him in mount Sinai. And till 
Moses had done speaking [And Moses left off speaking] with them, he [and he] 

34 put a veil on his face. But when Moses went in before Jehovah to speak with 
him, he took the veil off, until he came out. And he came out and spake unto the 

35 children of Israel that which he was commanded. And the children of Israel saw 
the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses' face shone: and Moses put the veil upon 
his face again, until he went in to speak with him. 

8 [Ver. 29. Thp verb |1p occurs only in this section in Kal ; it is used otice (Pa. Ixix. 31) in Hiphil, where it means 

"to have horns," while the noun |"^p ordinarily means "horn." Hence originated the Latin translation of the Talgate 

"comuta," "horned;" and this arcnunta for the notion, incorporated in art representations of Mos'-s, that he had homa 
growing out of his face The point of reuemblance is in the appearance of the rays of a lumiuary shooting out lilie faoros. 
— Tb.]. 

presupposed the preparation of the tables of 
the law and a covenant-feast. Since now nothing 
is said of a new covenant-feast, Keil's assump- 
tion may in some sense be admitted. For the 
covenant is not simply restored ; it is at the 
same time modified. The law is now made to 
rest on pardon, and is accompanied by Jehovah's 
proclamation of grace ; yet nevertheless in many 
of its provisions it is made stricter in this chap- 
ter. The relation between the tabernacle and 
the camp is made more hierarchical; and in 
relation to His form of revelation, Jehovah dis- 
tinguishes more sharply between His face and 
the display of His essence. But with the notion 
of the face* is introduced ali<o a further deve- 
lopment of revelation, as also with the pro- 
clatnalion of grace. Jehovah's command, Hew 
thee two tables of stone, leads Keil to ex- 
press the opinion that the first tables, both as to 
writing and material, ''originated with God," 
as contrasted with any co-operation from Moses, 
i, e. that they were made by God in an eniirely 
supernatural way. This lileralness of interpre- 
tation is made to receive support from the dis- 
tinction between "tables of stone" (xxiv. 12; 
xxxi. 18) and "tables of stones" (vers. 1 and 
4 of this chapter).! Hengstenberg and Baum- 
garten have in a similar way vexed themselves 
with this variation of the letter. It is barely 
possible that the stony hardness of the law was 
meant to be more strongly emphasized in the 
second case than in the first. 

Ver. 3. And no man. — The sharp command 
not to approach the mountain is, it is true, sub- 
stantially a repetition of the previous one ; but 
it is to be considered that the mountain after 
the conclusion of the covenant had been made 
accessible up t6 a certain height to Aaron, his 



EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL. 

This chapter contains the acme and bloom of 
the Mosaic revelation, and so, of the three mid- 
dle books of the Pentateuch. In the first place, 
the renewed law is wholly removed into the 
light of grace by Jehovah's grand proclamation 
of the significance of ' the name Jehovah — Jeho- 
vah's own proclamation on Sinai itself concern- 
ing the very name Jehovah, that it means that 
He is "a God merciful, gracious, long-suffering^ 
and abundant in grace and truth," etc.: — all this 
most prominently ; but for this very reason, 
next in prominence, and on account of His 
righteousness, that He is a punisher of all sin 
and guilt. 

Next, the Israelitish community is put on Its 
guard against the danger of wrong intercourse 
with the Ciinaanites ; and everything severe 
that is ordained against these is founded on a 
religious and moral ground. In contrast with 
the corruptions of the heathen worship the out- 
lines of the worship designed for Israel are then 
summarily given, and finally the great blessing 
of peace secured by this worship is proclaimed. 
In this attempt to give the main features of the 
chapter a universal application, the specific pre- 
cepts inserted in vers. 25, 26, create a difficulty. 
We regard them as symbolic precepts, requiring 
a strict form of worship, sanctified culture, 
humane fesiivity free from luxury. The last 
section, however, presents unmistakably the real 
glory of the Mosaic covenant in Moses' shining 
face {vid. 2 Cor. iii. 7). 

a. The New Stone Tables for the Divine Writing. 
Vers. 1-4. 
Ver. 1 And Jehovah said unto Moses. 
Keil holds that Moses has already restored the 
covenant-relation through his intercession, ac- 
cord'ng to xxxiii. 14. But if we refer to the 
first ratification of the covenant, we find that it 



* [Lange rpfer-i, in what is here said, more PBPcciftlly 
t^ the preceding chapter, ver. 14 sqq., whv-re 'Ji3 (iiterallj 

-T 

" m" f.icp ") is Tendered in A. V. " my presence. — Tft.l. 

t [So according to the literal translation of the Hebrew, 
—■PR.]. 



CHAP. XXXIV. 1-35. 



145 



two oldest BODS, and the seventy elders of Israel 
— nay, that they had been invited by Jehovah to 
celebrate there a feast. This is now changed 
since the sin in the matter of the golden.calf. 

Ver. 4. And Moses hewed two tables 
of stone. — Was he obliged to do it himself, 
because he had broken the first, as Rashi holds? 
Or, was he not rather obliged to do it before 
the eyes of the people, in order by this act to 
give the people another sermon? The tables 
were designed for the ten words (ver. 1) — a truth 
which ought to be self-evident, though Gothe and 
Hitzig have conjectured that the precepts of vers. 
12-26 are meant; vid. Keil's note 11., p. 239. 
The Epistle of Barnabas {JEpistola XIV.) takes 
quite another view, and gives an allegorical 
interpretation of the difference between the first 
tables and the second. It was not till now that 
the ten words of the instruction (^thorah, law), 
the angelic words (Acts vii. 53), really became 
words of stony ordinance. 

J. Thegrand Proclamation of Grace on Sinai, hence- 
forth an Accompaniment of the Tables of the Law. 
Vers. 6-10. 

Ver. 5. And Jehovah descended. — This 
is the heading. Then in ver. 6 first follows the 
fulfilment of the promise that He would let all 
His goodness pass before him. The narrative 
goes beyond this in the grandly mysterious ex- 
pression, "Jehovah passed by before him." Then 
toUows the proclamation. Here much depends 
on the eonstruotion. Would Jehovah Himself 
call out "Jehovah, Jehovah?" This is a form 
of expression appropriate to human adoration, 
but not to the mouth of Jehovah Himself. We 
therefore construe thus : " and Jehovah pro- 
claimed" — a rendering favored by the fact that 
we are thus obliged to make a decided pause af- 
ter the words, " Jehovah passed by before him."* 
Jehovah, then, has expounded the name Jehovah 
on Mount Sinai; and what is the proclamation? 
It is not said, Jehovah is the Eternal one, but 

Jehovah as the Strong one (/K) is Lord of time, 
in that He remains the same yesterday, to-day, 
and forever, in His faithfulness. His loving- 
kindness (ion) branches out in compassion (He 
is O'lTI) on the miserable, grace (He is JUn) to- 
wards the guilty, long-suffering towards human 
weakness and perverseness. But He is rich in 
His loving-kindness and in the reconciliation of 
it with His truth, or faithfulness (JIDX). His 
kindness He keeps unto the thousands (begin- 
ning with one pardoned man) ; in His truth 
He takes away (as Judge, Expiator, and Sanc- 
tifier) guilt, unfaithfulness, and sins; but He 
also lets not the least offence pa.sB unpunished, 
but visits, in final retribution, the guilt of the 
transgression of fathers upon children and chil- 
dren's children, upon the third and the fourth 
generation — grand-children and great-grand- 



* [ThiB change is secured by eimply neglecting the Mnao- 
retic punctuation, and making the "Jehovah" following 
" proclaimed " the subject of the verb. But there seems to 
be hardly sufficient reason for the change. The repetition 
cf the name is, on. the contrary, natural and ImpreHslTe, and 
need not in this connection be made to seem at all like au 
expression of mere awe.— Te.] 



children, vid. ch. xx. As Elijah afterwards co- 
vered his iface with his mantle at the still 
small voice, Moses at these words quickly 
prostrates himself on the ground. Thus the 
presentiment and the anticipation of the Gos- 
pel casts the strongest heroes of the law upon 
their faces in homage, vid. Luke ix. 30, 31. 
The petition which Moses feels encouraged by 
this great revelation of grace to offer is also a 
proof that the first covenant relation is not yet 
quite restored. He asks that Jehovah Himself, 
as the Lord (''i'^^) may go with them. This must 
mean, as a mighty, stern ruler of the stiff-necked 
people, in distinction from the angel of Jehovah's 
face ; this is one point. But he then asks that 
God, as the Lord, may go with them in the very 
midst of them, not merely go before them at a dis- 
tance ; this is the second point, little in harmony 
with the first. For it is again in a more definite 
form, as in the petition, "let me see thy face" — 
a petition for New Testament relations, a petition 
for the presence of Jehovah as the guiding Lord 
in the midst of the congregation. The addition, 
" for it is a stiff-necked people," would be a poor 
reason for the request, were it not this time au 
excuse for the people's +8in on the ground of 
their natural slavery to siuj their inborn wretch- 
edness, which makes it necessary that the per- 
sonal presence of the Lord should be vouchsafed 
in order to overcome and control it. The thing 
aimed at in his petition is perfect fellowship ; 
hence he says, " Pardon our iniquity and our 
sin, and make us thine inheritance." He has in 
mind an ideal servile relation bordering on the 
N. T. idea of adoption, but one more likely to be 
realized in the N. T. hierarchy, just as the Pla- 
tonic ideal state is realized in monasticism. Je- 
hovah's answer now does not point to a complete 
restoration of the violated covenant, but as little 
does it involve an immediate promise of the new 
covenant; Hedesoribesrather His future rule as a 
constant, continuous establishment of a covenant 

(mb '3JN nsn, "behold, lam making a cove- 
nant"), a transition, therefore, from the old co- 
venant, which already as a legal covenant has 
been violated, to a new covenant. And this is 
the means by which He will establish it : " Be- 
fore all thy people I will do marvels." The mi- 
racles are by this description put above all others 
that have been done in all the earth. " All the 
Tpeo'pXa in the midst of which thou art," it is said 
in contrast with Moses' desire that Jehovah 
should be in the midst of them, "shall seethe work 
of Jehovah, how terribly great that is which I 
shall accomplish with thee." Thus Moses him- 
self is prominently elevated and appointed to be 
the animating soul of the people; the sublime 
and terrifying miracles of Jehovah are to pro- 
ceed from Jehovah's intercourse with him as the 
administrator of the law. Doubtless the sight 
which the people are to have of these miracles 
is designed to be a salutary one; but the strong 
expression indicates the decisive solemnity of the 
sight. Keil makes prominent among the terrible 
works of Jehovah the overthrow of all the pow- 
ers that hostilely resist the kingdom of God. 

Keil says: " This ' sermon on the name of the 
Lord,' as Luther calls it, discloses to Moses the 
inmost essence of Jehovah. It proclaims that 



146 



EXODUS. 



God is love." But in this way the old covenant is 
made the perfect new one. It is true, however, that 
here compassion, grace, and long-suffering are 
combined by means of kindness and truth — not 
merely in addition to kindness and truth — with ho- 
liness and justice, and that grace here appears in 
the foreground. Keil also rightly notices the col- 
lective expression, " it is a stiff-necked people ; and 
pardon our iniquity," etc. Keil's remark, more- 
over, that " the reference made to the natural 
ground of the sin mitigates the wrath," is not 
Augustinian. 

According to Knobel Jehovah is to call out His 
name to Moses only in order that he may by 
means of it recognize Jehovah's appearance. 

Also he makes Tpr kV nj33 mean, " He will 
not leave entirely unpunished."* Vers. 9-28 he 
calls a repetition, and therefore ascribes to the 
" second narrator." 

c. The Oolden Calf an Occasion for a most Strin- 
gent Prohibition of Intercourse with the Heathen 
Canaanites. The more Definite Establinhment 
of the Israelitish Commonwealth negatively con- 
sidered. Vers. 11-17. 

To the religion of the law, supplemented by 
the proclamation of grace, corresponds the reli- 
gious community, destined to be the upholders 
of this religion. A more exact fixing of their 
relation than that laid down in xxiii. 23 has 
become necessary on account of the affair of the 
golden calf. In the paragraph before us this 
community is defined chiefly in a negative way. 
It has been already said, that Jehovah would 
drive out the Canaanites {vid. the names, xxiii. 
23), but not all at once. This may well refer to 
a destruction of them in war, but not to a de- 
struction of them in so far as they have sub- 
mitted themselves to the civil law. We know 
how, as being strangers, they are even put 
under the protection of the law. But inasmuch 
as fhey may tend to ruin Israel with their hea- 
thenish abominations, all intimate alliances with 
them are forbidden at the outset. Religion 
is the thing here chiefly concerned. The signs 
of a public heathen worship, especially the 
wooden pillars of the voluptuous worship, as 
well as the images of Asherah, they are to ex- 
tirpate ; they are to destroy the seductive sym- 
bols wherever found. There is here no trace 
of a persecution of private religious opinions 
and devotions. Moreover, the reason for that 
severity is given in ver. 14: it is to secure the 
adoration of the true God, who is jealous of His 
relation to Israel. Over against the dark, vo- 



* [Thin Beems I'fce a very questionable tranfllation, since 
the Absohite Infinirive in a negative clause strongthens, ra- 
th'T than weakens the negation. But there are some c ises 
in which the reverse seems to be the cfwe, e. g. Jer. xxx. 11, 
wliere we have precisely the same phraseology as here in 
vcr. 7, and where the A. V. translates, "Yet will I not make 
a full end of thee : but I will correct thee in measure, and 

will not leave thee altogether unpunished, *1pjS «? np3V" 

The context makes this translation natural, but not neces- 
sary. A more plausiljlft case is Amcf ix. 8, "I will destroy 
it from off the face of the earth ; saving that I will not utterly 

destroy (T'DiJ'X T'Diyn N^) the house of Jacob." Here 

it Is necessary t ) give the Tnf Aba. a qualifying force ; but 
here the negative precedes the Inf. Abs. — Te.J 



luptuous religious worship is presented the pu 
image of conjugal fellowship between Jehovi 
and His people (vid. Keil II., p. 243)— a repr 
sentation growing more and more definite all tl 
way through the Scriptures to the Apocalyps 
and introduced as early as xx. 5, where Jehova 
is called N3p ["jealous"] in the giving of tl 
law — an expression which twice recurs hen 
As heathen idolatry is in itself to be regarde 
as whoredom, i. e. as apostasy from the livin 
God, so the Canaanitish heathenism particular! 
has developed within itself the consequences u 
moral whoredom. But Israel may become ii 
volved in this double whoredom, especially i 
two ways. In the first place, by taking part i 
the seductive sacrificial meals of the heathen, I 
which they will be invited, as afterwards such pai 
ticipation became a snare to the people at Shittii 
(Num. XXV.); but especially by intermarriage 
between Israelitish sons and heathen womei 
such as afterwards caused Solomon to fall. Th 
dangerous influence of female bigotry on the reli 
gion of the men, the dangerousness, therefort 
of mingling religions in marriage, is thus earl 
expressed with the strongest words of warning 
An impure marriage — often induced by lustfo 
views of spiritual visherah-images — easily work 
destruction to the archetype of pure mar 
riage, the relation of Jehovah to His congrega 
tion. Therefore also the law here expressl; 
treats of the setting up of molten gods, as bein; 
a transition to the lapse into complete idolalrj 
On the notion of whoredom in the religious sense 
as well as on the names Asherah and Astarte 
comp. especially Winer, Sealworterbuch. Tim 
the name Asherah denotes the idol-image ul 
Astarte, the Syrian goddess, who was worshippec 
with voluptuous rites, is proved by the fact tha 
it stands together with other monuments, an( 
can be destroyed; but whether the form of i 
suggests Phallic worship is not determined ; a 
all events the name might indicate something ol 
the sort, as containing an allusion to lust.' 
The LXX. and Luther [so A. V.] have renderei 
the word by 'grove" (idol-grove). 

d. Leading Positive Features of the Religious Com 
monwealth of Israel. Vers. 18-24. 

The leading features of the theocratic com 
monwealth are sacred feasts, resting on the fact 
and doctrines which have given the community 
an organized existence. This section insists oi 
the three chief feasts of Israel as essential li 
the life of the Israelitish commonwealth. Butwh; 
is the first feast, which is a double feast, callei 
the feast of unleavened bread rather than th 
Passover ? The unleavened bread was the syin 
bol of separation from Egypt and hcathenism- 
a separation combined with abstemiousness ; fo 
this reason probably this idea is here made pro 
minent, since the thing in point is to establisi 
a perpetual opposition to heathenism. With thi 



* [Gesenius finds no such meaning in the root "IK^Xi ° 

ItyS, the radical signiflcance of which he defines as "li«l 

piness," "forttme." Hence he regards H'^ktfX a3=fl»'^'" 

FUrst, however, assumes as the radical meaning "to^ 
united," so. by love ; and Lange probably refers to this aer 
vation. — Ta.] 



CHAP. XXXIV. 1-35. 



147 



there is also united the fundamental law of the 
saorifioo of renunciation. With the claim ao- 
luaily made by Jehovah on all the male first- 
born is asserted His right to all that are born, 
as being represented by the first-born ; or, con- 
versely, the entire dependence of the people, 
with all their possessions, on Jehovah. This 
consecration of the first-born has three leading 
forma. The first-born son is by birth a priest ; 
he must therefore be released by an offering 
from the service legally required of priests. 
Also the first-born ass (this code of laws knows 
nothing of horses) must be either ransomed or 
killed. The first-born of cattle is the choicest 
offering; the calf, moreover, as an offering from 
among the larger animals, forms a suggestive 
contrast to the calf as an idol. It is then inti- 
mated, furthermore, that other offerings, besides 
those of the first-born, are to be brought, in the 
expression: "None shall appear before me 
empty." 

The first distinction between the people of 
Gnd and heathendom involves renunciation of 
the world; the second, labor. In heathendom 
labor and holidays are confusedly blended; in 
the theocracy a clear contrast is made. Labor 
is marked by the time devoted to it, the week- 
days. The Sabbath, as the seventh day, marks 
consecrated labor which has reached its goal in 
ft holiday. After seven weeks, or seven times 
seven days, comes next the second feast, the 
feast of weeks, Pentecost. The grain harvest, 
which began after the Passover-Sabbath, is now 
finished ; the feast of harvest is celebrated as 
the annual festival of the blessing of labor. 
The feast which embodies the highest form of 
theocratic enjoyment, the feast of the fruit-ga- 
thering and the vintage, or the feast of taberna- 
cles, is here only briefly mentioned. It forms a 
contrast to the first feast of harvest ; for Pente- 
cost is the feast of the daily bread which is ob- 
tained by labor and at last by reaping, and two 
specimens of which are laid on the altar. The 
feast of tabernacles is the feast of the gathering 
up of the blessing poured out by God in gifts 
which contribute to joy and prosperity. This 
festival of joy and blessing is the real vital oil 
of the theocratic community. It is, however, a 
condition of the three feasts, that all the men 
(voluntary attendance of women and children 
not being excluded) must appear three times a 
year before Jehovah, i. e. at the sanctuary. 
There is something grand in the assurance of 
the security which the land will enjoy, in that 
no danger will accrue from the going up to the 
feasts. But never was the nation stronger and 
more warlike than when it had in this way 
obtained concentration and inspiration [vid. xil. 
15; xiii. 6, 12; xxiil. 17; Lev. xvi., xxiii. ; 
Num. xxix,). Knobel records only one contra- 
diction in this section. 

e. The Three Symbolic Principal Rules for Theo- 
cratic Culture. Vers. 25, 26. 

The first of these main rules requires first of 
all that the feast of unleavened bread shall be 
kept pure, and so stands for the duty of keeping 
worship in general pure ; it is marked by the 
precept requiring all leaven to be removed be- 



fore the time when the passover was slain, and 
not less by the requirement that the remains of 
the passover must be burnt, not desecrated by 
commou use, and not allowed to pac^s over, as an 
element of desecration, into the abstemious sea- 
son of unleavened bread. 

The second main rule requires that labor and 
enjoyment shall be kept sacred, and is marked 
by the requirement to bring, first of all, the first- 
fruits into the house of Jehovah. It has a spe- 
cial relation to the second feast. 

The third main rule requires that the enjoy- 
ment of food shall be kept sacred by the avoid- 
ance of inhuman and luxurious forms of it (vid, 
xxiii. 19; Deut. xiv. 21). This indicates a spe- 
cial relation to the third feast. 



/. Moses' Lofty and Inspired Mood at the Renewed 
Giving of the Law. Contrast between the Pre- 
sent and the Former Descent from 'he Mountain. 
Vers. 27-35. 

Here is to be observed, first of all, a difference 
in the law which Is given. The ten command- 
ments were originally adilressed directly to 
Israel, and through Israel designed for mankind, 
as the immutable fundamental laws of morality, 
which are now also repeated on the new tables, 
ver. 28. But Moses received the fundamental 
laws of the Israelitish theocracy for Israel ; 
before the conclusion of the covenant he received 
the outlines of the three-fold code of laws (xx. 
22-xxiii.), which, it is Implied, are also written 
down ; but after the conclusion of the covenant 
he received the ordinance concerning the taber- 
nacle, XXV.— xxxl. Now, however, he is com- 
manded to write down also the more minute 
regulations for the theocratic community, which 
have been shown to be necessary by the apostasy 
of the people, xxxiv. 11-26. We may therefore 
distinguish three classes : (1) The general ethi- 
cal law of the ten commandments ; (2) the gene- 
ral legislation for the Jewish national theocracy; 
(3) the special regulations made necessary by 
the alteration of the covenant, in which connec- 
tion it is not to be overlooked that the covenant 
is here defined as u. covenant which Jehovah 
has made with Moses and with Israel ; more 
positively than before, therefore, is the covenant 
now made dependent on the mediation of Moses. 
The stay of forty days and nights on the moun- 
tain is then only briefly mentioned. Observe, 
first, the sacred number of forty days, a repeti- 
tion of the first forty days (xxiv. 18) ; next, the 
circumstance that Moses neither ate nor drank, 
one that recurs in the sacred history of the Old 
and the New Testament (1 Kings xix. 8; Matt, 
iv.), and is to be conceived as indicating a total 
self-forgetfulness as regards the ordinary need 
of nourishment (vid. Coram, on Matthew, ch. iv.); 
finally, the specific statement that Moses again 
wrote the ten commandments on the tables — 
which, literally taken, may be understood as 
different from the first account of the writing, 
but, according to the spirit, as a supplementary 
interpretation of the first report. Kell makes 
" Jehovah " the subject of "he wrote " [in ver. 
28], referring to ver. 1. 

When Moses now came down from the moun- 
tain, his face shone, or beamed, without hig 



148 



EXODUS. 



knowing It. A strongly materialisHo conception 
(such as Keil's) may regard tliis as a reflection 
of the outward splendor of the glory that had 
appeared to him ; but his face was covered by 
God's hand. Doubtless the resplendence is a 
reflection of the divine splendor, produced 
through the agency of the soul, this splendor, 
together with the law, having passed through 
his soul, filled it, and put it into an elevated 
mood. Thus Christ in a higher sense came with 
divine power from the mount of beatitudes 
(Matt. viii. 1 sqq.) ; so, in some degree at least, 
preachers of the Gospel ought to come down 
from their pulpit eminence ; but how far they 
fall short of it iu many cases ! 

The great difference between the lofty stand- 
point of the Law-giver and that of th6 people at 
the foot of the mountain becomes evident in the 
fact that not only the common Israelites are ter- 
rified by the splendor, and fear to approach 
him, but even Aaron also; and that Moses is 
obliged to encourage him and the rulers of the 
congregation to come near to talk with him, and 
in this way to inspire the people also with cou- 
rage to approach in order to hear Jehovah's 
precepts. 

After giving the message Moses puts a veil 
on his face, in order to make it possible to hold 
familiar intercourse with the people. This con- 
tinued for a period of time not definitely stated ; 



when Moses entered the provisional tabernacle 
and came out again to proclaim Jehovah's direc- 
tions, he uncovered his face, but afterwards be 
veiled it again. This, too, serves as a type for 
those who hold office in the New Testament 
Church. Christian people should not be fright- 
ened away by the splendor of the priest or 
preacher, and a separation thus effected between 
the officials and the congregation. 

This narrative, however, became a symbol of 
two things : first, of the glory of the Mosaic law 
and covenant (2 Cor. iii. 7 sqq.) ; secondly, of 
the predominantly slavish fear of the people, 
which makes them unable, in the exercise of an 
enthusiastic devotion, to understand Moses' 
mood and to get a view of the spiritual nature 
of his law. The veil remains even to-day, as in 
Paul's time, on the face of Jews proper, and, in 
a degree, of Judaizing Christians — even on the 
face of those who imagine that they are far be- 
yond the spir t of this law. In Moses' case we 
cannot, with Keil, call it ■• a symbol of the veil- 
ing of the saving truths revealed in the Old Tes- 
tament," for Moses always took the covering 
away, after he had spoken to the people ; but it 
is a symbol of the great distance between the 
Old Testament revelation and the popular Juda- 
ism — between two things which modern theology 
loves to identify. Enobel here records again 
several contradictions. 



FOURTH DIVISION. 



THE BtriLDING OF THE TABERNACLE. THE HOUSE OP THE REDEEMER AND LAW- 
GIVER, THE RESIDENCE OF THE KING OF ISRAEL; OR THE ERECTION OF THE 
TENT OF MEETING. 

Chaptbes XXXV.— XL. 



FIRST SECTION. 

SnmmonB to Balld and to Furnish Voluntarily the Building Mateiials. 

Chap. XXXV. 1-19. 

And Moses gathered all the congregation of the children of Israel together, and 
said unto them, These are the words which Jehovah hath commanded, that ye 
should do them. Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day there shall 
be to you an [a] holy day, a sabbath of rest to Jehovah: whosoever doeth work 
therein shall be put to death. Ye shall kindle no fire throughout your habitatione 
[in any of your dwellings] upon the sabbath day. 

And Moses spake unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, saying, 
This M the thing which Jehovah commanded, saying, Take ye from among you an 
offering unto [for] Jehovah : whosoever is of a willing heart, let him bring it, an 

6 offering of the Lord [Jehovah's offering] ; gold, and silver, and brass. And blue, 

7 and purple, and scarlet, and fine linen, and goats' hair, And rams' skins dyed red, 

8 and badgers' [seals'] skins, and shittim [acacia] wood, And oil for the light, and 

9 spices for [for the] anointing oil, and for the sweet incense, And onyx stones, and stones 
10 to be set, for the ephod, and for the breast-plate. And every wise-hearted [wise- 
hearted man] among you shall come, and make all that Jehovah hath commanded; 



4 
5 



CHAP. XXXV. 20-29. 



149 



11 The tabernacle, his [its] tent, and his [its] covering, his taches [its clasps], and his 

12 [its] boards, his [its] bars, his [its] pillars, and his [its] sockets, The ark, and the 
staves thereof, with [thereof,] the mercy-Seat, and the veil of the covering [screen], 

13 The table, and his [its] staves, and all his [its] vessels, and the shew-bread, 

14 The candlestick also for the light, and his [its] furniture, and his [its] lamps, with 

15 [and] the oil for the light, And the incense altar, and his [its] staves, and the 
anointing oil, and the sweet incense, and the hanging [screen] for the door, at the 

16 entering in [door] of the tabernacle, The altar of burnt-offering, with his [its] 
brazen grate [grating], his [its] staves, and all his [its] vessels [furniture], the 

17 laver, and his foot [its base], The hangings of the court, his [its] pillars, and their 

18 sockets, and the hanging [screen] for the door of the court, The pins of the taber- 

19 nacle, and the pins of the court, and their cords, The cloths [garments] of service, 
to do service [for ministering] in the holy place, the holy garments for Aaron the 
priest, and the garments of his sons, to minister in the priest's office [to serve as 
priests]. 



EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL. 

In general we refer, as other commentaries do, 
to the previous directions concerning the taberna- 
cle, xxT.-xxxi., the execution of which is treated 
ofhere. The execution is the practical proof that 
the covenant-relation has been restored, with 
the afore-mentioned modifications designed for 
a religion of the covenant in process of forma- 
tion 

Ver. 2. The repetition of the precept concern- 
ing the Sabbath is interpreted by Knobel and 
Keil as having for its object to apply the law of 
the Sabbath to the time of the building of the 
tabernacle. But though this object may be 



included, yet a more general object is to he 
inferred from the circumstance that the Sabbath 
law concludes the command concerning the 
building (xxxi. 12 sqq.), as well as here opens 
the summons to carry out the command. The 
Sabbath, or the holy lime, is the prerequisite 
of worship, or the coming together in the holy 
place. The addition, prohibiting the kindlini; 
of fire, indicates that the law of the Sabbath is 
made more rigorous in the matter of abstinence. 

Vers. 5-9. Summons to take the voluntary 
contributions, vid. xxv. 2—7. 

Vers. 10-19. Invitation to men of artistic 
talent to render voluntary assistance on the 
building ; and specification of their duties, vid. 
xxv. 8; xxxi. 6-11. 



SECOND SECTION. 

The Voluntary Conseciatoiy Gifts, or the Holy Tributes for the Building. 

Chaptbe XXXV. 20-29. 

20 And all the congregation of the children of Israel departed from the presence 

21 of Moses. And they came, every one whose heart stirred him up, and every one 
whom his spirit made willing, and they brought Jehovah's offering to [for] the 
workof the tabernacle of the congregation [tent of meeting], and for all his [its] ser- 

22 vice, and for the holy garments. And they came, both men and women [themen with 
the women], as many as were willing-hearted, and brought bracelets [hooks], and ear- 
rings, and rings [signet-rings], and tablets [necklaces], all jewels of gold [all kinds 
of golden things] : and every man that offered offered an [that offered an] offering of 

23 gold unto Jehovah. And every man, with whom was found blue, and purple, and scar- 
let, and fine linen, and goats' hair, and red skins of rams [rams' skins dved red], 

24 and badgers' [seals'] skins, brought them. Every one that did offer an offering of 
silver and brass [copper] brought Jehovah's offering : and every man, with whom 

25 was found shittim [acacia] wood for any work of the service, brought it. And all 
the women that were wise-he.arted did spin with their hands, and brought that 
which they had spun, both of [spun, the] blue, and of purple, and of scarlet, and of 

26 [and the purple, the scarlet, and the] fine linen. And all the women whose heart 

27 stirred them up in wisdom spun [spun the] goats' hair. And the rulers brought 
onyx [the onyx] stones, and stones to be set, for the ephod, and for the breast-plate ; 



160 



EXODUS. 



28 And spice [the spice], aud oil [the oil ;] for the light, and for the anointing oil, and 

29 for the sweet incense. The children of Israel brought a willing offering unto 
Jehovah, every man and woman, whose heart made them willing to bring for all 
manner of [all the] work, which Jehovah had commanded to be made by the hand 
of Moses. 



EXEGETICAL AND CEITICAL. 

Ver. 20 sqq. A charming passage, illumined 
by the clear light of spontaneity, gladsomeness 
and joy ; an appearance of New Testament fea- 
tures in the Old Testament. At the same time 
there is involved a fine contrast between Moses' 
animated summons, issued at God's command, 
together with the glad willingness of the people 
to build a true sanctifying sanctuary, on the one 
hand, and the people's cowardly and false-hearted 
summons, extorted by the sensuous passions of 
the multitude, and followed by the tumultuous 
readiness to make offerings for the establish- 
ment of an equivocal, barbarizing system of 
worship, on the other. 

Ver. 22. The men -with the -women 
[Lange: to the ^7omen]. — Keil, referring to 
h}!, as used in Gen. xxxii. 12 (11), would read: 
"the men together with the children." But it 
is probably meant here that the women antici- 
pated the men, as in such religious movements 
is often the case. In the passage in Genesis, 
moreover, there is probably an intimation that 
the enemy first attacks the children, then the 
mother, who is defending the children ; this 



was suggested in our Commentary on Genesis, 
though the rendering "together with" is re- 
tained. 

Ver. 23. Every man w^ith virhom was 
found. — At first ornaments for tlie body are 
offered; then, possepsions and treasures; after- 
wards, the products of female labor ; finally also, 
princely jewels. " According to the Talmudists 
and Rabbins, followed by Braun ( Vestitus sacer- 
datum, p. 92), Bahr (Symbolik I., p. 265), and 
others, the purple and crimson cloths were of 
wool, the B'iJ' (42^s«u») of linen. But if so, the 
costume of the high-priest must have consisted 
of a diversity of materials, which conflicts with 
Lev. xix. 19; Deut. xxii. 11, and also Ezek.xliv. 
17 sq., where wool is forbidden to be used in 
sacerdotal garments (vid. Gen. xli. 42; xlvi. 
34). It is therefore safer to suppose that all 
the four kinds of material were flaxen yarn, the 
first three colored, the last bleached and white" 
(Knobel). But it is to be observed in reference 
to this, that the garments of the high-priest did 
not consist of a single article, and that the pre- 
cept in Ezekiel relates to the symbolic aspects 
of a new, ideal sanctuary.* 



* [Bin the ephod was a single thing, aod a€cordiDg to Ex. 
xxviii. 6 it was made out of all four of these materials. The 
same is true of the breast-plate (ver. 15). — Tk.]. 



THIRD SECTION. 

Bezaleel and his Assistants Introduced to the People to Receive the Consecrated 

Materials for the Building. 

Chapter XXXV. 30— XXXVI. 7. 

30 And Moses said unto the children of Israel, See, Jehovah hath called by name 

31 Bezaleel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah ; And he hath filled 
him with the spirit of God, in wisdom, in understanding, and in knowledge, and in 

32 all manner [kinds] of workmanship ; And to devise curious works [skilM designs], 

33 to work in gold, and in silver, and in brass [copper]. And in the cutting of stones, 
to set them, [stones for setting], and in carving of wood, to make any manner of cun- 

34 ning work [to work in all kinds of skilful work]. And he hath put in his heart 
that he may teach, both he [to teach, in him], and Aholiab, the son of Ahisaraach, 

35 of the tribe of Dan. Them hath he filled with wisdom of heart, to work all manner 
[to do all kinds] of work, of the engraver, and of the cunning workman [skilful 
weaver], and of the embroiderer, in blue, and in purple, in scarlet, and in fine li- 
nen, and of the weaver, even of them that do any work, and of those that devise cun- 
ning work [skilful designs]. 

Chap. XXXVI. 1 Then wrought Bezaleel and Aholiab [And Bezaleel and A-holiab 
shall work], and every wise-hearted man, in whom Jehovah put [hath put] wisdom and 
understanding to know how to work all manner of work for [do all the work of] the 



CHAP. XXXV. 30— XXXVI. 7. 



151 



2 service of the sanctuary, according to all that Jehovah had [hath] commanded. And 
Moses called Bezaleel and Aholiab, and every wise-hearted man, in whose heart 
Jehovah had put wisdom, even every one whose heart stirred him up to come unto 

3 the work to do it ; And they received of [from] Moses all the offering, which the 
children of Israel had brought for the work of the service of the sanctuary, to make 
it vsithal. And they brought yet [besides] unto him free [free-will] offerings 

4 every morning. And all the wise men, that wrought all the work of the sanctuary, 
6 came every man from his work which they made [were doing] ; And they spake 

unto Moses saying, The people bring much more [are bringing too much — more] 
than enough for the service of the work, which Jehovah commanded to make [to 

6 be done]. And Moses gave commandment, and they caused it to be proclaimed 
throughout the camp, saying. Let neither man nor woman make any more work for 

7 the offering of the sanctuary. So the people were restrained from bringing. For 
the stuff they had was sufficient for all the work to make [do] it, and too much [and 
there was left over]. 



EXEGETICAL AND CKITIOAL. 

Vers. SOsqq. Thia is not merely a disclosure 
respecting tlie future. The skilled workmen 
under the master workman Bezaleel are intro- 
duced to the people as those who, in Moses' pre- 
sence, are to receive the offerings which have al- 
ready been presented, and to judge of the propor- 
tion of them to the need. Two principal classes 
of workmen are named. The ttfin [smith] in- 
cludes at least three different occupations, ac- 
cording as the work is in metal, stone, or wood. 
The weavers are of three classes: the skilled 
workman, who inweaves figures (3^n> ; the 



weaver who works together the different colors 
(Dp'l) ; and the plain weaver (J^.**)- 

Chap, xxxvi. 6. And they spake unto 
Moses. — On all sides there is a superfluity of 
building material, so that Moses has occasion 
to cause a proclamation to be made in the camp, 
asking the contributions to be suspended. A 
rare instance in the history of collections, though 
also mediseval and evangelical institutions have 
often attained an excess gf prosperity. Knobel 
remarks on this point: "The Elohist has a more 
favorable opinion of Israel in Moses' time than 
the later narrator has." But his archaeological 
knowledge ought surely to have presented him 
here too with examples of how a nation in great 
crises is lifted above its ordinary level. 



FOURTH SECTION. 

The Work of the Building and the Priests' Ornaments. 

oal Sacred Structure. 



The Elements of the Typl- 



Chapteks XXXVI. 8— XXXIX. 31. 
A.— THE CURTAINS OF THE TENT AND THE COVERINGS. 
Vers. 8-19. 

8 And every wise-hearted man among them that wrought the work of the taber- 
nacle made ten [work made the tabernacle with ten] curtains of [curtains : o/] fine- 
twined linen, and blue, and purple, and scarlet, with cherubims [cherubim] of 

9 cunning work [the work of the skilful weaver] made he them. The length of one 
[each] curtain was twenty and eight cubits, and the breadth of one [each] curtain 

10 four cubits ; the curtains were all of one size [had all one measure]. And he cou- 
pled the five curtains one unto another : and the other five curtains he coupled one 

11 unto another. And he made loops of blue on the edge of one [the on^] curtain 
from the selvedge in the coupling [at the border in the first set] : likewise he made 
in the uttermost side of another curtain, in the coupling of the second [the same 

] 2 made he at the edge of the outmost curtain in the second set]. Fifty loops made 
be in one [the one] curtain, and fifty loops made he in the edge of the curtain which 
was in the coupling of the second [which was in the second set] : the loops held one 

13 curtain to another [were opposite one to another]. And he made fifty taches 
[clasps] of gold, and coupled the curtains one unto another with the taches [clasps] : 
so it became one tabernacle [and the tabernacle became one]. 



152 EXODUS. 



14, 15 And he made curtains of goats' hair for the [a] tent over the tabernacle; ele- 
ven curtains he made them. The length of one [each] curtain was thirty cubits, 
and four cubits was the breadth of one [each] curtain : the eleven curtains were of 

16 one size [had one measure]. And he coupled five curtains by themselves, and six 

17 curtains by themselves. And he made fifty loops upon the uttermost edge of the 
curtain in the coupling [upon the edge of the outermost curtain in the owe set], and 
fifty loops made he upon the edge of the curtain which coupleth the second [cur- 

18 tain, the second set]. And he made fifty taches [clasps] of brass [copper] to couple 

19 the tent together, that it might be one. And he made a covering for the tent of 
rams' skins dyed red, and a covering of badgers' skins above thoA [seals' skins 
above]. 

B— THE FRAME-WORK OF THE TENT. 
Vebs. 20-34. 

20 And he made boards [the boards] for the tabernacle of shittim [acacia] wood, 

21 standing up. The length of a board wcw ten cubits, and the breadth of a [each] 

22 board one cubit and a half. One [each] board had two tenons, equally distant one 

23 from another : thus did he make for all the boards of the tabernacle. And he made 
boards [the boards] for the tabernacle ; twenty boards for the south side southward: 

24 And forty sockets of silver he made under the twenty boards ; two sockets under 
one board for his [its] two tenons, and two sockets under another board for his [its] 

25 two tenons. And for the other side of the tabernacle which is toward the north 

26 corner [tabernacle, the north side], he made twenty boards. And their forty sockets 

27 of silver ; two sockets under one board, and two sockets under another board. And 

28 for the sides [rear] of the tabernacle westward he made six boards. And two boards 

29 made he for the corners of the tabernacle in the two sides [the rear]. And they were 
coupled beneath, and coupled together at the head thereof, to one ring [double be- 
neath, and they were together whole up to the top of it, unto the first ring] : thus 

30 he did to both of them in [at] both the corners. And there were eight boards ; 
and their sockets were sixteen sockets of silver [sockets of silver, sixteen sockets], 

31 under every board two sockets. And he made bars of shittim [acacia] wood; five 

32 for the boards of the one side of the tabernacle. And five bars for the boards of the 
other side of the tabernacle, and five bars for the boards of the tabernacle for the 

33 sides [rear] westward. And he made the middle bar to shoot through [pass along 

34 at the middle of] the boards from the one end to the other. And he overlaid the 
boards with gold, and made their rings of gold to be [for] places for the bars, and 
overlaid the bars with gold. 

C— THE VEIL AND THE SCREEN. 
Vers. 35-38. 

35 And he made a [the] veil of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine-twined linen: 
with cherubims made he it of cunning work [cherubim, the work of a skilful weaver 

36 made he it]. And he made thereunto [for it] four pillars of shittim [acacia] wood, 
and overlaid them with gold : their hooks were of gold ; and he cast for them four 

37 sockets of silver. And he made an hanging [a screen] for ••the tabernacle door 
[door of the tent] of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine-twined linen, of needle- 

38 work [linen, embroidered work] : And the five pillars of it with their hooks : aad 
he overlaid their chapiters [capitals] and their fillets [rods] with gold ; but [and] 
their five sockets were of brass. 

D.— THE ARK AND THE MEBCY-SEAT,* AND THE CHERUBIM. 
Chap. XXXVII. 1-9. 
1 And Bezaleel made the ark of shittim [acacia] wood : two cubits and a half wm 
the length of it, and a cubit and a half the breadth of it, and a cubit and a half the 

* [Lange renders JTli] J " lid of expiation," and remarks that the term " is as difflonit to translate with one word " 

is the name H'lnV" Luther's rendering, OnademtuM (" mercy-seat "), he commends as conyeying substantially the right 

impre'sion. But it is questionable whether one can properly combine the literal and the topical in a translation, as langs 
does.— Tn.] 



CHAP. XXXVI. 8— XXXIX. 31. 153 

2 height of it : And he overlaid it with pure gold within and without, and made a 

3 crown [rim] of gold to [for] it round about. And he cast for it four rings of gold, 
to be set by [gold, on] the four corners of it [its four feet] ; even two rings upon the 

4 one side of it, and two rings upon the other side of it. And he made staves of shit- 

5 tim [acacia] wood, and overlaid them with gold. And he put the staves into the 

6 rings by [on] the sides of the ark, to bear the ark. Aud he made the [a] mercy- 
seat o/pure gold: two cubits and a half was the length thereof, and one cubit and 

7 a half the breadth thereof. And he made two cherubims [cherubim] of gold, beaten 
out of one piece [of beaten work] made he them, on [at] the two ends of the mercy- 

8 seat. One cherub on the end on this side [at the one end], and another [one] che- 
rub on the other end on that side [at the other end]: out of [of one piece with] the 

9 mercy-seat made he the cherubims on [at] the two ends thereof And the cheru- 
bims [cherubim] spread out their wings on high [upwards], and covered [covering] 
with their wings over [wings] the mercy-seat, with their faces one to [towards] ano- 
ther: even to the mercy -seatward [towards the mercy-seat] were the faces of the che- 
rubims [cherubim]. 

B— THE TABLE AND ITS VESSELS. 
Vers. 10-16. 

10 And he made the table o/shittim [acacia] wood : two cubits was the length thereof, 

11 and a cubit the breadth thereof, and a cubit and a half the height thereof: And he 
overlaid it with pure gold, and made thereunto a crown [for it a rim] of gold round 

12 about. Also [And] he made thereunto [for it] a border of an [a] handbreadth 
round about; and made a crown [rim] of gold for the border thereof round about. 

13 And he cast for it four rings of gold, and put the rings upon [in] the four corners 

14 that were in [on] the four feet thereof. Over against [Close by] the border were the 

15 rings, the places for the staves to bear the table. And he made the staves o/shit- 

16 tim [acacia] wood, and overlaid them with gold, to bear the table. And he made 
the vessels which were upon the table, his dishes [its plates], and his spoons [its cups], 
and his [its] bowls, and his covers to cover withal [its flagons to pour out with], of 
pure gold. 

P.— THE CANDLESTICK AND THE UTENSILS BELONGING TO IT. 
Vees. 17-24. 

17 And he made the candlestick of pure gold : of beaten work made he the candle- 
stick ; his shaft, and his branch, his bowls, his knops, and his flowers, were of the 
same [the candlestick, its base, and its shaft : its cups, its knobs, aud its flowers were 

18 of one piece with it] : And six branches going out of the sides thereof; three 
branches of the candlestick out of the one side thereof, and three branches of the 

19 candlestick out of the other side thereof: Three bowls made after the fashion of 
almonds in [Three cups made like almond-blossoms on] one branch, a knop 
[knob] and a flower; and three bowls made like almonds in [almond-blossoms en] 
another branch, a knop [knob] and a flower : so throughout [for] the six branches 

20 going out of the candlestick. And in [on] the candlestick were four bowls [cups] 
made like almonds [almond-blossoms], his knops [its knobs], and his [its] flowers : 

21 And a knop [knob] under two branches of the same [of one piece with it], and a 
knop [knob] under two branches of the same [of one piece with it], and a knop 
[knob] under two branches of the same [of one piece with it], according to [for] 

22 the six branches going [that go] out of it. Their knops [knobs] and their branches 
were of the same [of one piece with it] : all of it was one beaten work of pure gold. 

23 And he made his [its] seven lamps, and his [its] snuflTers, and his [its] snufi'-dishes, 

24 of pure gold. Of a talent of pure gold made he it, and all the vessels thereof. 

G.— THE ALTAR OF INCENSE AND ITS APPURTENANCES. 
Vers. 25-29. 

25 And he made the incense altar [altar of incense] of shittim [acacia] wood : the 
length of it was a cubit, and the breadth of it a cubit ; it was foursquare ; and two. 
cubits was the height of it; the horns thereof were of the same [of one piece with 

26 it]. And he overlaid it with pure gold, both [gold,] the top of it, and the sidea 



154 EXODUS. 



thereof round about, and the horns of it : also he made unto [for] it a crown [rim^ 

27 of gold round about. And he made two rings of gold for it under the crown [rim' 
thereof, by the two corners [on the two flanks] of it, upon the two sides thereof, to 

28 be [for] places for the staves to bear it withal. And he made the staves o/ shittim 

29 [acacia] wood, and overlaid them with gold. And he made the holy anointing oil, 
and the pure incense of sweet spices, according to the work of the apothecary [spices, 
the work of the perfumer]. 

H.— THE ALTAR OF BURNT-OFFERING WITH ITS UTENSILS, AND THE LAYER. 

Chap. XXXVIII. 1-8. 

1 And he made the altar of burnt-offering o/ shittim [acacia] wood : five cubits wag 
the length thereof, and five cubits the breadth thereof; it was foursquare; and three 

2 cubits the height thereof. And he made the horns thereof on the four corners of 
it ; the horns thereof were of the same [of one piece with it] : and he overlaid it with 

3 brass [copper]. And he made all the vessels of the altar, the pots, and the shovels, 
and the basins, and the fleshhooks, and the fire-pans : all the vessels thereof made 

4 he of brass [copper]. And he made for the altar a brazen grate of network [a 
grating of network of copper] under the compass [ledge] thereof beneath unto the 

5 midst of it [reaching to the middle of it]. And he cast four rings for the four ends 
[corners] of the grate of brass [copper grating], to be [for] places for the staves. 

6 And he made the staves of shittim [acacia] wood, and overlaid them with brass 

7 [copper]. And he put the staves into the rings on the sides of the altar, to bear it 

8 withal ; he made the altar [made it] hollow with boards. And he made the laver 
of brass [copper], and the foot [base] of it of brass [copper], of the looking-glasses 
of the women assembling, which assembled [the serving women, who served] at the 
door of the tabernacle of the congregation [tent of meeting]. 

I.— THE COURT. 
Vers. 9-20. 

9 And he made the court : on [for] the south side southward the hangings of the 

10 court were of fine-twined linen, an [a] hundred cubits : Their pillars were twenty, 
and their brazen [copper] sockets twenty ; the hooks of the pillars and their fillets 

11 [rods] were o/ silver. And for the north side the hangings were an [side a] hundred 
cubits, their pillars were twenty, and their sockets of brass [copper] twenty ; the 

12 hooks of the pillars and their fillets [rods] of silver. And for the west side were 
hangings of fifty cubits, their pillars ten, and their sockets ten ; the hooks of the 

13 pillars and their fillets [rods] o/ silver. And for the east side eastward fifty cubits. 

14 The hangings for the one side of the gate were fifteen cubits ; their pillars three, and 

15 their sockets three. And for the other side of the court gate, on this hand and 
that hand [So for the other side ; on this hand, and on that hand, by the gate of 
the court], were hangings of fifteen cubits ; their pillars three, and their sockets 

16 three. All the hangings of the court round about were of fine-twined linen. 

17 And the sockets for the pillars were of brass [copper] ; the hooks of the pillars and 
their fillets [rods] of silver ; and the overlaying of their chapiters [capitals] of silver ; 

18 and all the pillars of the court were filleted with [joined with rods of] silver. And 
the hanging [screen] for the gate of the court was needlework [embroidered work], 
of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine-twined linen : and twenty cubits was the 
length, and the height in the breadth was five cubits, answerable [corresfionding] 

19 to the hangings of the court. And their pillars were four, and their sockets of brass 
[copper] four; their hooks o/ silver, and the overlaying of their chapiters [capitals] 

20 and their fillets [rods] of silver. And all the pins of the tabernacle, and of the 
court round about, were of brass [copper]. 

J.— AMOUNT OF THE METAL USED. 
Vers. 21-31. 

21 This is the sum of [These are the amounts for] the tabernacle, even the tabernacle 
of [of the] testimony, as it was [they were] counted, according to the commandment 
of Moses, for the service of the Levites, by the hand of Ithamar, son to Aaron the 



CHAP. XXXVI. 8— XXXIX. 31, 155 



22 priest. And Bezaleel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, made 

23 all that Jehovah commanded Moses. And with him was Aholiab, son of Ahisa- 
mach, of the tribe of Dan, an engraver, and a cunning workman [a skilful weaver], 
and an embroiderer in blue, and in purple, and in scarlet, and fine linen. 

24 A-ll the gold that was occupied [used] for the work in all the work of the holy 
place [sanctuary], even the gold of the offering, was twenty and nine talents, and 

25 seven hundred and thirty shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary. And the silver 
of them that were numbered of the congregation was an [a] hundred talents, and n 
thousand seven hundred and threescore and fifteen shekels, after the shekel of the 

26 sanctuary : A bekah for every man, that is, half a shekel, after the shekel of the 
sanctuary, for every one that went to be [passed over to them that were] numbered, 
from twenty years old and upward, for six hundred thousand and three thousacid 

27 and five hundred and fifty men. And of the hundred talents of silver were cast 
the sockets of the sanctuary, and the sockets of the veil ; an [a] hundred sockets of 

28 [for] the hundred talents, a talent for a socket. And of the thousand seven hun- 
dred seventy and five shekels he made hooks for the pillars, and overlaid their chupi- 

29 ters [capitals], and filleted them [joined them with rods]. And the brass [copper] 
of the offering was seventy talents, and two thousand and four hundred shekels. 

30 And therewith he made the sockets to [for] the door of the tabernacle of the con- 
gregation [tent of meeting], and the brazen [copper] altar, and the brazen grate 

31 [copper grating] for it, and all the vessels of the altar. And the sockets of the court 
round about, and the sockets of the court gate [gate of the court], and all the pins 
of the tabernacle, and all the pins of the court round about. 

K.— PEEPAEATION OF THE PRIESTS' TEBTMENT. 
Chap. XXXIX. 1-31. 

1 And of the blue, an purple, and scarlet, they made cloths [garments] of service, 
to do service [for ministering] in the holy place and made the holy garments for 
Aaron ; as Jehovah commanded Moses. 

1. TheEphod. 

2 And he made the ephod of gold, blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine-twined 

3 linen. And they did beat the gold into thin plates, and cut it into wires [threads], 
to work it in the blue, and in the purple, and in the scarlet, and in the fine linen, 

4 wUh cunning work [linen, the work of the skilful weaver]. They made shoulder- 
pieces for it, to couple it together [joined together] : by [at] the two edges was it 

5 coupled [joined] together. And the curious girdle of his ephod [the embroidered 
belt for girding it], that was upon it, was of the same [of one piece with it], accord- 
ing to the work [like the work] thereof; of gold, blue, and purple, and scarlet, and 

6 fine-twiaed linen ; as Jehovah commanded Moses. And they wrought onyx stones 
inclosed in ouches [settings] of gold, graven as signets are graven [graven with the 

7 engravings of a signet], with the names of the children of Israel. And he put them 
on the shoulders [shoulder-pieces] of the ephod, that they should be stones for a me- 
morial to [ephod, as memorial stones for] the children of Israel; as Jehovah com- 
manded Moses. 

2. The Breaat-plate. 

8 And he made the breast-plate of cunning work [with the work of the skilful 
weaver], like the work of the ephod; of gold, blue, and purple, and scarlet, and 

9 fine-twined linen. It was four-square; they made the breast-plate double: 
a span was the length thereof, and a span the breadth thereof, being doubled. 

10 And they set in it four rows of stones: the first row was a sardius, a topaz, 
and a carbuncle: this was the first row: [stones: a row of sardius, topaz, 

11 and emerald was the first row]. And the second row, an emerald [a car- 

12 buncle], a sapphire, and a diamond. And the third row, a ligure, an agate, 

13 and an amethyst. And the fourth row, a beryl [chrysolite], an onyx, and a jasper: 

14 thenj were inclosed in ouches [settings] of gold in their inelosings. And the stones 
were according to the names of the children of Israel, twelve, according to 



166 



EXODUS. 



tteir names, like the engravings of a signet, every one with his name, according to 

15 [for] the twelve tribes. And they made upon the breast-plate chains at the ends 

16 [chains like cords] of wreathen work of pure gold. And they made two ouches 
[settings] of gold, and two gold rings [rings of gold] ; and put the two rings in [on] 

17 the two ends of the breast-plate. And they put the two wreathen chains of gold 

18 in [on] the two rings on [at] the ends of the breast-plate. And the two ends of 
the two wreathen chains they fastened in [put on] the two ouches [settings], and 

19 put them on the shoulder-pieces of the ephod, before it [on the front of it]. And 
they made two rings of gold, and put them on the two ends of the breast-plate, upon 

20 the border of it, which was on [toward] the side of the ephod inward. And they 
made two other [two] golden rings, and put them on the two sides [shoulder-pieces] 
of the ephod underneath, toward [on] the forepart of it, over against [close by] the 
other [the] coupling thereof, above the curious girdle [embroidered belt] of the 

21 ephod. And they did bind the breast-plate by his [its] rings unto the rings of the 
ephod with a lace [cord] of blue, that it might be above the curious girdle of [em- 
broidered belt] the ephod, and that the breast-plate might not be loosed from the 
ephod; as Jehovah commanded Moses. 

3. The Robe. 

22, 23 And he made the robe of the ephod of woven work, all of blue. And there 

was an hole in the midst of the robe, [And the opening of the robe in the middle 

of it was] as the hole of an habergeon [like the opening of a coat of mail], tirith a 

band [binding] round about the hole [opening], that it should not rend [might, not 

24 be rent]. And they made upon the hems [skirts] of the robe pomegranates of blue, 

25 and purple, and scarlet, and twined linen [scarlet, twined]. And they made bells 
of pure gold, and put the bells between the pomegranates upon the hem [skirts] 

26 of the robe, round about between the pomegranates ; A bell and a pomegranate,_a 
bell and a pomegranate, round about the hem of the robe [upon the skirts of the 
robe round about], to minister in; as Jehovah commanded Moses. 

4. The Coat, Breeches, and Oirdle. 

27 And they made coats [the coats] of fine linen of woven work for Aaron and for 

28 his sons. And a mitre [the turban] of fine linen, and goodly bonnets [the goodly 

29 caps] o/fine lineo, and linen [the linen] breeches of fine-twined linen, And 'a [the] 
girdle of fine-twined linen, and blue, and purple, and scarlet, of needle work [scar- 
let, embroidered work] ; as Jehovah commanded Moses. 

5. The Plate of Gold. 

30 And they made the plate of the holy crown of pure gold, and wrote upon it a 

31 writing, like to the engravings of a signet, HOLINESS TO JEHOVAH. And 
they tied unto it a lace [cord] of blue, to fasten if on high upon the mitre [turban]; 
as Jehovah commanded Moses. 

b. The Frame-work of the Tent, vers. 20-84; 
vid. xxvi. 15-30. 



EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL. 

a. The Curtains of the Tent and their Cover- 
ings. Chap, xxxvi. 8-19. Vid. chap. xxvi. 1-14. 
Jaoobi, in his pamphlet, Die Lehre der Irvingiten 
(Berlin, 1853), p. 52sqq., has told how the Ir- 
vingites interpret, in a fantastic, allegorical way, 
the curtains of the tabernacle as pointing to 
their offices; and, in general, their arbitrary 
trifling with Old Testament symbols. In a simi- 
lar way they deal with the Apocalypse. Vid. 
Stockmeyer, Kurze Nachricht Uber den Irvingis- 
mm, p. 18. Keil observes that the verbs TiW}} 
in ver. 8, latTI in ver. 10, and iJ'^Jl in ver. il, 
etc., a,re in the third Pers. Sing, with an indefinite 
subject. But this is not borne out by ver. 8, 
where Hiffj; first stands in the plural. It is more 
likely that the whole work is called BezaleeVs. 



c. The Veil and the Screen, vers. 35-88; vii. 
xxvi. 31-37. Ver. 38. Not the whole of the pil- 
lars of the screen was overlaid with gold, but 
only the tips, and the rods running across the up- 
per ends. The other pillars of the court only had 
their tips and cross-rods overlaid with silver. 

a. The Ark, the Mercy-seat, the Cherubim, 
xxxvii. 1-9; md. xxv. 10-22. It is called the 
master-workman Bezaleel's own work. 

e. The Table of Shew-bread and its Vessels, 
vers. 10-16 ; vid. xxv. 23-80. In the direction the 
dishes are called n'i;;?p, T\33, rttop, and nVpjS! 
the same here, except that the order of the last 
two is inverted. 



CHAP. XXXIX. 32-43. 



167 



f. The Candlestick and the Utensils belonging 
to it, vers. 17-24; vid. xxv. 31-40. 

g. The Altar of Incense with its Appurte- 
nances, vers. 25-29; vid. xxx. 1-10. The An- 
ointing Oil and the Incense, xxx. 22-28. 

h. The Altar of Burnt-offering, with its Im- 
plements, and the Laver, xxxviii. 1-8. On the 
Altar vid. xxvii. 1-8. On the Laver vid. xxx. 
17-21. Knobel's notion about ver. 8 is very 
strange [vid. above, p. 127]. He thinks that on 
the base there were fashioned figures of the wo- 
men who, as Levite women, came into the court 
to wash and furbish. [But Enobel does not re- 
present the figures as on the 6a»e.] 

i. The Court, vers. 9-20: vid. xxvii. 9-19. 

j. Summation of the Metal used, vers. 21-31. 
"The eslimatious" (ver. 21). Keil, "The enu- 
merated things." The duty of counting the 
amount was committed to the Levites under the 
direction of Aaron's son, Ithamar. 

Ver. 24. The Gold. Thenius and Keil reckon 
it at 87,730 shekels, or 877,300 Thaler,— a, gold 
shekel being estimated as =r 10 Thaler [ = 7 Dol- 
lars and 20 cents. Poole, in Smith's Bible Dic- 
tionary, makes it a little more. — Te.] 

Vers. 25-28. The Silver. "Of the silrer 
there is reckoned only the amount of the atone- 
ment money collected from those who were 
numbered, a half-shekel to every male, the vo- 



luntary gifts of silver not being mentioned" 
(Keil). It is not to be supposed that amidst the 
voluntary contributions of gold, copper, etc., a 
legally imposed tax would hv specified. But it 
may well be conjectured that (he standard, after- 
wards fixed for the tax for the sanctuary, served 
as a guide in the voluntary contributions, as has 
been already remarked [p. 126] Ou the abun- 
dance of gold and silver among the ancient Ori- 
entals, as showing the possibility of the actual 
correctness of these accounts in opposition to 
modern doubts, vid. Keil, page 261; Kuobel, 
page 383. 

k. Chap, xxxix. 1-31. "The preparation of 
the priestly garments, to the description of which 
a transition is formed by a statement of the ma- 
terials for them and of the design of them. Tlie 
ephod, vers. 2-7, corresponds to xxviii. 6-12; 
the breast-plate, vers. 8-21, to xxviii. 15-29 — the 
Urim and Thummim, which needed no special 
preparation, being passed over. The robe, vers. 
22-26, answers to xxviii. 31-34; the coats, head- 
pieces, breeches, and girdles for Aaron and his 
sons, vers. 27-29 to xxviii. 39, 40 and 42. The 
head-covering of the common priests in xxviii. 40 
Cni;;3JD) is here (ver. 28) called nj?3J0n nN3 
ornamental caps" (Keil). Vid. Knobel for ar- 
chaeological notes, p. 334. 



FIFTH SECTION. 



The Religious Presentation of all the Component Parts of the Sanctuary, and 

Moses' Blessing. 

Chaptee xxxix. 82-43. 

32 Thus was all the work of the tabernacleof the tent of the congregation [tent of meet- 
ing] finished: and the children oflsrael did accordingto all thatJehovah commanded 

33 Mos°s, so did they. And they brought the tabernacle unto Moses, the tent, and 
all his [its] furniture, his taches [its clasps], his [its] boards, his [its] bars, and his 

o4 [its] pillars, and his [its] sockets, And the covering of rams' skins dyed red, and the 

35 covering of badgers' [seals'] skins, and the veil of the covering [screen]. The ark of 

36 the testimony, and the staves thereof, and the mercy-seat, The table, and all the 

37 vessels thereof, and the shew-bread. The pure randlestick. with the lamps thereof, 
even with the [thereof, the] lamps to be set iu order, and all the vessels [utensils] 

38 thereof and the oil for light [the light]. And the golden altar, and the anointing 
oil, and the sweet incense, and the hanging [screen] for the tabernacle-door [door 

39 of the tent of meeting]. The brazen [copper] altar, and his grate of bras^ [its cop- 
per grating], his [its] staves, and all his [its] vessels, the laver and his foot [its 

40 base], Th°, hanginss of the court, his [its] pillars, and his [its] sockets, and the 
hanging [screen] for the court-gate his [its] cords, and his [its] pins, and all the 
vessels [furniture] of the service of the tabernacle, for the tent of the congregation 

41 [of meeting]. The cloths [garments] of service to do snrvice [for ministering] in 
the holy place, and the holy garments for Aaron the priest, and his sons' garments, 

42 to minister in the priest's office [to minister in as priests]. According to all that 
Jehovah commanded Moses, so the children of Israel made [did] all the work. 



158 



EXODUS. 



43 And Moses did look upon [saw] all the work, and, behold, they had done it as 
Jehovah had commanded, even [commanded,] so had they done it: and Moses 
blessed them. 



EXEQETICAL AND ORITIOAL. 

Besides the minute enumeration of the several 
parts of the tabernacle, is especially noticeable 
the repeated observation that they had done 
everything according to Jehovah's command- 
ment, vers. 32 and 43. The enthusiasm and the 
joy in making offerings was at the same time a 
punctilious obedience to the law — an obedience 
which, being rendered primarily to Moses, 
shows that the new order of things, or the Old 
covenant, is again established. 

Vers. 33, 34. "By '^HSn are meant the two 
tent-cloths composed of curtains, the purple one 
and the one made of goats' hair, which made the 



tabernacle (JSE'O) a tent (7ns). It thence 
follows beyond a doubt that the variegated cur- 
tains formed the inner walls of the tabernacle, 
or covered the boards on the inside ( ? how then 
could they be stretched?). On the other hand, 
the goats' hair curtains farmed the outer cover- 
ing" (Keil). The colored curtains formed the in- 
side even if they were stretched over the boards. 
Ver. 43. "The readiness with which the peo- 
ple had brought in abundance the requisite gifts 
for this work, and the zeal with which they had 
accomplished the work in half a year or less 
{vid. xl. 17), were delightful signs of Israel's 
willingness to serve the Lord ; and for this the 
blessing of God could not fail to be given" 
(Keil). 



SIXTH SECTION. 

The Erection of the Tabernacle and its Dedication as the Place of the Revela- 
tion of the Glory of Jehovah. (Analogies: Abraham's Grove at Mamre; 
Jacob's Bethel ; Solomon's Temple ; Zerubbabel's Temple ; Temple Dedication 
of Judas Maccabeus; Christ in the Temple.) 

Chaptek XL. 1-38. 

A.— THE COMMAND. 



Vers. 1-15. 



1, 2 And Jehovah spake unto Moses, saying. On the first day of the first month 

3 shalt thou set up the tabernacle of the tent of the congregation [of meeting]. And 
thou shalt put therein the ark of the testimony, and cover the ark with the veil. 

4 And thou shalt bring in the table, and set in order the things that are to be set in 
order upon it [set it in order] ; and thou shalt bring in the candlestick, and light 

5 [set up] the lamps thereof And thou shalt set the altar of gold for the mcense 
[golden altar of incense] before the ark of the testimony, and put [set up] the 

6 hanaing [screen] of the door to [of] the tabernacle. And thou shalt set the altar 
of the [of] burnt-ofiering before the door of the tabernacle of the tent of the con- 

7 gregation [of meeting]. And thou shalt set the laver between the tent of the con- 

8 gregation [of meeting] and the altar, and shalt put water therein. And thou shalt 
set up the court round about, and hang up the hanging at the court-gate [put up 

9 the screen of the gate of the court]. And thou shalt take the anointing oil, aud 
anoint the tabernacle, and all that is therein, and shalt hallow it, and all the ves- 

10 sels furniture]thereof: anditshallbeholy. And thou shaltanointthealtarofthe[of] 
burnt-offering, and all his vessels [its utensils], and sanctify the altar : and it shall 

11 be an altar most holy [and the altar shall be most holy]. And thou shalt anoint 

12 the laver and his foot [its base], and sanctify it. And thou shalt bring Aaron and 
his sons unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation [tent of meeting], and 

13 wash them with water. And thou shalt put upon Aaron the holy garments, and 
[garments; and thou shalt] anoint him, and sanctify him : that [hmi, that] he may 

14 minister unto me in the priest's office [be priest unto me]. And thou shalt bring 



CHAP. XL. 1-38. 



169 



15 his sons, and clothe them with coats : And thou shalt anoint them, as thou didst 
anoint their father, that they may minister unto me in the priest's office [be priests 
unto me] : for [and] their anointing shall surely be [shall be to them for] an ever- 
lasting priesthood throughout their generations. 

B.— THE EKECTION OF THE BUILDING (NOT THE CONSECRATION OF IT). 

Vbks. 16-33. 

16 Thus did Moses: according to all that Jehovah commanded him, so did he. 

17 And it came to pass in the first month in the second year, on the first day of the 

18 month, that the tabernacle was reared [set] up. And Moses reared [set] up the 
tabernacle, and fastened his [its] sockets, and set up the boards thereof, and put 

19 in the hars thereof, and reared [set] up his [its] pillars. And he spread abroad 
[spread] the tent over the tabernacle, and put the covering of the tent above upon 

20 it; as Jehovah commanded Moses. And he took and put the testimony into the 
ark, and set the staves on the ark, and put the mercy-seat above upon the ark : 

21 And he brought the ark into the tabernacle, and set up the veil of the covering, 
and covered [screened] the ark of the testimony ; as Jehovah commanded Moses. 

22 And he put the table in the tent of the congregation [of meeting], upon the side of 

23 the tabernacle northward, without the veil. And he set the bread in order upon it 

24 before Jehovah ; as Jehovah had commanded Moses. And he put the candlestick in 
the tent of the congregation [of meeting], over against the table, on the side of the 

25 tabernacle southward. And he lighted [set up] the lamps before Jehovah ; as 

26 Jehowah commanded Moses. And he put the golden altar in the tent of the con- 

27 gregation [of meeting] before the veil: And he burnt sweet inctnse thereon; as 

28 Jehovah commanded Moses. And he set up the hanging at [put up the screen of]' 

29 the door of the tabernacle. And he put the altar of burnt-offeriug hy the door oF 
the tabernacl^ of the tent of the congregation [of meeting], and offered upon it th.*' 
burnt-ofiering, and the meat-offering [meal offtring] ; as Jehovah commanded 

30 Moses. And he set the laver between the tent of the congregation [of meeting] 

31 and the altar, and put water there, to wash udthal. And Moses and Aaron and 

32 his sons washed their hands and their feet thereat [therefrom] : When they went 
into the tent of the congregation [of meeting], and when they came near unto the 

33 altar, they washed ; as Jehovah commanded Moses. And he reared [set] up the 
court round about the tabernacle and the altar, and set up the hanging [screen] 
of the court-gate. So Moses finished the work. 



C— THE DIVHE DEDICATION OF THE TABEaN.iCLE ANTERIOR TO THE HUMiN 

DEDICATION. 

Vers. 34-38. 

34 Then a [the] cloud covered the tent of the congregation [of meeting], and the 

35 glory of Jehovah filled the tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter into the 
tent of the congregation [of meeting], because the cloud abode thereon, and the 

36 glory of Jehovah filled the tabernacle. And when the cloud was taken up from 

37 over the tabernacle, the children of Israel went onward in all their journeys : But 
if [whenever] the cloud were [was] not taken up then they journeyed not till the 

38 day that it was taken up. For the cloud of Jehovah was upon the tabernaile by 
day, and fire was on [in] it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel, through- 
out all their journeys. 

of the arrangement of the parts. As to the time, 
the first day of the first month, Nisan (of the ?e- 
cond year of the exodus) is selected, as if in order 
that it might be ready for the first Passover fes- 
tival in the middle of Nisan. 

Ver. 3. The ark of the testimony is the 
real soul of the sanciuary. It represents the 
presence of Jehovah. Next to it the veil is the 
most important, since it expresses the unap- 



EXEGETICAL AND CEITICAL. 

0. The Command to Erect the Building. 

Chap. xl. 1-15. 
Ver. 1. Though Moses knows that the taber- 
nacle is to be erected, yet he must receive .Teho- 
Tah's command in reference to the time and order 
14 



ICO 



EXODUS. 



proaohabltneas of Jehovah, and protects the ark 
from profanation, but still more protects from 
the sentence of destruction those who approach 
without authority. 

Ver. 4. Next comes the table. With the table 
Jehovah comes, in a limiieddegree, outof theHoly 
of holies into the holy place. By this symbolic 
communion with the priests He discloses to the 
people the hope of fellowship with Him, the fel- 
lowship of His Spirit, of His blessings. Then 
the lamps are lighted as if for a feast; for en- 
lightenment is dependent on the communion of 
the heart with God. 

Ver. 5. As Jehovah comes, with the table, in 
a sense into the holy place, so the priesthood of 
Israel on its part comes in a sense into the Holy of 
holies with the altar of incense which symbolizes 
prayer. These holy things, too, which denote 
and illustrate communion with Jehovah, must be 
screened by the curtain of the holy place. 

Ver. 6. As the altar of incense bears a relation 
to the door of the Holy of holies, so the altar of 
burnt-offering to the door of the holy place. 
The laver stands nearer the holy place than the 
altar does, because it is for the priests, and con- 
tains, in the water, the means of purification for 
the sacrificial service — in which circumstance is 
disclosed an adumbration of the N. T. baptism, 
which separates animal offerings from the 
temple. 

Ver. 8. The court also has its screen, for the 
court, too, is an enclosed vestibule of the holy 
pjace, as contrasted with the profane heathen 
world aiHl dttiled Israelites, or even such as 
approach wi'h empty hands. 

Ver. 9. The anointing of the dwelling and all 
of its individual parts expresses the truth, that all 
the worship in this house depends on the life of 
the spirit — is from the spirit and for the spirit. 
But in what sense is the altar of burnt-offering, 
standing as it does in the court, most holy, [lite- 
rally, "holy of holies"]? Because the offering of 
sacrifice, and the self-surrender which consists in 
trustful obedienc, and which underlies the offer- 
ing, are the fundamental condition of the genu- 
ineness of the whole ritual worship. According 
to Keil, the phrase designates the fact that the 
allar is not to be approached by the people who 
offer sacrifices.* 

Ver. 1ft. Aaron's sons also are anointed to- 
gether with hun, because they represent the 
iierediliiry perpetuity of the priesthood. Keil 
holds that the consecration of the priests was 
not contemporaneous with the erection of the 
tabernacle, hut took place later. But here too 
aly the rommand is first given, and then the 
i-ection of the tabernacle precedes its execution, 
nobel says: The statement [of ver. 1(5] antici- 
iites Lev. viii. If we distinguish between oom- 
and and cicecution, the anticipation is only 
;eming, or at least only grows out of the Bum- 
ariness of the narrative. 

b. The Ertction of the Building. Vers. 16-33. 

Ver. 17. And it came to pass. — "Inasmuch 
I from the arrival of the Israelites at Sinai in 

* \I. e., aa beinjt, on account of its position, more exposed 
the contact of laymen than tlie other sac od objects, whicu 
?re where no layman was allowed to come at all.— Te.] 



the third month after the exodus (xix. 1) until 
the first day of the second year, when the work 
was delivered to Moses complete, not quite nine 
months elapsed, all the work of the building was 
done in less than half a year" (Keil).* 

Ver. 19. He spread the tent over the ta- 
bernacle. — By the "tent" here Keil correctly 
understands the two principal coverings; by the 
" covering," the two outer coverings. 

Ver. 20. The testimony. — The tables of the 
law, as records which were to bear perpetual wit- 
ness to the divine will orally revealed to the people. 
Knobel refers it to the whole revelation so far 
as then existent — which Keil rightly disputes. 

Ver. 23. On the arrangemi-nt of the twelve 
loaves in two rows, vid. Lev xxiv. 6. 

Ver. 30. Bet'vireen the tent of meeting 
and the altar. — "Probably more to one side, 
so that the priests did not need to go around the 
altar" (Keil.). 

The offering of sacrifice, ver. 20, and the 
burning of incense, ver. 27, are to be regarded 
as extraordinary acts of Moses, the founder 
of the system of worship, and not belonging to 
the ordinary worship of the people, which pre- 
supposed the anointing of the sanctuary, and 
which began with » sin-offering, whereas here 
only burnt-offerings and meal-offerings are 
spoken of. 

Ver. 33. The court was not only a court; it 
enclosed the tabernacle. According to Josepbus 
{Antq. III. 6, 3) the tabernacle stood in the 
middle of the court. 

c. The Divine Dedication of the Bvilding Ante- 
rior to the Human Dedication. 

Vers. 34-38. 
Ver. 34. If anything is fitted to exhibit (he 
LeviticHl ritual as a transitory one, as an edu- 
cational institution designed for the training of 
the people up to the time of their maturity, it 
is the fact that the completed tabernacle forms 
the conclusion of Exodus, not the beginning of 
Leviticus; that Moses offered sacrifices and 
burned incense in it before Aaron the priest 
did; but especially that Jehovah Himself conse- 
crated the sanctuary by His manifestation of 
Himself in the sacred cloud before it was conse- 
crated by the priesthood. In the Middle Ages 
it was a saying that a church was consecrated 
by angels in the night before it was going to be 
consecrated by priests. Perhaps the saying was 
a reminiscence of the mystery here recorded. 
For Jehovah's manifestation ot Himself is some- 
thing very mysterious, a holy token, viewed 
only by the eyes of faith. Above the tabernacle 
the cloud appears, and covers it, in order to 
remove the glory of Jehovah, which fills lite 
dwelling, from the view of all, even of Moses, 
It is not said that this condition became a per- 
manent one; on the contrary, the tabernacle 
soon afterwards became accessible, except as 
regards the regulations concerning the Holy of 
holies. But up to that time it was unapproach- 



* [This is made ont by dednciing from the nine monllil 
the eighty days (xxiv. 18 ; xxxiv. 28) spent by Moses on tie 
mounl^in, the time spent in preparation'for the giving of 
the law, and in the ratification of the covenant (xix. 1— xxi'' 
11), and the interval between Moses' first and his second Bl»; 
on the mountain (xxxii. and xxxili.).— Tk.] 



DOCTRINAL AND HOMILETIC APPENDIX. 



161 



able, locked up, aa it were, and had to be un- 
locked by sacerdotal expiations according to 
the Levitical rites. 

At the close is given a general atatement con- 
cerning the future of the tahernaole, which, 
however, also discloses' the design of it. "The 
Future verbs designate the action as a rppeated 
and perpetual one " (Knobel). ft was designed 
ns a divine token for the people on their march. 
When the cloud rose up from the tabernacle, 
this was the signal for starting — an expressive 
signal; for the divine token then visibly sepa- 
rated itself from the sacerdotal dwelling; Jeho- 
vali seemed to abandon it, as He in truth in the 
strictest sense did leave the temple in the Jew- 



ish war. It was the signal for the people to 
break camp and move onward. But the cloud 
only showed the way, in order, at a new stop- 
ping-place, to rest down again on the tabernacle, 
and thus to order a halt. Thus the book closes 
with the profoundest thought concerning the 
history of the kingdom of God, expressed in a, 
symbolic form and so graphically as to be ap- 
prehensible by a child. The pillar of cloud above 
the tabernacle by day; the fiery brightness in it 
by night — before the eyes of all Israel; — thus 
was made sensible lo the people that presence 
of their covenint-God which accompanied them 
in all their journeyings. Comp. the consecra- 
tion of the temple, 1 Kings viii. and Ezek. xliil. 
4; Num. ix. 16. 



DOCTRINAL AND HOMILETIC APPENDIX. 



FIRST DIVISION: DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL REFLECTIONS. 



PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 

The division of the Bible of which we are 
treating, the Thorah (law) in the narrow sense, 
was in former times used much more as a source 
of doctrinal and ethical rules and of homiletical 
observations than now-a-days. The cau'ies of 
this changed attitude of theology and the Church 
to the Law lie in the change of views on Old 
Testament Judaism and the Old Testament itself, 
on inspiration, on hermeneutics, and on the 
wants of the Christian Church. 

The disregard of the Old Testament scheme 
of revelation, which prevailed almost universally 
among the Gnostics, drove the Church in the 
other direction, to an over-estimation of the 
stage of religious development exhibited in the 
Old Testament, so that it was almost put on an 
equality, and in many ways was confounded, 
with the New Testament. The common warfare 
which heathen and Jewish Christians had to 
wage against heathenism tended very early to 
beget Judaizing forms of Christianity in theo- 
logy, forms of worship, and polity. To this 
opposition between the Jewish and the heathen 
was added the opposition between the divine 
and the human, which through the unconscious 
influence of heathen conceptions so emphasized 
the divine side as to lead to a onesided theory 
of inspiration, which caused the Old Testament 
to appear as substantially one with the New 
rather than as contrasted with it. But the dif- 
ficulties which thus arose were bridged over by 
the allegorical style of interpretation. This 
was done in two ways : In the form of a philoso- 



phical allegorizing of the heathen myths, it 
mediated between the ancient superstitious hea- 
thenism and the later skeptical heathenism; in 
the form of the Alexandrian allegorizing of 
.Jewish history, it mediated between the Old 
Testament and the Hellenic literature and style 
of thought. Thus then Christian theology also 
was led to make a bridge, by allegorical means, 
between the Old and the New Testament. By 
this means the Old Testament, already in great 
part Christianized, was made wholly Christian, 
the children of the two Testaments in a sense 
exchanging forms. For just as far as the Jews 
were pushed forwards and made Christians, the 
Christians were pushed backwards and made a 
sort of Jews. 

On account of the manifold confusion of ideas 
which thus arises, let it be here remarked that, 
by the allegorizing method of interpretation, we 
do not mean the thorough explanation of passages 
really intended to be allegorical, but the style of 
exposition which perverts the historical and di- 
dactic meaning of the Scriptures into what is 
claimed to be a higher and more spiritual one 
by sporting with analogies. 

In consequence of this Judaizing theology the 
Old Testament, and particularly the three books 
of the law, became a deep fountain of Christian 
and religious reflections, especially an inex- 
haustible mine for Christian mysticism and the- 
osophy. 

Following, however, the extreme legal ten- 
dency, which transformed Christian ministers 
into Levites, bishops into descendants of Aaron, 
the Christian churches into laymen, the eucha- 
rist into a sin-offering, churches into temples. 



1^2 



EXODUS. 



and which w:is destroyed only in its central 
features by the theology of the Reformation, 
came the great reaction of the critical school, 
which passed over more and more into the ex- 
treme of rationalism. 

Now, therefore, the Old Testament, and with 
it the Old Tesl.iment religion itself, was more and 
more degraded and caricatured by many mon- 
strous disfigureujenis bearing witness to arrogant 
ignorance. lu connection with this there grew 
out of the single product of Old Testament, inspi- 
ration a meagre mesh of human legends, fictions, 
historic i-erainiscena-'S and errors, with the de- 
struction of winch the youthful criticism carried 
on its child's play. But the science of herme- 
neutics rejected, logetlier with the allegorizing 
theory, more and more decidedly also the sym- 
bolism and typology which were veiled in it ; 
and while it rightly laid down the law of gram 
maticu-historical interpretation of the Scrip- 
tures, it yet at once, and more and more, fell into 
the mistake of taking the letter according to the 
narrowest literal sense, and the historical matter 
as only an unessential modification of earlier be- 
ginnings of history. For this new theology there 
were no new spirits, no new things, no new words. 
Side by side with this theological revolution 
there has, to be sure, maintained itself the work- 
ing of the old allegorizing spirit — sometimes 
carried even to the pitch of absurdity. What, 
e. g. have not the Irvingites been able to make 
out of the skins which covered the tabernacle! 

But n new epoch has dawned in theology and 
the Church, an.l is gradually taking shape in a 
more successful attempt correctly lo estimate the 
Old Testament. The general statement of the oor- 
rectrelatinn between the Old and the New Testa- 
ment may be made in a few words: Oneness of 
substance, contrast in the form of development 
as regards both ihe records and the tacts of re- 
velation underlying them. 

Yet as, in this view, the Old Testament is 
Christianity in the germ, so thus far the correct 
theology and exegesis of the Old Testament are 
in a germinant condition — a condition subject to 
many oscillations connected with defective dis- 
tinctions. 

In the first place, not distinction enough is 
made hetween the .Judaism of Ihe Jewish people, 
as the vehicles of ihe Old Testament revelation, 
and the sacred history of the revelation itself. 
So the French Encyclopedists identified Ohrw- 
tendom and Christianity, especially Roman Catho- 
lic Christendom. 

Again, not distinction enough is made between 
the symbolic forms of the Old Testament and the 
mythical forms of the heathen world [iiid. Comm. 
on Genesis, p. 23sqq.). 

This is connected with the fact that, on the 
other hand, still less distinction is made between 
the Hebrew (theocratic) and the Hellenistic (clas- 
sic) mode of conception and description. Ac- 
cording to the latter, history is a presentation 
of facts in their outward relation of cause and 
eflfeot for the gratification of a love of knowledge ■ 
poetry is its own object, and ministers to the 
enjoyment of the beautiful; and didactics minis- 
ters to scholastic knowledge ; whereas theocratic 
history presents historic facts in the light of 
eternal ideas, and hence in symbolic significance ; 



theocratic poetry allows art to be merged in the 
service of holiness; and didactics does not deal 
with abstract formulas, but with concrete con- 
ceptions, because it aims not at developing a 
school, but at building up a church. 

Very imperfect also is frequently the distinc- 
tion made between the prophecy of events or of 
types and the prophecy of ideas or of words. That 
ihese two forms depend on one another; that 
without the actual reference of Israelilish his- 
tory to the future of the work of salvation, there- 
fore without the line of prophetic formations or 
lypes unknown to man, but well known to the 
Spirit of God, there could also be no conscious 
ideal or verbal prophecies; and that, conversely, 
the forward movement of the actual mental life 
of the people in typical persons, experiences, 
instilulious and emotions, is conditioned on ideal 
guides, i t. on verbal prophecies; — this fact is 
founded on the indissoluble interaction between 
an ideal and a life. According to a young man's 
ideals, his life's aim is shaped; and his ideals, 
rising up out of his life's aims and attainments, 
assume a form more and more distinct and pure. 
Most of all do men misunderstand those forms 
in which the verbal prophecy is still inclosed 
like a bursting bud. in the integument of typical 
significance. E.g. that mankind, in his hostility 
to the serpent, shall bruise its head, is a verbal 
prophecy; but the expression respecting the 
woman's seed is in a high degree typical. So 
the passage about the son of the virgin in Isa. 
vii. must be divided into elements of verbal pre- 
diction and those of typical meaning. But in 
general there is connected with every blossom 
of verbal prophecy a leaf of lypical foliage, as 
also, on the other hand, over all typical repre- 
sentations there floats a meaning full of prophetic 
presentiment — The theology of the present time, 
however, would suffer a complete relapse, should 
that confusion become stationary which often 
appears with regard to the distinction between 
the different periods of development in the Old 
Testament, particularly between the patriarchal 
and the Mosaic periods. Especially, when the 
whole patriarchal period is consigned to a vague 
tradition, and the Israelilish religion is made to 
begin with Mosaisra, there is an end of a tho- 
rough under-'-tanding not only of the Old Testa- 
ment, but of all Ihe Bible, and in fact of the 
whole kingdom of God. Without the foundation 
laid in Abraham's faith in the promises, Mosa- 
ism also, according to Rom. iv. and Sal. iii., is 
entirely unintelligible, as also the legality of the 
Middle Ages is made into a gloomy caricature, 
unless it is conceived as a process of training 
for the people, based on the apostolic and an- 
cient Catholic Church. The consequence of this 
one-sidedness is seen in the fact that the normal 
progress of Mosaism towards Messianic prophecy 
cannot be appreciated, but is misinterpreted, 
just as the Reformation of the Middle Ages is 
denounced as a revolution. 

But if the periods of Old Testament revelation 
are correctly appreciated, then one will be able 
to determine more accurately the difference be- 
tween the canonical and the apocryphal periods 
of the Old Testament, according to their charac- 
teristic features. The one characteristic feature 
of the apocryphal literature is the national ele- 



DOCTRINAL AND HOMILETIU APPENDIX. 



163 



ment which abandons the theocratic classicalness 
or canonioity ; a form such as in ita way ap- 
peared in the Grseoo-Roman literature, and in 
modern literature threatens to appear every- 
where. In the period of the Hebrew popular 
literature, Judaism and Alexandrianism fall 
apart; and inwardly faith is blended with fana- 
ticism, superstition, and sliepticism, while out- 
wardly the Messianic anticipations retreat be- 
hind the contrasted elements of Alexandrian 
spiritualism and Jewish literalism. 

A right estimate of the Old Testament periods 
will also disclose the great significance of the 
difference between the epochs and the periods 
of the time of revelation, and much that is in- 
comprehensible will become more nearly intelli- 
gible, «. q. the great difference between the 
epochs abounding in miracles and the periods 
in which there were none — a difference the reflex 
of which is still perceptible in the contrast be- 
tween ihat half of the age of the church which 
was characterized by festivals and that which 
was without them. 

The theology of the present will therefore still 
have coQsiderable obstacles to overcome. But 
it cannot possibly return to the medisBval and 
early Protestant style of dealing with the Old 
Testament, and must none tlie less leave behind 
the rationalistic relapses of negative criticism 
anil of pseudo-hiHtorioal exegesis. It will set 
forth tlie divine and miraculous revelations as 
they gradually made their appearance, according 
to the degrees of the human development on which 
they rested, in the fulness and beauty of their 
successive factors. 

, So then in the service of a new method of in- 
terpreting the .Mosaic law, a method which may 
be briefly termed the Christologieal. as being the 
due appreciation of divine truth in a human 
coloring and form, the old shafts of this rich 
mine, in various ways filled with obstructions, 
will be re-opened; and instead of the merely 
glistering half metals of exegetical disquisitions 
there will be found for Christian instruction and 
edification a yield of the richest metals. 

A. QENEEAL KBMARKS ON THE DOCTRINES OF 
THE LAW. 

As to the law of Moses as a whole, we cannot 
go back to the old position, that it still serves as 
a moral law in its entirety, i. e., entirely in this 
its oulward form especially the law of the Sab- 
bath, and many also of the civil laws, e. g,, the 
law of tiihes, and of capital punishment for the 
blasphemer; but the New Testament truth, that 
the law is done away by the law for the Chris- 
tian (Gal. ii.), must not be so interpreted as to 
imply that the Mosaic law is wholly abrogated. 
It will rather be seen that it has been freed by 
Olirist, as to its spiritual elements, from the 
limitations and forms of the Jewish economy, 
that it in this very way has become a type de- 
signed to represent and illustrate the funda- 
mental principle of Christianity in its details 
(vid. Mitt. vi. ; Rom. iii. 31). 

In like manner the Jewish people are no more 
to be regarded as, abstractly considered, the 
people of God overtopping all the other nations, 
as even yet in the New Testament period they 
are sometimes looked on as a nation of priests 



which has lost its privileges, but which is destined 
to become again the nobility of Christendom. 
But little as the whole nation is to be estimated 
according to its elect ones, so little should it be 
estimated according to the appearance of its 
degenerate masses, as is often done by rational- 
ists, and in general by modern writers. As the 
first-fruits in the religious development of tbe 
nations, Israel must become more an t more a type 
for elect nations of the New Testament era, for the 
idea of election in all nations, for the significance 
of nationalities, of national life within the king- 
dom of God, and of the shape given by Chris- 
tianity to national institutions. 

This process of two-edged or two-sided antag- 
onism against the extremes will have to be car- 
ried on in all the points in which biblical theolo- 
gy, in a Ohristologioal aspect, relates to the law. 

The dogmatic peculiarity of the Mosaic law is 
its crystalline distinctness of form and its trans- 
parency, or its unpoetic precision and its sug- 
gestive symbolicalness. The absence of figures 
in the Mosaic law also marks its style, which 
everywhere and in the smallest details avoids tha 
obscurity of an imaginative diction. This pro- 
saic precision is all the more striking, inasmucli 
as it is here and there interrupted by high'iy 
poetical passages, and finally is supplemented by 
the lofty'style of the prophetic book of Deut«!- 
ronomy. But out of thij very distinctness, seem- 
ingly related only to civil affairs, there shin? 
forth everywhere the suggestive thoughtfulne.-a 
and symbolicalness which gives to Mosaism the 
character of a typical institution throughout. 

The fundamental doama of Mosaism is this: 
Elohim is .Jehovah, or, Jehovah is Elohira, as the 
fundamental dogma of the New Testament is this: 
Jesus is the Christ, or, the Christ is Jesus. The 
God of all the worlds. Elohim, is Jehovah, the 
covenant God of Israel; the covenant God of 
Israel is .also none the less the God of all the 
worlds. Religious catholicity and religious par- 
ticularism thus complement each other, although 
a narrow view of things keeps trying to bring 
them into antagonism. 

On the basis of this dogma come first of all 
into clear prominence the idea and the law of 
personality. Jehovah is holy, i. e., He keeps His 
personality, in which idea and essence are one, 
pure and unmixed, and for this reason He trains 
up Lsrael to be His holy people, a people of per- 
sonal worthiness. Again and again this covenant 
fellowship between the absolute and the limited 
personality is emphasized, also, therefore, the 
sonship for which Israel is called into existence. 

The idea that Israel, or humanity, is akin 
with God, is more conspicuous in the stern ma- 
jesty of the lav than even in the dogmatics of 
the church. The Canaanites are rejected for the 
reason that tbey have ruined the worthiness of 
personality in the double form of voluptuous rites 
and of offerings to Moloch. 

With the notion of personality and holiness to 
which Israel is called in his fellowship with God 
are inseparably connected the necessity of expia- 
tion and the consecration of sacrifices. The con- 
secration of sacrifices ; for man always follows 
the impulse to make expiatory offerings. If he 
does not do this in a manner pleasing to God, he 
does it as a heathen in horrid caprice. To bodily 



l'3i 



EXODUS. 



suicide corresponds iu this respect intellectual 
suicide, ibe total deuiai of immortality, respect- 
ing whicli it. is falsely asserted that Moses knevr 
noiliiiig of it. Moses, who had brought his peo- 
ple out of figypt, out of the laud where men wor- 
ship the dead and the other world, had first of 
all to wean the people from Egyptian coucep- 
tious, aud to train tlieui chiefiy to sanctify, as 
they ought, the things of this world, as being the 
proper foundation for a true view of the oacred- 
ness of the other world. The idea of immorta- 
lity, as someihing presupposed, is sufficiently 
obvious in the Mosaic religion. 

As to the law itself, we must not overlook its 
divisions, nor the various e-oinbinaiions that re- 
sult trom Iheai. Altnough the law is a unit, yet 
the old tiistinction between the moral, ceremo- 
nial, aud civil law is well founded. Hence thj 
command of the day of rest is given in two con- 
nections : as an etnical law of humanity in the 
decalogue, and as a ceremonial law among the 
regulations lor festivals in Leviticus. If this 
connection is overlooked, the Levltical ceremo- 
nial Sabbath will be transferred to the ten com- 
mandments, and on the other hand the Sabbath 
law of Leviticus will be treated as a mere Jewish 
ceremonial law. A similar combination is found 
in the ordinance of the day of atonement. Le- 
vitically it was the culrainntion of all the feasts; 
socially it was the fast-day of priparalion for 
the feast of tabernnoles. 

The Messianic seal of the three books (Exo- 
dus, Leviticus, and Numbers), which is discerned 
in the various institutions of the law, is found 
unmistakably impressed on the three books : 
Exodus is the book which sets forth the Messiah as 
prophet; in Leviticus the MessiRtiic high-priest- 
hood is typically portrayed : while the book of 
Numbers describes the organization, appearance, 
and guidance of God's host, whose military and 
victorious prince is Jehovah in His Messianic 
future. See details in the Introduction. 

Iiiterature. 

Here belong, besides general commentaries, 
works on biblical theology (wiW. Coram, on Genesis, 
p. 62Fqq.). Vid. a list in VonCoWn'sBiblische Theo- 
Itffie, I. p. 19. Likewise in Hagenbach's-Bncycfo/ja- 
dif, p. '214. [Darling's Ci/clopedia, Smith's Bible 
Dirjionary , Am. Ed.]. Hagenbach puts here Ilof- 
mann's Sckriftbeiveis deft Glauhevs. — On the King- 
dom of God, and, in particular, Christology, vid. 
Comm. on Genesis. 

Most recent works: Von d. Golz: GnWs Of- 
feribarung durch heilige Geschicht', liasel, 1868. 
Ewald, Die Lehre von Gntt. oder Theolngie des Al- 
ten und Neum Textamenis, Vol. I. Die Lehre vom 
Worte Goltes. Leipzig, 1871. Oehler, Theology 
of the Old Testament [Clark's Foreign Theological 
Library, 1875, 2 vols.]. 

Here belong works on special dogmatic and 
ethical questions, on the Israelitish character 
and beliefs, especially on the Jewish belief in im- 
mortality, on typology, and on Jewish laws. 

In reference to the general character of the 
Israelites, there are, in opposition to the scoffs of 
Feuerbach and the depreciatory judgment of Re- 
nan, Richard Wagner, and others, to be consi- 
dered both Jewish and Judaislio over-estimates 



(e. g., of Baumgarteu and others), aud likewise 
correct estimates. 

Monographs. On the name Jehovah vid. Tho- 
luck, Vermiachle Sehriften. I., p. 377 sqq. The 
article by Oehler, in Heizog's Real-enajclopddie ; 
Danz, p. 425. [Reland, Decas exerciiationumj etc. ; 
Keiuke, Philognsc/i-historiscke Abhandlung iiber den 
Gottesnamen Jehooah; the above-mentioned arti- 
cle by Tnoluck, translated by Dr. Robinson in 
the Biblical Repository, Vol. IV., 89-108; E. Bal- 
lautine, Interpretation of Ex. vi. 2, 3; ibid., Vol. 
Ill , p. 730 sqq. See also Hengstenberg, Authen- 
ticity of the Fentateuch, I., p. 213 sqq. ; Kurtz, Die 
Miahdt der Generis, p. xliii. sqq. ; Macdonald, 
Introduction to the Pentateuch, I., p. 165 sqo 
— Te.]. 

On the Mosaic law. Vid. the older writings ia 
Walch's Bibliotheca, I. p. 119. Also the article oa 
this topic, and a list of works, in Herzog'si?ea/-en- 
cyclopadie. Langen, Mosaisehes Licht und Recht, 
Halle, 1732; Salvador, Gesehichte der mosaischen 
Institutionen ; Bluhme, CoUatio legum Romanarum 
et Mosaicarum, 1843 Schnell, Das israelilische 
Recht in seinen Grundziigen dargestellt, Basel, 1853 ; 
Bunsen, Inhali und Epochen der moeaiscken Geseizge- 
bung {Bihelurkunden, I. p. 229) : R'ehm, Die (ie 
setzgebung in Lande Moab, Goiha,, 1854. [Micbaells, 
Laws of Moses; Saalschiitz, Das ■mosai.iche Reck; 
Wines, Commtntary on the Laws uf the Ancient 
Hebrews. — Tb.]. 

R. Kiibel, Das alltestamentliche Gesetz und seine 
Urkunde, Stuttgait, 1867; F. E. KUbel, Die 
soziale und volkswirthschaftliche Gesetzgebung des 
Alten Bundes, Wiesbaden, 1870. 

On the Mosaic doctrine of immortality, Oehler, 
Veteris Testamenti sententia de rebus post mortem 
futuris, Stuttgart, 1846; Brecher, Die Unslerb- 
lichkeitslehredesisraeldiichen Voiles, Leipzig. 1857; 
Engelbert, Das negative Verdienst des Alten Testa- 
ments urn die Vnsterblichkeitslehre, Berlin, 1867; 
Hcrm. Schultz, Die Voraussetzungen der christ- 
lichen Lehre von der Unsterblichkeit, Gottingen, 
1861; K.\osternia.nn, Hoffnung kiinftiger Eribsung 
aus dem Todeszustande b<i den Frommen des A. T. 
( Untersuchungen zur alttestamentlichen Theologie, 
Gotha, 1868). [Bottcher, De Inferis Rebusqitt 
post Mortem futuris ex Htbrteorum et Grsecorum 
Opinionibus, Dresden, 1846; Warburton, Divine 
Legation of Moses ; Alger, Critical History of the 
Doctrine of a Future Life, and the bibliographical 
Appendix of the same by Ezra Abbot, LL. D. 
-Tb.] 

On the typology of the Old Testament, espe- 
cially of the Pentateuch, vid. Comm on Genesis, 
p. 62 sq. ; Hillcr, Ncues System aller Vorbildir 
Jrsu Chrisli durch das ganze Alte Testament; 
Fairbairn, Typology of Scripture; Bahr, Symiofi* 
des mosaischen Cultus ; monographs in Liebner 
and Doroer'a Zeitschrift; and the article Yorbild 
in Herzog's ReaUencyclop'ddie \ij Tholuck; Com- 
mentary on Genesis, p. 23 sqq. — [Kurtz, Sacrificial 
Offerings of the Old Testament; J. Pye Smith, 
Sacrifice and Priesthood of Jesus Christ; Magee, 
Scriptural Doctrine of Atonement and Sacrifices; 
Outram, Two Dissertations on Sacrifices; Tholuck, 
Appendix to Commentary on the Hebrews. — Tb-.J 

More special articles, e. g. on the Dscalogac, 
vid. under the several books. 



DOCTRINAL AND HOMILETIC APPENDIX. 



165 



B. SPECIAL DOOTBINAL REMARKS ON EXODUS. 

1. The Redemption of Israel, or the Type of 
Redemption in General. 

By the history of the redemption of Israel the 
Mosaic legislation is connected with the patri- 
archal religion of promise, and by means of this 
alone does this legislation receive its proper 
position and meaning. The Mosaic law, too, is 
founded on the redemption, as is expressly de- 
clared in the introductory clause of the Deca- 
logue; and it is a Eabbinio extravagance to 
make a distinct commandment out of the open- 
ing words: "I am Jehovah, thy God," etc. A 
foreign code of laws imposed as a yoke upon a 
nation without any intervention, in such a sense 
as Hegel and others conceive the Mosaic liw, 
would be only despotic constraint, not a real 
law in the spiritual sense. By means of re- 
demption Jehovah has secured for Himself the 
office of lawgiver for the people of His possession. 
By means of the redemption He has established 
in the minds of all the people the confident hope 
that all His commandments, even those that for 
the present are the most unintelligible, are the 
products of the same Spirit that redeems and 
continues the redemption. By means of the 
redemption Jehovah has liberated the people 
from a slavish yoke and service, in order to 
train them fjr freedom by the educational influ- 
ence of legal compulsion and of a servile condi- 
tion. Hence all the main features in the guiding 
of the Israelites to Sinai are each of them highly 
significant types in illustration of the idea of 
redemption. With seeming hopelessness be- 
gins the history of redemption. The wonder- 
ful deliverance of the one called to be a deliverer, 
the unconscious assistance rendered in the midst 
of the hostile people themselves, the flight and 
concealment of Moses in Midian, the contest 
with the obduracy of the tyrant, and even with 
the reluctance and unbelief of his own people, 
the long anxious waiting for the decision, the 
final breaking away, the passage through the 
Red Sea, the further miraculous aid, the pillar 
of cloud and fire, the friendship of Jethro and 
his counsels; — all these things are found re- 
peated a hundred times in more general forms 
in the history of the kingdom of God. The ori- 
ginal redemption of Israel, as continued througti 
a long series of redemptive acts, is the type of t be 
real redemption of all mankind through Christ, 
and is reflected in all analogous facts until the 
last redemption of mankind in the future world. 
Jehovah is the 6oel [redeemer] of His people. 
Vid. the article on Erlosung in Herzog. 

On the dogmatic significance of Moses vid. the 
Epistle to the Hebrews. On the Passover, vid. 
"•e dictionaries and Danz. 

2. The Law. 
The law of Moses, in its inmost essence, is the 
ijeetified conscience of man, or the subjectified, 
imanized will of God. It is the conscience 
'imarily of the patriarchs, in general, however, 
humanity, since the conscience of humanity 
aroused and awaked to actual conscientious- 
iss in the elect fathers of the faith that rested 
1 the promises. It is the divine training-school 
fal. ill.) by means of which the religion of the 



chosen ones is made the religion of the multi- 
tude of the Israelitish people, and indirectly of 
all mankind. It is the educational wJi of God. 
which came forth out of the inward illumination 
of the lawgiver, and put itself into the form ot 
an objective writing on stone, to be transformed 
again in due time from the stone by means of the 
divine guidance into the writing on the heart, 
the law of the Spirit, vid. Jer. xxxi. 33. 

The one root of the law is the covenant of cir- 
cumcision, which from the first pointed to the 
circumcision, the regeneration, of the heart. 
Dent. X. 16; xxx. 6. Vid. Comm. on Genesis, 
p. 426. The law, accordingly, is not stationary, 
but is everywhere a movement in and with the 
legal man towards regeneration (vid. Rom. vii.); 
and the method of this movement is sacrifice, 
the fundamental type of which appears in the 
least of the Passover-lamb. This festival looks, 
in its character of sin-offering, peace ofi'ering 
and burnt-offering, towards a process of spirit- 
ualizing the law, and forms a contrast to thu 
curse-offering. 

After individual foreshadowings of the law 
(Ex. XV. 26; xvi. 29; obedience, the Sabbath), 
follows the ethical legislation from Mount Sinai, 
described to us as a sympathetic excitement of 
the whole people caused by their intercourse 
with Moses. The manifestation amidst thunder 
and lightning was to be interpreted by every 
conscience according to its attitude towards 
Jehovah; it is a one-sided conception to regard 
it as wholly threat and terror (Ps. xxix. ), though 
it has primarily this effect for the consciousness 
of guilt which is awakened by the law. 

Jehovah's legislation is progressive; hence 
we have to distinguish a legislation of Sinai — 
in fact a two-fold one, owing to the interruption 
occasioned by the worship of the golden calf; a 
legislation of Kadesh (Dt. xxxiii. 2) ; a legislation 
of the fields of Moab (of Seir?; ; finally, the pro- 
phetic legislation of Deuteronomy — the latter as 
a beginning of the spiritualizatioa of the law. 

But the law aims at no one-sided spirituality. 
It demands first of all acts of commiesion and 
omission founded on an inner motive as a train- 
ing to spirituality in the inner life, and at last 
again spiritual acts. So it is in a three-fold 
respect a type of the fundamental forms of the 
legal aspects of the kingdom of God, viz., as 
being a barrier, a mirror, and a rule. 

First of all, the law's requirement of deeds 
must not be toned down. Deeds are a check 
upon that which is evil, a definition, a pic- 
ture, a practice of that which is good. But 
the law as a mirror is the training-master to 
bring to Christ; it leads to a deepening of the 
inner life, till one comes to the hell of self-know- 
ledge (Rom. vii.); and here only is brought to 
perfection that entire receptivity for tlie Gospel 
of grace, through which the law is transformed 
into a fountain of spiritual life. 

The mistaken view respecting acts, that the 
mere act is all that is needed, is the root of Ju- 
daism, of Pharisaic self-righteousneas, though 
even the mere doing or not doing has its value 
and reward in the outward world, especially in 
the regulations of social life. 

The mistaken view respecting the mirroring 
of one's self in the law, that the recognition of 



166 



EXODUS. 



sin ia an end in itself, leads to the deadening of 
the inner life in aelf-depreeiation, quietism and 
pietistio self-torture. 

The mistaken view respecting the law of the 
Spirit is the spiritualism which tends to dissoci- 
ate itself from that which is the condition of it, 
viz. consciousness of sin and faith in redemp ion, 
and which more or less decidedly lapses into 
antinomianism. 

The uniiy of life in the law of the letter is a 
continual movement, which leads to the right- 
eousness of faith, and, as the law of the spirit, 
to the righteousness of the life. 

On the abolition of the law in the New Testa- 
ment, comp. the Comm. on Matthew, p. 109, on 
Romans, p. 137. Abolished as regards the seve- 
rity, narrowness, and outwardness of the letter, 
the law is lifted up into the region where there 
is no limit to what is required of the spirit aud 
rendered by it. 

On the three spheres of the law according to 
its primary outline, the ethical, the ceremonial, 
and the civil, as Ihey are distinctly contrasted 
with one another in the brief outline, vid. the 
cxpgesis in point. 

In a more general form the three books are to 
be divided throughout according to these three 
spheres of the law. 

The first form of the law was abolished, as to 
its covenant validity, by the worship of the 
golden calf. The fact that Moses broke the 
tables of the law, is an eternal repudiation of 
image-worship, because this worship leads to 
idolatry, though it is not in its intention direct 
idolatry. The relation of the new tables of the 
law is perhaps this: The former prohibit the 
rudeness and hereditary sinfulness of the natu- 
ral life ; the latter prohibit, with that, apos- 
tasy also, and constitute therefore for the apos- 
tate people I be discipline of a state of penitence, 
the penally of a lay condition, the disciplinary 
excommunication. 

On the analysis of the law vid. p. 75. 
Treatises. On the decalogue vid. 'Da.m, Ency do - 
pSdie und Methodologie, p. 210, Supplement, p. 25; 
Otto, Dekalogische Untersuchungen, Halle, 1857 ; 
Geffken, Ueber die verschiedenen Eintheilungen 
des Dekalogs, Hamburg, 1838 ; Stier, Die zehn 
Gebote in Kiitechi.iin.us, Barmen, 1858; the article 
Dekalog in Herzog's Real-encyclopddie. Here be- 
long the discussions of this topic iu the worts on 
biblical theology, in the older works on dog- 
matics and ethics, aud in the catechisms. 

On the Sabbath (or Sunday) in particular, 
Hengstenb., Ueber dm Tagdes Ilerrn, Berlin, 1852; 
Wilhelmi, Ueber Feiertagxheiligung, Halle, 1857 ; 
Danz. under Sabbath and under Sonntag ; also his 
article SonntagsfeierinVae Supplement, p. 99. [Hes- 
sey, Sunday, Bampton Lectures for 1860 ; Whately, 
Thoughts on the Sabbath ; L.Coleman, in Bibliothe.ca 
Sacra. Vol. I.; .Tohn 8 Slonein Thenl. Eclectic, Vol. 
IV.; VaX^y, Moral and Political Philosophy ; Mau- 
rice, On the Sabbath, find the arlioles in Smith's 
Bible Dictionary, and Kitto's Cyclopedia. — Te.] 

3. The Tabernacle. 
The tabernacle is not mainly the meeting- 
house of the popular congregation (nj?10 SnSO, 
but the dwelling-place, the palace, of its Lord; 



not, therefore, mainly the centre of worship, but 
the sanctuary of the law (Hnj^ri Snj<). In the 
tabernacle the appearance of God, and with it, 
so to speak, Sinai, remain permanently; hence it 
is the place where the people are to appear before 
Jehov.ih, where they hear the testimony of His 
law, and bring the offering of self-surrender in 
prayer and reconciliation. For this reason, 
as already remarked, the picture of the taber- 
nacle stauds in Exodus, not in Leviticus. 

The holy place where God made His appear- 
ance is originally designated only by a stone 
monument (Gen. xxviii. 18); then it is artisti- 
cally represented by the tabernacle, which was 
afterwards transformed into the temple. But 
even in the tabernacle the one place of God's reve- 
lation is developed into a gradual succession of 
revelations: the court; the holy place, the ob- 
long (as an incomplete square) ; aud the Holy 
of holies, as the highest form of the sanctuary, 
and, in ils square form, a symbol of perfection. 
The divine law in the first stage, the court, is re- 
presented by the sacred limit, the screen of the 
sanctuary, the laver, the mirrors, the aicrifioial 
death; in the second, by the seven branched 
candlestick ; In the third, by the ark of the law 
protected by the cherubim. Therewith corre- 
sponds in the first stage the altar of burnt-offer- 
ing, which consumes the sacrifice in the fire; in 
the second, the altar of incense, over which the 
soul of the offering rises upwards in prayer; in 
the third, the lid of the ark of the covenant, the 
lid of expiation, of re-union with Jehovah — The 
benefits which God's people obtain are, in the 
first stage, absolution and a simple blessing; in 
the second the sacerdotal communion with Jeho- 
vah at the table of shew-bread ; in the third, the 
high-priestly vision of the glory of the Lord— the 
whole inuring to the benefit of the people in the 
threefold blessing (Num. vi. 23-26), but presup- 
posing a threefold advance in degrees of piety: 
obedience and confession; prayer; joyous self- 
surrender even unto death. 

As to the materials and the building of the 
tabernacle, we refer to the exegetical remarks, 
p. 151, to the numerous monographs, and to the 
archaeological and lexical descriptions. 

As the tabernacle is, on the one hand, a type 
of all true temples, churches, and sanctuaries on 
earth, the mother of the greatest cathedrals and 
of the smallest chapels, so is it, on the other 
hand, as being instituted by Jehovah, the oppo- 
site of all S'df-chosen forms of divine service 
[e'i^e'ko^pTjGKEia, Col. ii. 23), idol groves, and hide- 
ous systems of worship. Among the several 
typical features are especially to be considereii 
tlie picture of the tabernacle as seen in the mount, 
or the ideal plan of the building; the vocation 
of sacred art in the form of architecture aud the 
art of making symbolic figures; the grand vulim- 
tary contributions of the people for the snnc- 
tuary ; and the glorious festival of consefratioii. 
But as the tabernacle was the provisional adum- 
bration of the temple of Solomon, so it was, 
together with it, an adumbration of the great 
dwelling-plaoe of the Lord which embraces the 
heaven of heavens, but is not embraced by it (1 
Kings viii). 

For works on the tabernacle vid. p. 118. 



DOCTRINAL AND HOMILETIC APPENDIX. 



167 



SECOND DIVISION : HOMILETIC HINTS. 



K. QENERAL HOMILETIC HEMARES. 

First of all is to be noticed the fact that in the 
ancient church the three books of the law were 
made, by the help of allegorical interpretation, 
an important means of Christian edification. As 
the moat prominent example of this, Origen is to 
be named. 

It was a consequence of the allegorical style 
of preaching, that, on the one hand, on account 
of the unmistakable uncertainty and caprice of 
its changing hues, it could not but weaken the 
assurance of faith, while, on the other hand, it 
could not but occasion a large deficiency in practi- 
cal ethics resting on faith, and in the ethical expo- 
sition of Scripture. This evil effect has been espe- 
cially pointed out by a pious and sober teacher 
of pastoral theology, Peter Roques, Le Pasteur 
EvaiigUique, Basle, 1723. He even traces the 
corruption of the Eastern Church largely to the 
moral barrenness of the fantastical allegorical 
style of preaching. 

It cannot be denied that the allegorical mode 
of explaining the Scriptures, derived from the 
Alexandrian theology, was in existence among 
the Christians even at the time of the origin of 
the N. T. Yet we must make a radical distinc- 
tion between typical and allegorical interpreta- 
tion of the Bible. The typology of the N. T. may 
here and there, especially in the Epistle to the 
Hebrews, border on the allegorical method; but 
this method itself does not appear distinctly ex- 
cept in the extra-biblical works, e. g., in the inter- 
pretation of Abraham's 318 servants in the Epis- 
tle of Barnabas.* 

Yet even at a still later point there must be dis- 
tinguished among the apostolical and church fa- 
thers the typical from the allegorical treatment 
of the Bible, 

But after the allegorical method had obtained 
theoretically the predominance, one fact is still 
to be considered, to which the rigid advocates of 
the grammatico-historical interprptation do not 
do justice. For the Middle Ages the conception 
of the infinitely rich and profound contents of 
the Holy Scriptures as ideally considered could 
be gained only by the allegorical way. The 
simple light had to be broken in the prism of 
the Middle Ages into the colors of the sevenfold 
sense of Scripture. 

Nevertheless the homiletic use of allegory in 
reference to the books now under consideration 
was very much limited by the prevalence of the 
custom of observing the peiicopes as well as by 
the saints' days; and this limitation has con- 
tinued, on account of the pericopes, to affect the 

* [ThiB was thns interpreted : 318 is made np of 10 repreae.nt- 
•d by the Greek letter t, 8 represented by tj. and 300 represent- 
ed by T. The first two letters i-ij stand for Ii}(tou;, and the last 
repr^-Bents the form of the cross.— Te.J 



Lutheran church. But it was otherwise with 
homiletics in the Re ormed church, and with 
the mystic edification derived from the reading 
of the Bible; it was not held in check by the 
pericopes, but rather set itself in opposition to 
that constraint; and that the Reformed churches 
were fond of Old Testament texts is accounted 
for by this fact in part, and not simply by their 
conception of the Bible as a code of laws, and by 
the fact "that the Reformed Pietism was more 
fantastic than its Lutheran brother" (Diestel, 
Geaehichte des Alien Testaments in der christlichen 
Kirche, p. 774j. It may indeed be assumed that 
the allegorical style of preaching in the Re- 
formed church was in great part provoked by 
the Lutheran mystics and commentators. 

When the homiletic use of allegorical exposi- 
tion began to run into absurdities [vid. exam- 
ples in Lentz), it also gradually fell into con- 
demnation — a process which began with the time 
of the Reformation. That it nevertheless was 
able to maintain itself so long after the Reforma- 
tion, and so often seemingly to become rejuve- 
nated, was due to its connection with a mysti- 
cism which was full of life, and to its repugnance 
to the dryness of dogmatic formulas. But 
more especially its life was due to a dim feeling 
(misconstrued, it is true) of the peculiarity of 
the symbolical side of the Biblical style, as op- 
posed to the extreme orthodox and the radical 
tendency to reduce It all to a purely abstract 
literalism. 

Works on the interpretation of the Scriptures. 
Whitby, Dissertatio de sacrarum scriplurarum 
interpretatione, etc. London, 1714; Schuler, 
Qeschichte der popularen Schriflerkldrung unter 
den Christen von dem Anfang des Chrislmthums bis 
auf die gegenwartigen Zeiten. Tiibingen, 1787; J. 
G. RosenmuUer, Historia Interpretationis librorum 
sacrorum in eeclesia Christiana; Meyer, Qeschichte 
der Schrifterkldrung seit der Wiederherstellung der 
Wissenschaften, Gotlingen, 180i (in the Introduc- 
tion a condensed survey of the history of the 
interpretation of Scripture from the beginning 
of the Christian church till the 15th century); 
Mogelin, Die allegorische Bibelnuslegung. besonders 
in der Predigt, historisch und didaktisch belraehtet, 
Niirnberg. 1844 ; Elsier, de medii sevi theologia 
exegetica, Oottingen, 1855; Lentz, Qeschichte der 
christlichen Homiletik, Brunswick, 1839; Ludwig, 
Ueber die praktische Aualegung der heiliyen Schrift, 
Frankfort, 1859. — Among the general commen- 
taries the Berleburg Bible, as an allegorizing 
one, especially belongs here. A very proininent 
allegorist was Madame Guyon (vid. the article in 
Herzog). Diestel, Qeschichte des Alien Testaments 
in der christlichen Kirche. — A list of writings on 
hermeneutics is given in Hagenbach's Encyclo- 
padie. p. 174 sqq. See also the article Herme- 
neutik in Herzog's Realenct/clopadie ; the Comm. 
on Genesis, p. 101; Winer, Reallexiconj II., p. 116 



168 



EXODUS. 



sqq. [Marsh, Lectures on the Criticiam and Inter- 
pretation of the Bible; Davidson, Sacred Herme- 
neutics: Fairbairn, Eermeneutieal Manual; Im- 
mer, Hermeneutik, a translation of which will 
soon appear from the press of W. F. Draper, 
Andover. — Tr ] 

B. SPECIAL HOMH.ETI0 REMARKS ON EXODUS. 

I. The Redemption and the Bringing of the 

People to iHnai. 
1. The Significance of the People of Israel, particu- 
larly of the Tribes in reference to the Kingdom of 

God. 

The rise of the people of Israel in bondage, 
and the redemption running parallel witli it, 
also a type. A miniature picture of humanity. 

Egypt in Its two fold form: a refuge of the 

founders of the kingdom of God, and the first 
anti-theocratic power. Repeated in the general 
history of the world. — Moses' leadership in its 
theocratic significance. Even Moses, the medi- 
ator of the law and of the restricted Jewish eco- 
nomy, had to receive a preparatory training in 
all the wisdom of the Egyptians. — Moses and 
the other children, exposed and apparently lost, 
who have become great men in the world's his- 
tory, especial monuments of divine Providence 
(Cyrus, Romulus, Christ). — The epochs of reve- 
lation and the periods of the history of revela- 
tion, or the intervals in the revelation, are care- 
fully to be noticed. For us the epochs of reve- 
lation blend into one on account of the unity of the 
Bible and of Biblical history. 1 n reality, however, 
they are separated by great intervals. That is: 

From Adam to N 'ah ; 

From Noah to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob ; 

From Jacob to Moses; 

From Mosea and Joshua to Samuel (only spo- 
radically interrupted) ; 

From David to Elijah and Elisha: 

From that time to the Messianic prophets ; 

From Malachi to John the Baptist and Christ, 

2. Moses. 

In Moses' life the wisdom of the divine train- 
ing is disclosed, and particularly in the contrast 
between his own impulsive effort to redeem his 
people and his divine culling. — The high signi- 
ficance of the school of solitary life in the wil- 
derness (Abraham, Moses, Elijah, Christ; analo- 
gies; the monks even, Mohammed. Jacob Bohm, 
Fox the Quaker). — The burning and yet not con- 
sumed thorn-hush, an allegorical phenomenon 
of revelation, whose interpretation can be con- 
demned on the ground of its being allegorical 
only from a misunderstanding. — The name of 
Jehovah could not get its speoitic significance 
for Israel as the name of the faithful covenant- 
God continually reappearing, until the second 
principal revelation of the covenant-God, even 
though it was known before. So the term "justi- 
fication" was known in the Church from the 
New Testament itself, but first received its spe- 
cific signification through the Reformation. — 
If it was known that the God who revealed Him- 
self as Deliverer to Moses had also been the God 
of Abraham, then it was also known that He 
would show Himself in all future time as a Goi 



of deliverance (when the mathematicianjhas two 

points beyond him, he can also fix the third). 

The declaration: "I am the God of Abraham, 
Isaac and Jacob," contains in fact the most deci- 
sive argument for immortality, much as it has 
been misunderstood {vid. Comui. on Matthew 
xxii. 32). — The stern rebuke of the neglect of 
circumcision a hard problem for the Baptists. 
For it is not true that circumcision for the Jews 
was merely a national custom ; it was for ihem, 
as a religious institution, the sign of the cove- 
nant, a sacrament. And, as such, a typical pro- 
mise of regeneration, imposing an obligation 
(Deut. X 16; xxx. 6). — Connection between 
God's wrath and man's death (vid. the article 
Zom in Herzog's Realencyclopadie). After the 
miracles of the theocracy have been heralded by 
the name El Shaddai [Uod Almighty] and the 
birth of Israel, they now appear as the media 
of the redemption of Israel. By two or three 
features they are from the outset distinguished 
from magical occurrences — by natural sub- 
strata, prophetic presentiment and a symbolic re- 
pre-entation ; but they yet remain, as divine acts 
serving the purpose of credentials, judgment, 
and deliverance, forever above the sphere of the 
extraordinary, the wonderful. They are the 
new exploits of God, which come in connection 
with a new word, and herald a new time of sal- 
vation (vid more on the parallel miracles in my 
Life of Christ). 

3. Moses and Aaron. 

The fact is often repeated in the world, and so 
too in the kingdom of God, that the great cha- 
racter is not a great orator, and the great orator 
not a great character. 

4. Pharaoh. 
God's message to Pharaoh: "Let my people 
go, that they may serve me," has been delivered 
by the command of God's Spirit at many hie- 
rarchical sees and royal courts, e. g. at the court 
of Louis XIV.; and He will everywhere conti- 
nue 10 deliver it where necessary. Pharaoh'n 
obduracy is primarily his own fault, secondarily 
a judgment divinely iufiicled (vid. Comm. on 
Romans, chaps, ix.-xi.) — The preservation of 
Pharaoh, who, considered by himself, would 
long before have been destroyed by the Egyptian 
plague of the pestilence, is due to his connection 
with the history of the people of God ; the 
real good of the pious does not demand that their 
oppressors be at once destroyed, but, on the 
contrary, that they be preserved a while till a 
certain goal is reached. They are, so to speak, 
set up for the very purpose of glorifying in them 
the name of God, by the final judgment inflioteil 
on their arrogance. If they will not glorify 
God's name freely, consciously and directlj, then 
they must be instrumental in glorifying it again^l 
their will, unconsciously and iudirectly (Romans 
oh. ix. ). Comp. the Wisdom of Solomon and Klop- 
stock's Messiah on the condemnation of tyrauia. 

5. The Egyptian Plagues. 
The Egyptian plages are typical, living repre- 
sentatives of all the judgments of God in history, 
(1) in their complete number, ten, the number 
of the entire course of thd world ; (2j la tbeil 



DOCTRINAL AND HOMILETIC APPENDIX. 



169 



intermittent rhythm, asceading from the light- 
est inflictioa to the i>eaviest; (8) in the miraci:- 
loua augmentation of natural calamities peou- 
liar to the earth and the country, and in tkz 
oonneolion of these with the movements of the 
world of mind, the joyful testimonies of the 
pious, the bad conscience and horror of the 
'odless; (4) in the correspondence between 
the sudden precipitation of the crises of the 
earth's physical history, and that of the crises 
)f the kingdom of God; (5) in the exalted 
symbolic form of God's deeds in sacred his- 
tory. The false miracles by which the Egyp- 
tian sorcereis soueht to neutralize the effect 
of Moses' miracles nave their reflex in the most 
various forms eveu in New Testament times 
and in the history of the Church (2 Tim. iii. 8). 
So Julian instituted an anti-Christian order of 
preachers and similar things. So in modern 
times the itinerant preaching of the Gospel, the 
oliuroh-holidays, and religious associations have 
been imitated in one direction and another. But 
the unholy imitations can never keep pace with 
the holy originals. — This, too, remains true in the 
spiritual world, that God's plagues as such are 
limited entirely to the enemies of His people. — 
The institution of the Passover-meal on the night 
of Egypt's terror is a type of the institution of 
the Lord's Supper on the momentous night of 
the betrayal of Christ. This lofty festival of 
victory in the midst of the terrors of death and 
of the abyss is one of the most unmistakable 
of God's grand thoughts of love and of peace, 
and would never have been conceived, still less 
carried out, by the selfish heart of man. 

6. The Passover. 

In the Passover all the forms of offering are 
concentrated and explained. First, it takes the 
place of the curse-offering, the hherem, which 
was inflicted on the Egyptian first-born ; secondly, 
it is a sin-offering made by the act of sprinkling 
the blood, by which the door is marked with the 
divine direction, " Pass over," for the angel of 
destruction ; thirdly, ho wever, it is most emphati- 
cally a peace-offering, as being the Old Testa- 
ujent eucharist, for which reason also the passo- 
ver was slain by all the heads of houses, and 
eaten by all the inmates of the house ; finally, it 
is made complete, as a burnt-offering, in the burn- 
ing of all the parts which are left over from the 
sacred meal. — On the significance of carrying 
away the silver and gold articles, vid. Comm. on 
Genesis, p. 83. In every great judicial crisis a 
part of the goods of this world, or of a spiritual 
Egypt, falls to the people of God, as, e.g., at the 
time of Constantine, the time of the Reformation, 
and other times; — not by cheating and robbery, 
but through mental agitation; agitated souls cast 
it into the hands of the representatives of the 
victorious spirit. 

7. The Feast of Unleavened Bread. 

Together with the Passover is instituted the 
feast of unleavened bread, characterized, on the 
cue hand, as a denunciation of the world, and, 
on the other, as a renunciation of worldliness, or 
yoluntary abstinence for the sake of the Lord. 
This does not make leaven as such a symbol of 



evil (vid. Comm. on Malt. xiii. 33), but it makes 
the leaven which is qualified by some reference 
to the world (the Egyptians, the Pharisees, etc.), 
a symbol of the contagious and overpowering in- 
fluence of participation in an injurious enjoy- 
ment. As the Passover feast obligates to a tem- 
porary festival of unleaveuod bread, so the Lord's 
Supper obligates to a permanent avoidance of 
ruinous associations. — Participation in the Pass- 
over is conditioned on circumcision xii. 48) ; 
and a participation in the Lord's Supper on the 
rite of baptism. — The religious education of the 
young has from the outset a connection with the 
sacraments (xiii, 14), and finds itself at once 
enjoined, whenever a religious congregation is 
formed. — To guide the weak young cougregaiion 
of God through the wilderness is safer than tc 
guide them through the land of the Philistines. 
Here is figuratively represented the import of 
asceticism (xiii. 17, 18). 

8. Joseph's Bones. 
A boundary line between the theocracy and 
the world is formed not only by the sacraments 
and feasts, but also by the consecrated burial. 
So the church-yard has also its ecclesiastical 
significance. But as the political community 
has a part in the bells in the tower, so also in a 
church-yard as God's field, and only Christian 
wisdom, not fanaticism, can correctly apprehend 
the distinction. 

9. The Pillar of Cloud and Fire. 

As the same pillar over the sanctuary is a pil- 
lar of cloud by day, and a pillar of fire by night, 
so it stands now before the host as a sacred van- 
guard, now behind them as a protecting rear- 
guard separating Israel from the pursuing ene- 
my. To this divine separation of Israel from the 
world, following the sacramental separations, is 
next added the greai actual separation by means of 
the Red Sea. It is a double protection lor the con- 
gregation of God, that not only the congregation 
is hidden from the pursuing worldly power, but 
also the frightful equipments of this power are 
in great part hidden from the congregation by 
the miraculous phenomenon of the pillar of cloud 
and fire. By day the pillar of cloud is more 
visible than the fiery pillar; by nighi the fire is 
more visible than the cloudy pillar. When one 
walks in the light of knowledge, he needs to be 
made secure by the symbolical obscurity of the 
mysteries of the church ; when one walks through 
the night of temptation, he is made secure by thi 
fiery tokens of the animating presence of the 
Lord. — The policy of falsehood, of selfishness, 
of arrogance, and of treachery, has plunged more 
than one Pharaoh into destruction from the ear- 
liest times down to the history of Buonaparte. 

10. The Bed Sea. 

In their extreme distress the Israelites cast 
themselves in view of the oppressors into the Red 
Sea, but do so at the bidding of God and of the rod 
of Moses. Here, too, the natural substratum is to 
be taken together with the divine deed. (Ex. xiv. 
21; Ps. cvi. 9). The terrestrial crisis is united 
with the crisis of the kingdom of God, Moses' 
prophetic spirit with his symbolic miraculous 



170 



EXODUS. 



agency. The Red Sea stands midway between 
the deluge (1 Pet. iii. 20) and baptism (1 Cor. x. 
2) In all three cases the redemption of the new 
man is effected through judgment on the old; 
there takes place a separation, by means of which 
the destructible part falls a prey to real or appa- 
rent destruction, and the salvable part is trans- 
ferred to a condition of life and salvation. The 
first separation constitutes a universal historical 
type, and in its magnitude, as the destruction of 
the firat world (in a sense also as a sequel of the 
catastrophes of creation), points to the second and 
third separations, but also beyond them to the 
last great separation at the end of the world. The 
second separation is a theocratic typical institu- 
tion, which makes the .Tews Israelites; the third 
constitutes a symbolic and real dividing line be- 
tween the church and the world, and, in so far 
as it is inwardly expressed and realized, be- 
tween the kingdom of God and the kingdom of 
darkness. The seeming downfall of the church 
of God is always succeeded by a higher rise, as 
the seeming triumph of the power of darkness 
indicates its actual overthrow. 

11. Tht Song of Moses. 

The song of Moses is the first form of reli- 
gious service in the church of God, proceeding 
from the experience of the first miraculous typi- 
cal redemption, and hence is of perpetual signi- 
ficance for nil worship celebrating redemption 
and for all songs up to the last redempt on at 
the end of the world (Rev. xv. 3) The Old Tes- 
tament is acquainted with two great redemptive 
facts: the redemption out of the bondage in 
Egypt, and out of the Babylonish captivity; the 
New Testament proclaims the two greatest: the 
primal redemption accomplished by Christ, and 
the final one in the other world which He will 
accomplish at His appearing. It is noticeable 
that in the song of Moses the attribute of God's 
holiness ia for the first time celebrated together 
with others. This indicatestheearly origin of the 
fong, and particularly the period of holiness, 
which from this time on becomes Jehovah's most 
characteristic attribute; the attribute of justice, 
which predominates more at a later time, here 
appears only incidentally, as it were, in a con- 
fession of sin on Pharaoh's part. The freedom 
which even in the Old Testament appears in its 
first free form of worship, in spite of its re- 
straints, is especially evidenced by the fe- 
male choir, which Miriam leads, particularly 
by the instrumental music of the tambou- 
rines, and even the festive dance. What a sorry 
Bpeoiacle certain restrictions in the worship of 
the old Reformed Church present by the side of 
this, while yet that church professes to be of an 
eminently New Testament type. 

12. The First Stopping-places. 

The first encampment of the children of Israel 
by the twelve fountains and under the seventy 
palm-trees at Elim makes, with Moses' triumphal 
song after the deliverance, one whole. But a 
preliminary goal reached in the way of salvation 
heralds a new contest. The great weakness of 
the new congregation is dispLayed in the fact 
that, in spite of those rich experiences of deli- 



verance, as soon as they begin to suffer want, 
they begin again to murmur. But just because 
the congregation is so young auJ so weak, 
Jehovah is indulgent towards them, and presents 
them in the wilderness of Sin with the miracu- 
lous bread of manna (the gift of quails seems 
here to be anticipated, xvi. 13), and at Rephidim 
with water from the rock. Both facts are closely 
related to one another and to the foregoing pas- 
sage through the Red Sea. At a later time 
Jehovah cannot exercise the same indulgence 
towards the old and more experienced company 
when they murmur in like manner; even Moses' 
subtle error is now severely punished (Num. xi. 
31 sqq. ; xx. 1 sqq.). Repetition in the divine 
training of children is no more a tautology than 
in the human training of them. 

13. Amalek and Jethro. 

The first war of the Israelites is a war of de- 
fence against the Amalekiles ; but the victory 
depends on three forces: the people's recent 
experience of deliverance, Moses' intercession, 
and Joshua's generalship (vid. my pamphlet, 
Vom Kricg und vom Sieg). Amalek ttius becomes 
u type of the anti-theocratic worldly spirit, as 
Egypt was before (xvii. IB). But that tliere are 
two kinds of heathenism, and accordingly a two- 
fold relation of the people of God to it, is shotvn 
by the deportment of Jethro, Moses' lather-in- 
law and a Midianite priest, as compared with 
Amalek. He has kept Moses wife and sons in 
his charge during Moses' mission in Egypt ; he 
brings them to him now, and rejoices in Israel's 
redemption and God's great deeds with hearty 
sympathy; nay, his confession that the glory of 
Jehovah is abovn all the gods is enough even to 
warrant Aaron and the elders in holding reli- 
gious communion with him ; they eat bread with 
him before God, as also Moses at the very first 
had received him with reverence and cordiality 
— -a circumstance fitted to put to shame those 
Christians who like to seek for the essence of 
communion in the excommunication which is 
appended to it. Nay, the great law-giver even 
adopts at the suggestion of this Midianitish priest 
a reform (xviii. 13 sqq.), which, as being a tes- 
timony of superior human reason against the 
dangers of a one-sided centralization in govern- 
ment, even significantly precedes the giving of 
the law itself. 

14. Israel's Voluntary Assent to the Covenant with 
Jehovah at Sinai. 

Thus the congregation has come to Sinai, and 
here the people are summoned to enter, by means 
of a voluntary covenant with Jehovah, into a 
peculiar relation to Him, to become Jehovah's 
people under His theocracy. Here now the 
sacred history itself stands clearly opposed to a 
series of distortions of it. In the first place, we 
see that the giving of the law on Sinai is not the 
beginning of the Old Testament; Israel, rather, 
came to Sinai as a typical, consecrated peoplCi 
in whose rise and redemption Jehovah has pro- 
visionally fulfilled the promise given to Abra- 
ham (mrf. Gal. iii. 16 sqq.). Secondly, we see 
that the people were by no means involuntarily 



DOCTRINAL AND HOMILETIC APPENDfX. 



171 



made slaves under the law (as Hegel con- 
ceives). Thirdly, we see that even the rigorous 
fencing off of the lofty mountain, the thunder 
and lightning, and the cloud on the mountain, 
are not to be pronounced so one-sidedly a mani- 
festation of Jehovah's angry jealousy aa was 
often done by tlie older theologians, and as was 
charged upon the Old Testament in gross carica- 
tures in the rationalistic period. Even Deutero- 
nomy has presented a more catholic, free, and, 
one may say, New Testament view of the mani- 
festation of the divine majesty, power, and holi- 
ness which encompasses the origin of the law, 
anil which is continually to attend it in its 
pvvay (Deut. xxxiii. 1-3). As to the covenant 
(which is not merely an institution, as Hofmann 
holds), there should be specially noticed the 
repeated questions put to the people and their 
answers of assent (xix. 7, 8; xxiv. 3). The 
revelation of Jehovah's holiness in order to the 
sanctificalion of Israel to he His people makes 
Mount Sinai a symbolic sanctuary. This is 
expressed by the mountain's being made in- 
accessible to men and beasts (chap. xix. 12 
6qq ). Even the priests must not be in haste 
to pa»s the boundary (ver. 24). With the 
holy place is connected a holy time of three 
days, and for the consecration of this time there 
are also special prescriptions. There is deve- 
loped further on a two-fold distinction of degree : 
the people remain in the valley; Aaron and his 
sons, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy elders cele- 
brate the feast of the covenant on the slope of 
the mountain ; Moses alone loses himself in the 
darkness of the summit (xxiv. 9 sqq.). So high 
does the prophetic here stand above the priestly 
office. 

15. The Oiving of the Law. 

The legislation on the mountain is to be divided 
into three groups. The first is the law as an 
outline, as the summary of the words of the law; 
tlie second is the law as legislation (xxiv. 12 — 
xxxi. 18) ; the third is a modified restoration of 
the law. and the fixing of it by means of the 
building of the tabernacle (to the end of Exo- 
dus) The first group comprises the whole law 
in its outlines ; and the division into three parts, 
moral law (xx. 1-17), ritual and sacrificial law 
(XX. 18-26), and civil law (xxi. 1 — xxiii. 33), 
appears distinctly. This group is concluded by 
the ratification of the covenant (xxiv. 1—11). 
Before the covenant was concluded^ the law was 
enacted only in oral words; not till after the cove- 
nant was concluded was it written on the tables 
of stone; and not til) then could the building of 
the tabernacle be ordered, as the place where 
the stone-tables were to remain, and where 
■lehovah was to be enthroned ; for Jehovah can 
dwell as a covenant-God only among a people 
that have voluntarily surrendered themselves to 
Him, But the tabernacle is not simply a temple 
or place of sacrifice; It is likewise, and first of 
all, the palace of the King Jehovah, the central 
place for all the three groups of laws, the place 
of the covenant and of the meetings between 
Jehovah and the people. This legislation re- 
quires Moses to remain forty days on the moun- 
tain. But the people cannot endure this invisi- 
bility of their religion, and make themselves the 



golden calf for their symbolic sanciuary. Thus 
a restoration of the law becomes necessary, 
through (1) a great expiation, (2) a severe 
modification, (3) the actual erection of a visible 
sanctuary, the tabernacle. 

II. The Outline of the Law. 

1. The Ethical Law in Outline. Ch. xx. 1-17. 

Here is concentrated a heavenly fulness of 
divine thoughts, hence also an immense treasure 
of expositions, an account of which is given in 
the commentaries, theological systems, cate- 
chisms, sermons, and hymns. The law of the 
tn commandments is to be considered in its 
relations to the natural law of the conscience 
(Rom. ii.) and to the law of the Spirit (Rom. 
viii.), especially as a transition from the one to 
the other. Analytically and literally considered, 
the law is incomplete (2 Cor. iii. ; Epistle to the 
Hebrews), especially in the hands of human ad- 
ministrators ; as a type of the law of the Spirit, 
it is complete — the description of man as he 
should be, of humanity, of the living image of 
Christ. Analytically considered, it is predomi- 
nantly educational ; symbolically considered, it 
is an outline of Christian ethics. That it is 
a law for the inner life appears unmistaka- 
bly in the preface, as also in the first, se- 
cond, and tenth commandments, but especially 
in the law: "Thou shalt noc covet" [vid. 
Comm. on Rom. vii.). As the foundation of the 
whole legislation, it is divided into laws that are 
predominantly religious or ceremonial, and laws 
that relate predominantly to social or moral 
life — a proof that it itself, as being the thto- 
cratic doctrine of life, or outline of rules for 
the sanctificalion of personal life, comprises the 
elements of dogmatics and ethics. In its practi- 
cal application, Christian dogmatics has rightly 
ascribed to it three uses, of which the first 
\usus civilis'] is permanent in the Christian 
state, the third \usus normativus'] is permanent 
in the Christian Church, and the second [msus 
elenchticus'] declares the permanent connection 
between the other two. The integrity of the 
ten commandments must be maintained with all 
earnestness. The prohibition of images is by 
no means a mere prohibition of idols; the com- 
mand respecting the Sabbath is by no means 
merely identical with ihe ceremonial law of 
Leviticus; it is an imperishable law of humanity 
as much as is the law: "Thou shalt not kill." 
As to the division into two tables, the enumera- 
tion of the commandments, the distinction be- 
tween the prohibitions in the commandments, 
and the commandments in the prohibitions, the 
reduction of the ten commandments to two fun- 
damental ones (Matt. xxii. 38), and of the two 
to one (Rom. xiii. 10; James ii. 10), we refer to 
the appropriate theological discussions, only 
remarking further, that as early as in Deutero- 
nomy the spiriiualization of the ten command- 
ments, in the direction of the prophets, is begun. 
We may also refer to the feature presented in 
an exegetical view of the narrative, that Moses, 
when the ten commandments were sounded oui, 
stood as an interpreter amongst the people ; 
according to which, this moment is to be re- 



172 



KXODUS. 



garded as myatcrious in the highest degree. — 
The ten cnrnmnndments as tlie ten words (of the 
Spirit, nngelic words). As the ten fundamental 
doctrines of heavenly wisdom. The ten words 
as the ten commandments of God : ten rocks of 
the earth, ten lightnings of heaven. — As the ten 
thunders which resound through all spaces and 
times. As the testimonies of God in behalf of 
the dignity and high destiny of man, but also as 
the testimonies against his sin. As the testimo- 
nies both of his (formal) freedom and his (mate- 
rial) bondage.* As characteristic features of 
personality. 

2. Outline of the Sacrificial Rites. Chapter xx. 
18-26. 
The enslaved feelings of the people in their 
terror at the manifestations of the majesty and 
justice of God, are, primarily, the source of 
the lay order, the desire for a mediator between 
th m and God ; secondly, the source of an out- 
ward sacrificial system; thirdly, the source of the 
hierarchy. Fleeing from God and standing afar 
otf, in other words, slavish fear, makes laymen. 
" Speak thou with us, and we will hear." And 
the reason is: "lest we die." The true priest 
runs the hazard of dying as he approaches God. 
Thus Aaron stands with his censer of incense 
between the dead and the living (Num. xvi. 48). 
But the perfect higb-priest comes near to God 
tlirough the fiery flame of the great judgment 
(.ler XXX. 21). — Also the lay feeling looks on the 
protective terrors of the law as deterrent terrors 
(vcr. 18). The fear of death is, to a certain de- 
gree, wholesome, but is also a dangerous source 
of a slavish disposition (Heb. ii. 15). — In the 
terrors of the law lies an element of temptation 
on account of man's fear of death ; but in them- 
selves these terrors are designed only to test men 
and to fill them with the pious fear of God which 
avoids sin. Moses emers, as a true mediator of 
his people, into the darkness before God. That 
he is a true priest without priestly dignity, much 
more than Aaron is, he has shown by his inter- 
cessions. The same holds of all true prophets, 
even in the philosopher's mantle; they have 
more sacerdotal worth than all merely nominal 
priests. Nevertheless the enthralled state of the 
people's heart necessitates the institution of sa- 
crifices and of priests. Yet it is strictly limited. 
Firft, the people are never to forget that Jeho- 
vah has spoken with them immediately from 
lieaven, that He therefore may so speak again in 
the future, and that therefore all mediation must 
have for its object this immediate intercourse. 
Hence most of all the false, pretended mediation 
through idols must be rejected. Sacrifices, how- 
ever, are mediatory. But a simple altar of earth 
is declared to be sufficient for the sacrificial ser- 
vice. Extravagance is excluded from the sacri- 
ficial rites. Here, moreover, there is nothing 
caid, by way of anticipation, about sin-offer- 
ings. But all places at which Jehovah manifests 
Himself as a covenant and redeeming God are 
to be sanctuaries. As an enhancement of the 



* [By formal freedom U meant the natural ability to choose 
between right and wron^; hy material (otherwise called by 
German writers real) freedom, is meant the actual confor- 
iiiity of the will to the requirements of duty. Material bon- 
d.iKe ( Unfreihp.it, " imfreedora ") therefore means a state of 
disinrliDHtioa to obey the law. — Te.J 



dignity of the altar, it is allowed to be made of 
stones, but this permission is limited in two par, 
ticulars (vers. 26, 26). The Spirit of revelation 
has foreseen that men's disposition to make a 
merit of works may transform the altar, the place 
where God holds sway as a Judge and a Saviour, 
into a theatrical stage for the exhibition of hn- 
man pomp. So unostentatiously does the Levitical 
sacrificial system begin, and begins with the 
assumption that the people have long before felt 
the need of offering sacrifices, and that this feel- 
ing is to be checked rather than increased, ffe 
must, however, everywhere distinguish between 
the sacrifi ial rites and the priesthood whicli 
Jehovah takes under His charge, and the barba- 
rous outgrowths which have in fact sprung from 
these religious impulses. 

•3. Outline, of the Civil Law for the Regulation of thi 
Social Life of the People. Chaps, xxi -xxiii. 

It is a noticeable feature of this law that U 
begins with a regulation concerning the emanci- 
pation of the Hebrew serf. While the idea of 
emancipation is conditioned and limited by the 
traditional customs and laws, yet it is evident 
from the first breath of the law that it breathes 
freedom, that freedom is its end and aim. To 
this corresponds also the heading. Though the 
first verse may be translated, " These are the 
legal ordinances, or the punitive regulations"— 
yet through the whole section the idea prevails, 
" These are the rights." It is not acts of injus- 
tice that are chiefly treated of, but rights, the 
protection of human worth, the sanctity and 
inviolability of life, as opposed to the assaults of 
sin and unrighteousness. Thus then this section 
also, like the ethical law and the ritual law, 
points to the New Testament, the New Testa- 
ment freedom. 

a. Men-servants' and maid-servants' rights of 
freedom, xxi. 1-11. 

b. Inviolability of life, especially as relates to 
regard for parents and pregnant women, vers. 
12-23. 

c. Inviolability of the body and its members, 
vers. 24-27. 

d. Protection against injury to life, to ser- 
vants, and even to cattle, caused by the careless- 
ness of others, vers. 28-36. 



«. Protection of property against theft, injury 
to fields, and infidelity to trusts; and the settle- 
ment of collisions and distinctions thus arising, 
xxii. 1-15. 

/. The rights of a seduced virgin, vers. 16, 17. 

g Maintenance of theocratic morals, or pro- 
tection of the moral dignity of the Israehtes. 
vers. 18-20. 

h. Inviolability of strangers, widows, and or- 
phans, vers. 21-24. 

i. Protection of the poor against usurers, vers. 
25-27. 

J. The rights of magistrates andof the sanc- 
tuary, vers. 28-30. 

k. Sanctity of the use of flesh for food, ver. 3.. 



I. Saoredness of courts and testimony, even 
to the exclusion of a false philanthropy towaril' 
the poor, xxiii. 1-3. 



DOCTRTNAL AND HOMILETIC APPENDIX. 



173 



m. Self-respect as shown in noble-minded con- 
duct towards enemies and the poor, in the avoid- 
ance of fellowship with the persecutors of the in- 
nocent, and in abstaining from bribery, and from 
contempt for strangers, vers. 4-9. 

n. Sanctity of the theocratic land, of the Sab- 
bath, of religious speech (avoidance of the names 
of the gods), of the three great annual feasts, 
vers. 10-17. 

0. Preservation of the purity of the sacrificial 
rites, of the harvest, of the eating of flesh (par- 
ticularly by avoiding lieatheuish luxury, oj'rf. the 
exegesis), vers. 18, 19. 

p. Sacredness of the angel of revelation, or of 
the divine guidance of Israel, vers. 20-22. 

q. Sacredness of the promised land. Strict 
exclusion of all idolatry, accompanied by all 
kinds of blessings from Jehovah (abundance of 
food, health, blessing of children, long life, dread- 
fulness and invincibility for enemies), and the 
gradual expulsion, through superior moral force, 
of all enemies, vera. 23-31. 

r. Avoidance of ruinous religious fellowship 
with the heathen, vers. 32, 33. 

These laws are evidently all rich in religious 
and moral lessons which can, when generalized, 
be homiletically appropriated without taking 
away from them the poiiitedness of the concrete 
expressions. Thus, un the basis of this section, 
one may speak of the leading features of the dig- 
nity and rights of man, of the right of freedom, 
and the limitations of it (referring to Paul's state- 
ment of domestic duties), and of the inviolability 
of bodily life. Also of reverence for woman, the 
protection of virgins, of carefulness, of the law 
of moral distinctions. It will not be necessary 
to call special attention to all the individual ideas 
of the section. In the exegetical remarks we 
have already observed that the much misunder- 
stood law of retaliation ("eye for eye," etc.) 
does not here appear to be dictated by a judi- 
cial demand for punishm'Ut, but by a desire 
strongly to express the inviolability of the dig- 
nity of man. 

4. Ratification of the Covenant. Chap. xxiv. 

The legal coven.ant among the covenants be- 
tween Jehovah and His people (Rom. ix.4). — The 
common feature of all covenants. All proceed 
from God as institutions of free grace. All pre- 
suppose a voluntary compliance on the part of 
men. In all of them God's faithfulness and 
free gift tower up ahove man's unfaithfulness 
and needinesa. But all of them may, througii 
human unfaithfulness, be invalidated for genera- 
tions. All have a peculiar character in reference 
to the divine promise and human obligation, 
although the promise is always God's word, and 
the obligation assumed by man is faith. In all 
of them the general object is heavenly salvation, 
but in every covenant this object has a special 
form. The series of successive covenants indi- 
cates the successive developments of revelation, 
or of the foundation of the kingJom of God. 

a. The great sacredness of the covenant, indi- 
cated by the several degree"? of nearness of ap- 
proach to Jehovah, vers. 1 and 2. It is one 
of the lofty strokes of Old Testament descrip- 
tion, that Moses in his approach to God is made 
to disappear from the woild. The priests 



do not attain the height of the prophet; they 
mast worship fnim afar, and do not ascend one 
step higher than the seventy elders, the repre- 
sentatives of the people. 'I' he people who are 
represented by this Old Testament mediation are 
primarily represented by the prophetic media- 
tion of Moses. 

b. The voluntary assent of the people. In the 
church of God there should be no thought of a 
traditional, or of an enforced, assent; none espe- 
cially of one violently compelled or secured by 
craft. The unanimity of the covenant comicunity 
is a beautiful picture, but soon darkened. 

t. The covenaat agreement, ver. 4. Riligious 
I ovenants have to do nut with merely vague 
feelings, but with definite (even written) words, 
vows, and decisions. 

d. The ratification of the covenant, vers. 4-8. 
The altar, with the twelve pillars, denotes an 
expression of faith embracing the whole of God's 
people. Only young men, only spiritual youth, 
are fitted to negotiate a new form of faith and 
covenant. They begin their sacrifices not with 
sin-offerings, for here is nothing factitious, but 
with burnt- offerings and peace-offerings, — with 
the feeling, "To God alone in the highest be 
honor !" But on the basis of so sacred a covenant 
the need of sin-offerings will soon appear. — The 
covenant offering is spiritualized by reading from 
the book of the law. Where the intelliuibie word 
of God is wanting, true sacrifices also are want- 
ing. The blood of the covenant, too, is effica- 
cious only when a half of it is sprinkled on the 
congregation, i. <-., on their conscience (Heb. x. 
22). What else is meant by the sprinkling of 
the altar with the blood, than that man promises 
to Jehovah a surrender of himself with his pos- 
sesnions and his blood? 

e. Feast of the covenant, vers. 9-11. A glo- 
rious type of the New Testament. Here Moses, 
the priests, and the elders are united. When 
will the time come when the prophets and priests 
and elders of the church of God are wholly 
united? They ascend together to the heights of 
the mountain; but how high? A mystery of 
blessed experience for God's church! They see 
the God of Israel, and do not die. Under His 
feet is no cloud, no thunder and lightning, but 
the crystal-clear, blue groundwork of God's abso- 
lute fidelity. They do not die from the sight of 
God; they eat and drink, they celebrate a sacred 
festive meal before God — a testival introductory 
to the festivals of thousands of years. 

/. The forty days and forty nights which Moses 
spent on the mountain, or the covenant writing, 
vers. 12-18. The dayti, or hours, of the first in- 
spiration pass by; then begins the sacred work, 
which is to transform inspiration into disposi- 
tion. This law of life holds for the church of 
God in general, as well as in particular. Moses 
seems to have disappeared in the darkness of 
the mountain. Jesus seems to have disappeared 
in the wilderness, the Spirit of the church in the 
monasteries, Luther on the Wnrthurg. Thisisthe 
time of trial. He labors on the height of the moun- 
tain, in the depths of prophetic souls. Meantime 
Aaron and Hur attend to the duties of their subor- 
dinate office at the foot of Sinai. But again the top 
of the mountainis now concealed. Moses seems to 
be lost in the cloud, as if in the other world, and the 



174 



EXODUS. 



glory of the Lord on the lop of the mountain 
seems again to the people like a consuming fire. 
Meanwhile Moses, the genius of the congrega- 
tion, goes into the midst of the cloud. But very 
often does the dangerous waiting time of forty 
days and nights recur. 

III. The Idea (or Vision) and the Ordinance 

of the Tabernacle. Chaps, xxv.-xxxi. 

1. The Spiritual and Elementary Prerequisilps for 

the Tabernacle or Dwelling-place of Ood. 

Vers. 1-8. 

The one fundamental requisite is the heave- 
offering, the contributions furnished by Israel, 
at Jehovah's suggestion indeed, but the free gift 
of faith and love. Voluntariness is to be, and 
continue to be, the soul of the house of God. 

The material requisites represent all nature, 
as the fundamental requisite represents the una- 
nimity of the congregation. 

The noblest materials from the mineral king- 
dom: gold, siver, copper, precious stones. The 
noblest from the vegetable kingdom : acacia 
wood, cotton, oil, spices, incense. The noblest 
from the animal kingdom: costly skins and hair- 
cloths. Thus the finest materials, together with 
the most beautiful and significant colors, are to 
be used on the building. 

Jehovah wishes His people to honor themselves 
also by giving Him tiis honor in a decent dwell- 
ing. But lie also wishes to have a dwelling not 
essentially better than those of His people, 
namely, provisionally a tent (vid. 2 Sam. vii. 
7). It ia an extreme, therefore, when a church 
dishonors itself in its style of wo-ghip, and gives 
no indication that the Lord is its .ring; but it is 
also an extreme, when the pomp of the worship 
or of the temple divests the Lo.'d of His loving- 
kindness. For, that He desires to dwell amongst 
His people is another way of saying that He 
wishes to exhibit the reconciliation of His abso- 
lute majesty with His kind condescension. 

2. The Image or Pattern on the Mount. Ver. 9. 
Here, where theocratic art most closely bor- 
ders on the general idea of art, appears distinctly 
the thought of the ideal image as the real soul 
of art. The tabernacle is to rest on an ideal: 
this is the idea of art. But the ideal is one 
given by God ; and this is the iJea of sacred art. 
In this, however, theocratic art is distinguished 
from that of common men, that it makes beauty 
subserve a sacred purpose. But the object of 
the tabernacle, in so far as it is a symbol, is to 
serve as the image of the kingdom of God ; in 
so far as it is a type, it is the seed-kernel out of 
which the New Testament kingdom of God is to 
grow. It is a fundamental law of all religious ar- 
tistic and architectural plans, that beautifulforms 
must be blended with religious and moral ends. 

3. The Organic Development of the Tabernacle. 
Chaps. XXV. 10-xxx. 
The essential thing, as well as that towards 
which everything points, in the sanctuary, is 
the ark of the covenant, the symbol of the cove- 
nant, of the re-union of the people with God, the 
place where Jehovah makes His abode and His 
revelations. It has two meanings: it is Jeho- 



vah's throne, but it is also Israel's highest altar. 
From the throne the movement is downwards to 
the table of shew-bread and the candlestick. 
Corresponding to this direction of Jehovah's 
descent is the dwelling, the tabernacle itself, S3 
divided into the holy place and the Holy of ho- 
lies. To this descent of Jehovah from above 
towards the people corresponds the move- 
ment of the people from below upwards. Their 
starting-point is the altar of burnt-offering, 
whose place was in the court. From here the 
priests in the name of the people approach 
Jehovah in the symbolic sacerdotal garments, in 
consequence of their consecration. From the 
altar of burnt-offering they go out with the sac- 
rificial blood and with the incense into the holy 
place as far as to the altar of incense. From 
this point only the high-priest can go further, 
and approach Jehovah in the Holy of holies 
with the blood of atonement on the day of atone- 
ment. But the movement of the priest depends 
not only on this chief condition, the sacrificial 
blood, but also, first, on his filled hand, tbe 
heave-offering of the Lord ; secondly, on the 
priestly ablution, and the laver serving this end; 
thirdly, on the anointing of the sanctuary and 
of all its utensils, and on the incense. — Jeho- 
vah's temple, therefore, is a composite thing, 
the place of meeting between Jehovah and His 
people, ideally the residence of Jehovah as well 
as of the people. So also every church. But 
before everything else the manifestation of God 
is there, — the foundaMnn before any human ser- 
vice is rendered. So, in the church, the sacra- 
ments and the word of God. Jehovah lets the 
people >feel His nearness by His dwelling in the 
Holy of holies. Here is accomplished the sym- 
bolical union with the people through the high- 
priest. At the table of shew-bread is accom- 
plished the symbolical fellowship or communion 
of the priests under the divine illumination of 
the seven-fold candlestick. — The three altars in 
the temple of the Lord, and their significance, 
viz. the altar of burnt-offering, the altar of in- 
cense, the mercy-seat over the ark. — The three 
rooms of the sanctuary and their significance: 
the court, the holy place, and the Holy of ho- 
lies. — The three sacred things in the court, and 
their significance: the laver, the mirrors, and 
the altar of burnt-offering. — The three sacred 
things in the holy place, and their significance; 
the altar of incense, the table of shew-brend. 
and the golden candlestick.— The three sacred 
things in the Holy of holies, and their signifi- 
cance: the cherubim, the ark of the law, and 
the mercy-seat. — The three acts of the religious 
festivals: the offering up of the most valuable 
things in the court, the surrender of the heart 
at the altar of inocnsa, of prayer, and the pro- 
phetio representation of a surrender of the life, 
of the expiatory hiood for the effecting of re- 
union with God and of a vision of God.— The three 
significations of sacrifices : sacrifices as something 
rendered to tbe laws of the congregation, sacri- 
fices as a symbol of the movement of the heart, 
sacrifices as a type of the future perfect saorifioe. 
As the cherubim hover over the ark of the l»w, 
so does God's dominion in the world protect His 
law. His law and His Gospel, the latter repre- 
sented by the mercy-seat. The mercy-seat de- 



DOCTRINAL AND HOMILETIO APPENDIX. 



175 



notes the ezpiatioa of the law by means of the 
sacrificial blood. The altar of incense stands 
midway between the altar of burnt-offering and 
the mercy-seat ; for prayer, symbolized by the 
incense (the sacrifice of the lips), is the living 
soul of all sacrifices. — The one general signifi- 
cance of the whole temple : the symbolico-typi- 
cal arrangement and educational use of the ritual 
for the whole congregation. — As such in all its 
features exposed to misunderstanding : as if the 
notion of a local dwelling-place of God excluded 
His omnipresence, the feeling of which alone 
can give significance to that notion (1 Kings viii. 
27) ; as if the court were designed to exclude those 
who are not Jews, when it is designed to attract 
them (Isa. Ivi. 7); as if sacrifices were a meri- 
torious service, and not rather a confession of 
poverty of spirit; as if the priests were to keep 
the people far away from Jehovah, and not 
rather train them up for Him. — The significance 
of the forms of the tabernacle, of the utensils, 
especially of the colors; vid. the Introduction to 
Kevelation. 

4. Sezaleel, the Religious Master-Workman. 
Chap. xxxi. 

The gift of art, of artistic genius, a gift of 
God. A gift of God in the narrower, but also 
in the wider sense. — The cultivation of the gift 
till mastery is attained. The assistants of the 
master-workman. The artist's vocation, akin to 
that of the priest. — The law of artistic creation : 
it must in everything proceed from the funda- 
mental thought of the work, from its end and 
object, ver. 7. — The Sabbath as a condition of 
the building of the holy sanctuary. — Even the 
most common work is not to be profaned through 
the want of the Sabbath. Through the Sabbath 
all the works of believers are to acquire a festal 
character, a Sunday brightness. 

5. The Tables of the Law. Ver. 18. 

These were not the beginning, but the conclu- 
sion, of the covenant-transaction. Their two- 
sidedness: of stone, and yet full of myterious 
writings of God; pieces of rock, breaths of hea- 
ven; inexorable demands, God's thoughts of 
peace. One law, and yet two tables, compre- 
hending all duties to God and to man. — The 
law a work of God, a gift of God, a testi- 
mony of God. 

IV. The Breach of the Covenant, or ike 
Oolden Calf. Chap, xxxii. 

In the history of the kingdom of God is 
always found this contrast of mountain and 
valley (Moses lost, as it were, on the 
mountain, the rush for the false worship 
of the golden calf in the valley; the 
prophets in their visions, the people wavering 
between apostasy and legality; Christ on the 
mount of transfiguration, the disciples at their 
wits' end; and the scene of apparent defeat at 
the foot of the mountain, Luther on the Wart- 
Ijurg, and the inhabitants of Zwickau, Carlstadt, 
even Master Philip in the valley). Whenever 
the people are making themselves a golden calf, 
mysterioua things are taking place on the moun- 



tain between God and His elect. Whenever Moses 
seems on the mountain to be lost in God, the 
people at the foot of the mountain prepare for 
themselves a golden calf. — He delayed on the 
mountain: things do not move fast enough for 
the spiritually sluggish people. " Make us gods," 
images of God. Apostasy always begins with the 
religious worship of images ; it is the first step 
on the downward road of apostasy. Therefore, 
also, the second commandment must continue to 
be distinct from the first. According to Bom. i., 
moreover, idolatry results from the downward ten- 
dency of the use of symbols. This does not im- 
ply the prohibition of everything symbolic in re- 
ligion, but it does show that it should be put 
under the control of God's Spirit. But from the 
earliest times pictorial representations of God, 
as well as the religious veneration of sacred images 
in general, have led to idolatry. — " For we know 
not." They wish to know when they ought to 
believe; hence they fall a prey to a superstitious 
belief when they ought to know. Weak priests 
have always been inclined to help a sensuous 
people in their tendency to image-worship. — The 
priest in vain seeks to suppress the demands of 
the people by the crafty policy of requiring great 
sacrifices. Bad priests increase these require- 
ments of offerings of gold and silver and pennies 
till they become enormous, and the darkened 
spirits of the people acquiesce in the extremest 
demands made upon them. Weak priests ima- 
gine that in the requirements of offerings they 
impose a restraint on the idolatrous propensity. 
Faithful priests sacrifice themselves in heroic 
resistance ; but they are rare. Sensuous men 
will make contributions to false systems of wor- 
ship a thousand times rather than to a true one. 
The golden calf grows out of the memories of 
Egyptian heathenism. The Israelites, it is true, 
do not intend, like the Egyptians, to worship the 
image of the ox, but only to have in it a symbol 
of Jehovah. Immediately, however, they cry out, 
" These are thy gods," not, •" That is a symbol of 
thy God." Aaron, on the other hand, calls out 
and proclaims a feast of Jehovah. So in a degene- 
rate religion that craves images there are always 
two opinions and two religions : the theologian 
talks in one way; the people talk in another. In 
this worship, as in heathenism, chief emphasis 
is given to the worldly carousal which follows 
the religious ceremonies : eating, drinking, dan- 
cing, etc. — Jehovah's utterance respecting this 
unseemly conduct is, " Thy people have cor- 
rupted." Corrupted what? Nothing less than 
everything. "Thy people," not "My people.'' 
Jehovah does not recognize Himself in the object 
of the image-worship, ver. 8. God's judgment 
on the people after this seemingly very religious 

festival, ver. 9. " Let me alone, that I 

may consume them." This is the normal conse- 
quence of the carnal transformation of religion 
into outward forms : if the people are not soon 
enough healed of it, they must infallibly go to 
ruin religiously, morally, and physically. — "I 
will make of thee a great nation." The value of 
a people consists in their choice men, those that 
are faithful to God; and it is natural to think of 
a holy race of elite men. But mercy rejoiceth 
against (glorieth over) judgment.— In Moses' 
intercession the true priest appears. Moses (like 



170 



EXODUS. 



Abraham and Ju Jab) ia his intercession, a type of 
Christ. Analysis of Moses' intercession. "Jeho- 
vah repented," e. «., through Moses' intercession 
the situation had been essentially altered. In 
human repentance is mirrored a seeming ohange- 
ableness in the unchangeable God. — Moses' de- 
scent from the mount compared with the subse- 
quent descent, chap, xxxiv. Here Moses is sad, 
whilst the people below are jubilant; there he de- 
scends with radiant face to the mourning people. — 
The tumult of the people, and the two interpreta- 
iations of it, that of Joshua versed in war, and that 
of his master versed in the workings of men's 
hearts. — Moses' anger, and the expressions of it. 
First, the breaking of the tables. For such a 
people, so fallen away, God's revelation has uo 
more value. Next, the destruction of the golden 
calf Bather no religion, if possible, than such 
a caricature! From this negation a neiv life 
must proceed. — Aaron's miserable excuse. The 
miserable excuses of weak priests. — Lastly, the 
greac punitive infliction, ver. 25 sqq. Its relative 
necessity at that time, and the spiritual application 
of this fact. But only the choice part of the 
congregation can punish the congregation. And 
the punishment continues to be sacred only 
through repeated intercession before God. — 
Moses' offer, ver. 32, and Jehovah's answer. 
Suffering in behalf of others is conditioned on the 
hope of their fellow-suffering. Forgiveness con- 
ditioned on a previous visitation. 

V. The Miidified Restoration of the Covenant. 
Chaps, xxxiii., xxxiv. 

The Israelites must break camp and wander, 
in order in the future to find again their salva- 
tion, to reach the promised land. So Chris- 
tians must break loose from the world and wan- 
der, in order to gain the new Paradise (home — 
native land). So Adam and Eve had to enter on 
their long pilgrimage. So Abraham (and the 
patriarchs generally^. So the Christians from 
Jerusalem. So the church from the East to the 
West. So the Reformation. And so faith again 
and again. God's summons to Israel was a so- 
lemn token of grace. (1) The promise of Ca- 
naan was thus renewed. But (2) indication was 
given of God's future visitations destined to 
attend their course. So the man of faith must 
wander in order to be refined, but also in order 
to be perfected. — The three great chastisements 
inflicted on the fallen Israelites. — Moses' three 
great intercessions, and the answer to them. — 
Jehovah' s three great tokens of grace. 

1. The Chastisements. Vers. 1-11. 
a. The greatest and severest. The Israelites 
must go to Canaan without Jehovah's going in 
the midst of them. b. They must for a season 
lay off their ornaments, o. The preliminary 
tabernacle, Moses' tent, is moved out of the camp, 
80 that the people seem to be put under a sort of 
ban (of the first degree). — Because they wished 
to see God with the eyes of sense in the golden 
calf, they are now made dependent on the gui- 
dance of the angel of God's face, the visions of 
His prophet. Because they wasted the splendor 
of their golden ornaments ou image-worship. 



they must no longer appear before Jehovah even 
with simple decorations. Because they wished 
arbitrarily to institute their own form of divine 
service, they must now look from afar, with awe 
and longing, towards the tabernacle of God. — 
The impression of the declaration of God, "Iwill 
not go up in the midst of thee:" (1) The people 
dimly felt that it was an evil announcement, a 
punishment for their guilt. (2) Wherein lay the 
punishment? In God's refusal to go with them 
in the relation of immediate spiritual fellowship, 
" Thy religion," He says, " cannot yet be a re- 
ligion of the Spirit, for thou art a stiff-neoked 
people," 1. e., intractable and refractory towards 
the easy yoke of the word, of the spirit, of love. 
(3) And yet there was clemency in the punish- 
ment. The spiritual condition of the people of 
God was such that they could be led only by the 
angel of God's face in the form of the Ian 
and the divine tokens received through the 
media of visions. An immediate and unlim- 
ited manifestation of God would have scattered 
and annihilated the people. Even at the Chris- 
tian Pentecost the religion of the Spirit involved 
the people in the danger of ruin. So also many 
Christian nations have remained for a long time 
shut up under the guidance of visions, and they, 
too, not without positive fault on their own part. 
So also to many Protestants a spiritual religion 
has become dangerous. — The sentence requiring 
ornaments to be laid aside seems to have been 
suspended when Aaron was clothed with the sa- 
cerdotal ornaments. So also the ban of the 
provisional tabernacle seems to have ceased with 
the erection of the tabernacle proper. The pious 
and humble deportment of the people under chas- 
tisement is an indication of their re-adoption«- 
The reconciliation of the three utterances, " My 
face shall go with thee;" ''Jehovah talked with 
Moses face to face;" "Thou canst not see my 
face," ver. 20. — In the first case the face is the 
angel of the face, the vision form (Tro^wpiiiruf). 
In the second case, the duiinctne»» comprehmiibh- 
nese, and familiarity of God's words (TroAti/iEpuf). 
In the third case the real beholding of the divine 
glory is meant (vid, the exegesis). — Joshua, the 
faithful guardian of the sanctuary. 

2. Moaea' three new great intercetsory Petitioni. 
Vers. 13-23. 

The first petition: "Show me thy way," efc 
Also in behalf of Jehovah's people. Answer: 
My face, as guide to the way, shall be the liying 
way (John xiv. 6). — Second petition : Make it 
evident that Thou Thyself art going with us, 
when Thy face guides us before all the world by 
distinguishing signs. Answer: Divine assent on 
the ground of Moses' intercession and acoepts- 
bleness. — Third petition : Let me see Thy glory. 
The divine answer : Conditional assent [vH. tte 
exegesis). Observe the refusal in the assent, 
and the assent in the refusal (Gethsemane?). 
The old saying: Man cannot see God without 
dying, (1) true in the sense of divine revelation; 
(2) always false as conceived by the popular su- 
perstition. Only by this dying of the natural 
man under the sight of God does man come to 
the true life — Observe how God's answers mako 
the human petitioner bolder and bolder* hov. 



DOCTRINAL AND HOMILETIC APPENDIX. 



177 



nevertheless, even the boldness of the human 
petition is continually controlled by divine wis- 

clom and that, for the petitioner's owd good.^ 

The believer stands on the rock — even in the 
protecting cleft of the rook close to God, and sees 
all His goodness pass by. Not iu one single 
view, but piece by piece, does the believer behold 
the glory of the Lord. Even the faint impres- 
sion of the manifestation of the glory of God in 
the sphere of our life's vision might overpower 
and kill us, if Jehovah did not place us in a cleft 
of a rock and hold His hand over ua (the roek- 
olefts of joyous youth — of dark night— of civil 
security— of childlike freedom from care, e(c.).— 
The great afterward. The sequel of experience, 
of the hour of death, of the end of the world. 
Not till the evening of the world do all the pe- 
riods of the world back to its morning come truly 
to light. "At evening time it shall be light. ' 

3. The Three great Transformations of Anger to 
Grace. Chap, xxxiv. 1-35. 

a. Tke gift of new tables of the law, in connec- 
tion with which Moses' co-operation is more 
positively brought out. b. Sinai glorified by 
Jehovah's proclamation of Jehovah's grace, c. 
Moses' shining face upon his return from the 
mountain with the new tables of the law. — The 
new tables of the law in their relation to the 
first. (1) They are as to contents entirely like 
the first, as if nothing had happened in the mean- 
time. (2) They are not like the first in their 
relation, for they presuppose the apostasy that 
has taken place. Hence they are supplemented 
by the proclamation of grace. — Jehovah's grand 
proclamation of Jehovah's grace. Jehovah pro- 
claimed not only His law from Sinai, but also 
His grace. The history of this fact is an eter- 
nal testimony against all distortions of the Old 
Testament Jehovah, of the law, of Sinai. Like- 
wise the erroneous notion of many favorably in- 
clined to the church and to Christianity, that 
Sinai and the law proclaimed only a curse, is 
corrected in this history. True, this grand pro- 
clamation of grace does not annul the law, jus- 
tice, and judgment, but it puts this revelation of 
God's severity in the right light. — ^The two parts 
of the grand proclamation of Jehovah from Sinai. 
The first part, concerning Jehovah's mildness: 
merciful, gracious, long-suffering, etc. The se- 
cond part, concerning His severity: He lets no 
one go unpunished (and so, nothing unpunished), 
and visits the misdeed of fathers upon children 
and children's children, etc. {vid. chap. xx. ). — 
The threefold expression for the forgiveness of 
sin: He forgives iniquity (perverseness), trans- 
gression (apostasy, desertion), and sin (failure). 
— The surprise of the lawgiver, to whom at this 
moment Sinai has become a throne of graoe ; and 
his humble prostration and adoration. Compare 
Elijah's gesture, when Jehovah passed by him 
with a still, small voice (1 Kings xix.). After this 
experience Moses comes back once more to his pe- 
tition, " Jehovah, go with us, in the midst of us " 
Jehovah's reason for not doing so, viz., that He 
cannot go in the midst of them because they are 
a stiff-necked people, Moses reverses: just be- 
cause they are stiff-necked, he prays Jehovah to 
go with them. He almost forgets for awhile 



Jehovah's character as lawgiver under the im- 
pression of the proclamation of grace, as was also 
the case with many at the time of the Ueforma- 
tion, and as is still often the case, when there is 
a deficiency of spirituality. But Jehovah, while 
denying the request, offers a rich compensation. 
Instead of the quiet religion of the spirit, which 
cannot yet come, they are to be distinguished by 
a grand religion of miracles (which is a prere- 
quisite of the future religion of the spirit, in no 
sense a contradiction of it). But the greatness 
of this promise is limited by the demands on 
which the theocratic covenant is founded, vers. 
11-26 {vid. the exegesis). — In conclusion it is 
said, " Write thou these words;" for every cove- 
nant with God, especially this one, is a very 
definite thinj;. — Moses' marvellously exalted mood 
on the mountain. The forty days and nights, which 
lire fast-days only because they are feast-days 
(vid. Comra. on Matt. iv.). — Again ten words. The 
law infiniiely simple, but in its very simplicity in- 
finitely profound. — The glorious picture of Moses 
descending from the mount. Comparison of this 
wilhthefirstdescent. The situation ischangediu 
two respects : the people have repented, and Jeho- 
vah has proclaimed His grace (at the first descent 
he may have had, to speak dogmatically, the 
usus primus of the law iu mind; at this descent 
there was a presentiment of the usus tertius; the 
usus secundus he -prohsMy had in roindboth times). 
He did not know that the skin of his face shone. 
The effect of his shining face, ver. 30 sqq. For 
the people this reflection of Moses' intercourse 
with Jehovah seemed almost more puoitive than 
the gloomy expressions of the law. For the 
common people and for rude sensibilities in all 
classes this is still the case: monastic rules 
rather than evangelical joy (oomp. 2 Cor. iii.). 
With such a radiant face should preachers espe- 
cially descend from the pulpit. But how many 
afterwards appear as if they had spoken in a 
state of somnambulism or a factitious ecstasy. 
But with all the faithful the feeling always is, 
"How lovely are the feet," even the feet, still 
more the peaceful splendor on the countenance. 

VI. TTie Erection of the Tahemacle. 
Chaps, xxxv.-xl. 

The erection of the tabernacle pre-supposes 
the restoration of the covenant between Jehovah 
and His people, and therefore the integrity of 
the theocratic religion. This prerequisite is iu 
substance fulfilled at every erection of a house 
of God, But there are splendid temples which 
are in a true sense founded on the decay and 
disfiguration of religion; and the tendency to 
such establishments appears also in our own 
time. — The three parts of the tabernacle have a 
permanent significance: the court is continued 
in the room for catechetical instruction, in bap- 
tism and confirmation ; the holy place is repre- 
sented by the nave and the sprmon; the Holy of 
holies by the mystery of the choir. The mediae- 
val church sought to shut off the choir again, as 
if it were an Old Testament Holy of holies; 
modern Protestantism tends to reduce the choir 
to a mere part of the nave and to abolish church 
disoipliue and the distinction between auditors 
and communicants. — The sacred forms symbo- 



178 



EXODUS, 



lize the legal ordinances of the kingdom of God ; 
the sacred colors symbolize the moods and cha- 
racters which animate that kingdom (blue=: 
fidelity, purple=royal splendor, scarlet^blood 
and devotion, white=purity and righteousness). 
On the constituent parts of the temple, vid. the 
exegesis. As the tabernacle became a temple, 
so ought the temple in the New Testament times 
to become again a simple tabernacle (Amos ix. 
11, 12). — The tabernacle as the original form 
and mother of all true temples, churches, cha- 
pels, and houses of prayer. All golden things 
denote that which is pure, permanent, eternal; 
all silver things, that which is valuable and 
glittering to human view; all brazen things, 
that which is strong and durable. 

1. The Sabbath as the prime requisite of all festi- 
vals, all religious fellowship, all houses of God. 
Without the Sabbath, no church. Ch. xxxv. 1-3. 

2. Voluntariness, especially the voluntary of- 
ferings and co-operation of all, is the basis on 
which the house and service of God are founded. 
Vers. 4^29. 

3. Consecrated art in the service of religion, vers. 
80-35. It is not itself religion. Nor does it 
domineer over religion. But it is also not di- 
vorced from religion, least of all hostile to it. 
Immoral painting, music, poetry: the most odi- 
ous mockery of true art. True art with its 
works, a great gift of God. 

The noble industry of the laborers on the 
house of God, xxxvi. 1-7. "The people bring 
too much," a censure, and yet a praise. 

4. The preparation of the dwelling, vers. 8—38. 
According to the divine idea, the ark was the 
first thing, the dwelling the last. In the human 
execution of it, the dwelling takes precedence. 

5. The ark, xxxvii. 1—9. The staves of the 
ark: the ark is transportable, it is not abso- 
lutely fixed to any place. The cherubim, which 
protect the law, represent the fundamental forms 
of God's sovereign rule (are certainly not repre- 
sentative forms of terrestrial creatures). The 
cherubim hold sway over not only the law, but 
especially also the mercy-seat (the Gospel). 

6. The table, vers. 10-16. A table for hea- 
venly food (certainly not for human works). 

7. The candlestick, vers. 17-24. The spiritual 
flower of earth adorned with the spiritual stars 
of heaven. 

8. The altar of incense, y era. 2h-29. In prayer 
the heart is dissolved, as it were, through sighs, 
renunciations, vows, home-sickness, and tears, 
into a cloud of smoke ascending to God. 

9. The anointing oil, ver. 29. Symbol of the 
Spirit, mild, soft and healing; burning, con- 
suming, refining. Designed for the anointing 
of all the objects in the sanctuary, since every- 
thing is to be consecrated to the Spirit. 

10. The altar of burnt-offering, xxxviii. 1-7. 
The place where the fire of the divine authority 
consumes human offerings is a holy place. But 
it is a wild notion that it signifies the fire of 
hell, or perchance the fires of the Inquisition. 
Rather might we invert the thing, and see even 
in the fire of hell a work of divine compassion ; 
yet we are not to obliterate the distinction : fire 
of the loving, and fire of the judicial, visitation. 

11. The laver, and the mirrors of the women on its 
base, xxxviii. 8. The priests, like the women, 



should present themselves in a worthy manner 
before God; these purified from the dust of 
worldliness, those adorned with a consecration 
which can appear before the eyes of God. 

12. The court, vers. 9-20. The court is larger 
than the sanctuary ; it embraces the whole. But 
fanaticism recognizes only fanum and profanum, 
no intermediate transitional space ; yet it deems 
itself able violently to extend its fanum over all 
space, and conceives that it transforms the court 
itself into a fanum by its market for sacrifices. 

13. The estimation of the expenses of the sanctuary, 
vers. 21-31. Church-property, church-taxes, 
church-accounts, the work of church-architects, 
should be kept away from the control of hierar- 
ehical caprice and hypocritical misuse, and ex- 
amined and consecrated as if before the eyes of 
God. 

14. The priestly garments, xxxix. 1-81. 

15. The completion of the work, and the presenta- 
tion of it, vers. 32-41. The joy over a well- 
finished house of God. The inspiring event of a 
church founded without defects, and at last 
completely erected. Not always are churches 
constructed without defects (falling arches, 
towers out of line, disproportions). With all 
changes of forms the idea of the sanctuary 
should always continue to be the regulating 
principle. Yet the abundance or splendor of the 
symbolic element may imperil the spirituality of 
worship itself. 

16. The erection of the tabernacle, and its mira- 
culous dedication, ch. xl. Three particulars are 
clearly distinguished: u. The erection itself, in 
connection with which the date is significant: 
on the first day of the first month (of the second 
year). The ark again takes precedence in the 
order, and the sacerdotal ornamentation comes 
last. b. The human dedication begins very 
significantly with the jurning of incense; 
then follows the burnt-offering with the sin- 
offering, c. But the completion of the dedica- 
tion proceeds from Jehovah; in symbolic forms 
He conies down over and into the dwelling. 
And this same sign, the pillar of cloud and fire, 
represents the life and movement of the taber- 
nacle, its theocratic dignity and sacredness, 
vers. 36—38. On the other hand, temples aban- 
doned by God and the spirit of worship are the 
most desolate of houses. Thus Christ designated 
the temple, while it was being re-built, as a tem- 
ple going to ruin. Flourishing temples of the 
heart make flourishing temples; and these really 
flourish when in turn they make flourishing 
temples of the heart. 

ADDITIONAL HOMILETICAL HINTS FROM 

STAEKE. 

IVom the Preface to Exodus. 

The use of this book and of its contents is 

described by Dr. Luther, in his Preface to the 

Old Testament, as follows: There are three 

kinds of pupils of the law: (1) Those who hear 

the law and despise it, and lead a profligate life 

without fear. To these the law does not come, 

and they are denoted by the calf- worshippers in 

the wilderness, on whose account Moses broke 

the tables in two, and did not bring the law lo 

them (ch. xxxii. 6, 19). (2) Those who under- 



DOCTRINAL AND HOMILETIC APPENDIX. 



179 



take to fulfil it with their own strength, without 
grace. These are denoted by those who could 
not look on Moses' face when he brought the 
tables the second time (xxxiv. 30). To these 
the law comes, but they cannot bear it ; there- 
fore they put a veil over it, and lead a hypocri- 
tical life with outward works of the law, which 
life, nevertheless, is all made sin by the law 
when the veil is taken away; for the law shows 
that our power is nothing without Christ's grace. 
(3) Those who see Moses clearly without a veil. 
These are those who understand the meaning of 
the law, how it demands impossible things. 
There sin walks in its strength ; there death is 
mighty; there Goliath's spear is like a weaver's 
beam, and his spear's head weighs six hundred 
shekels of iron, so that all the children of Israel 
flee before him, except that David alone, Christ 

our Lord, redeems us from all Here faith 

and love must have the mastery over all laws, 
and hold them all in their power. 

The main goal of this book is, in general, 
Christ, who Is the man about whom it all has to 
do. He is in this book portrayed before our 
eyes by many types, as e. g. by the redemption 
out of Egypt, by the Passover-lamb, by the 
manna, by the rock which gave the water, by 
the tabernacle and its many utensils. For all 
these images were to serve more distinctly to 
image forth the future character and office of 
the promised Redeemer. It is Christ for whose 
sake the Israelites enjoyed so many divine bene- 
fits, were preserved during oppression, led out of 
Egyptian bondage, fed with manna in the wilder- 
ness, and furnished with water from the rock, 
saved from ruin, notwithstanding their idolatry, 
and received back into the covenant; the sanc- 
tuary of God was erected among them, and their 
frequent murmuring and disobedience borne by 
God with great patience and long-suffering. 

(From H. E. Rambach.) In particular, the ob- 
ject of this book is: (1) to exhibit the truth of the 
divine promise of the increase of Abraham's seed, 
in its fulfilment; (2) to promote God's honor, 
which revealed itself in the case of Pharaoh by 
frightful angry judgments, in the case of the 
Israelites, by manifold miracles in their exodus 
from Egypt, in their preservation in the wilder- 
ness, and at the giving of the law: (3) to 
strengthen the faith that God knows how to save 
His church from complete suppression and to 
deliver it from temptation ; (4) to give an ont- 
line of the future experiences of the church in 
this world. For why should God have had the 
bondage and oppression of the Israelites in 
Egypt, their redemption from it, and their being 
led in the wilderness, so particularly described, 
and the tabernacle with its instruments and ves- 
sels even twice described, except in order the 
more distinctly to portray Christ's work of re- 
demption, and the redemption and guidance of 
His church in general, and of a soul in particu- 
lar, out of the spiritual Egypt? For the church 
of the New Testament after Christ's death first 
had rest, and was edified, and multiplied greatly 
(Acts ix. 31), like the Israelites after the death 
of Joseph. Thereby it came into a state of op- 



pression, and had to endure tea persecutions • 
when it had been refined thereby, and cried for 
deliverance, it was delivered in the time of Con- 
stantino the Great, saw its enemies overthrown 
and itself exalted, was refreshed with manna, 
the bread and water of life. But in its prosper- 
ous days it did not long remain pure in its doc- 
trine, lapsed finally even into idolatry and ordi- 
nances of men, till God by the Reformation 
destroyed such idolatry, and the pure doctrine 
and the true divine service was erected as the 

proper sanctuary of God So it is with a soul 

which lives at first in outward rest and peace : but 
if God begins mightily to call it out of the domi- 
nion of sin and of Satan, then Satan begins to 
rage and to oppress more violently. 

Oa i. 11 (from the Hallische Biblische Ges- 
chichte). Egypt had heretofore been «, good 
refuge ; now it became to them a prison ; and 
they at last perceived what their forefathers 
had brought on them in selling Joseph into 
Egypt as a slave: they themselves are there 
made slaves. Those who before had been honored 
as lords are now despised as slaves ; those whom 
one Pharaoh raised up the other sought to op- 
press. They were divided into certain gangs: 
over ten Israelites, as it seems, was put an Is- 
raelitish ofEcer, and over ten such officers an 
Egyptian task-master. The Israelitish officer 
had to control his gang, keep them at work, 
daily secure the required amount of work and 
tale of bricks, and deliver it over with the reck- 
oning to the Egyptian task-master, or be re 
sponsible for it (chap. v. 14). At first they 
must have had to pay heavy taxes in mo- 
ney, and after they were impoverished, they 
had to do servile labor. — Pithom* was the name 
of a monstrous serpent which came forth out of 
the marshy morass of the Nile, and wrought 
great destruction of men and beasts. This city 
(Raemses) is said to be the same as was after- 
wards called, and known in ancient geography, 
as Pelusium, According to some, the new Egyp- 
tian king was named Raemses, and gave his name 
to the city. Whether this city was newly built, 
or enlarged, or only fortified, cannot certainly 
be said. The taxes and the servile labor were 
employed in so preparing the two cities that in 
case of need there might be kept in them the 
treasures of the kingdom, the armory, and a 
strong garrison. And because both cities lay 
in the land of Goshen where the Israelites dwelt, 
these two strongholds were built against the 
Israelites themselves, in order that they might 
be the better kept under and retained in the 
land. It was praiseworthy indeed in the peo- 
ple, that, whereas they were under so great and 
almost intolerable oppression, and at the same 
time were almost superior to the Egyptians in 
number, and hence might have risen up in arms 
and freed themselves, or at least have gone 
away armed, they did no such thing, but under 
the government of God, who had destined for 
them an extraordinary redemption, calmly en- 
dured all their trouble. 



* [Spelled Fithon in Luther's Bible, and apparently con- 
founded with the classical Pj/^Aon.— Te.J 



THE END. 



LEVITICUS: 



OE, 



THE THIRD BOOK OF MOSES. 



BY 



FREDERIC GARDINER, D.D., 

PKOFESSOE OP THE LITERATURE AND INTERPRETATION OP THE OLD TESATMENT 
IN THE BERKELEY DIVINITY SCHOOL, MIDDLETOWN, CONN. 



IN •WHICH IS INCORPORATED 

A TEANSLATION OF THE GEEATER PART OF THE GERMAN 
COMMENTARY ON LEVITICUS, 

BY 

JOHN PETER LANGE, D. D., 

PROFESSOR OP THEOLOGY IN THE UNIVERSITY OP BONN. 



NEW YOEK: 
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS, 

743-745 BROADWAY. 



COPIEIGHT, 1876. 

Bt SOEIBNEB, ABMSTEONG & CO. 



LEVITICUS. 



THE THIRD BOOK OF MOSES. 

( K1p*5 ' ^ ^utrtxov ; Leviticus. ) 



" Thi Book of the Sacerdotal Theocracy, or of the Priesthood of Israel, to set forth its typical HollnesB.* 
" The religious observances by which God's people might be made holy, and kept holy."— Lanqe. 



INTRODUCTION. 

i 1. NAME, CONNECTION, OBJECT, AND AUTHOESHIP. 

The writings of Moses have reached us in a five- fold division, the several parts of which 
have come to be commonly known by the names given to them in the Septuagint and Vul- 
gate. In the Hebrew the whole Pentateuch is divided, as one book, into sections [Paraghi- 
yoth) for reading in the synagogues on each Sabbath of the year, and the several books are 
called by the first word of the first section contained in them. Thus the present book is 
Klpjl = and he called; it is also called by the Eabbins in the Talmud D'jrisn B^IB ^ Law 
of the Priests, and ^i^^lj? n^'in 130 =; Booi of the Law of offerings. In the Septuagint and 
Vulgate this central book of the Pentateuch is called AevtnKiv [pip'Kiov) and Leoiticus (liber) 
because it has to do with the duties of the priests, the sons of Levi. The Levites, as distin- 
guished from the priesta, are mentioned but once, and that incidentally, in the whole book 
(xxv. 32, 33). 

As appears from the Hebrew name, the connection of this book with the one immedi- 
ately preceding is very close. The tabernacle had now been set up, and its sacred furniture 
arranged ; the book of Exodus closes with the mention of the cloud that covered it, and the 
Glory of the Lord with which it was filled. Hitherto the Lord had spoken from the cloud 
on Sinai ; now His presence was manifested in the tabernacle from which henceforth He 
made known His will. It is just at this point that Leviticus is divided from Exodus. The 
same Lord still speaks to the same people through the same mediator ; but He had before 
spoken from the heights of Sinai, while now He speaks from the sacred tabernacle pitched 
among His people. At the close Leviticus is also closely connected with, and yet distinctly 
separated from, the book of Numbers. It embraces substantially the remaining legislation 
given in the neighborhood of Sinai, while Numbers opens with the military census and other 
matters preparatory to the march of the Israelites in the second year of the Exodus. Yet on 
the eve of that march a number of additional commands are given in Numbers intimately 
associating the two books together. 

The whole period between the setting up of the tabernacle (Ex. xl. 17) and the final 
departure from Mt. Sinai (Num. x.ll) was but one month and twenty days. Much of this 
was occupied by the events recorded in the earlier chapters of Numbers, especially the offer- 
ings of the princes on twelve days (Num. vii.) which must have almost immediately followed 
the consecration of the priesta and the tabernacle (Num. vii- 1 with Lev. viii. 10, 11), and the 
celebration of the second Passover (ix. 1-5) occupying seven days, and begun on the four- 
teenth day of the first month. All the events of Leviticus must therefore be included within 
less than the space of one month. 



INTRODUCTION TO LEVITICUS. 



The object of the Book is apparent from its contents and the circumstances under which 
it was given, especially when considered in connection with the references to it in the New 
Testament. Jehovah, having now established the manifestation of His presence among His 
people, directs them how to approach Him, Primarily, this has reference, of course, to the 
then existing people, under their then existing circumstances ; but as ages rolled away, and 
the people were educated to higher spiritual capacity, the spiritual meaning of these direc- 
tions was more and more set forth by the prophets ; until at last, when the true Sacrifice for 
sin had come, the typical and preparatory character of these arrangements was fully declared 
Lange (Hom. in Lev. General) says " Leviticus appears to be the most peculiarly Old Tes- 
tament in its character of all the Old Testament books, since Christ has entirely removed all 
outward sacrifices. It may certainly be rightly said that the law of sacrifice, or the ceremo- 
nial law has been abrogated by Christianity. But if the law in general, in its outward his- 
torical and literal form has been abrogated, on the other hand, in its spiritual sense, it has 
been fulfilled (Gal. ii. ; Eom. iii. ; Matt, v.) ; and so it must also be said in regard to the law 
of sacrifices. The sacrificial law in its idea has only been fully realized in Christianity ;— in 
its principle fulfilled, realized, in Christ, to be realized from this as a basis, continually in the 
life of Christians." In the Epistle to the Hebrews the character of the sacrificial system in 
general, and particularly of that part of it contained in Leviticus, is clearly set forth as at 
once imperfect and transitory in itself, and yet typical of, and preparatory for, " the good 
things to come." A flood of light is indeed thrown back from the anti-type upon the type, 
and for this reason the Old Testament is always to be studied in connection with the New; 
yet on the other hand, the converse is also true, and Leviticus has still a most important 
purpose for the Christian Church in that it sets forth, albeit ia type and shadow, the will of 
an unchangeable God in regard to all who would draw nigh to Him. Much of the New 
Testament, and especially of the Epistle to the Hebrews, can only be fully understood 
through a knowledge of Leviticus. To this general object of the book may he added the 
special purposes, already necessarily involved, of preserving the Israelites alike from idolatry 
1 y the multiform peculiarity of their ritual, and of saving them from indolence in their wor- 
ship by the exacting character of the ceremonial. The Christian Fathers, as Eusebius, SS, 
Augustine, Leo, Cyril, as well as Origen and many others, speak of the book as setting 
forth in types and shadows the sacrifice of Christ ; while many of them also, as Teetullian, 
HS. Clement, Jerome, Chrysostom, and others, speak of the inferior purpose just men- 
tioned. 

Of the authorship of this book there is little need to speak, because there is really no 
room for doubt. This is not the place to combat the opinions of those critics who, like Ki- 
I.ISCH, hold the whole Pentateuch to have been a very late compilation from fragments of 
various dates, and the Mosaic system to have been one of gradual human development. The 
portions assigned by Knobel to another author than the "Elohist" are x. 16-20; xvii.-ix.f 
xxiii , part of ver. 2 and ver. 3, vers. 18, 19, 22, 29-44; xxiv. 10-23 ; xxv. 18-22 ; and xxvi.j 
but the reasons given " are too transparently unsatisfactory to need serious discussion." 
Generally, it may be said that even those critics who question most earnestly the Mosaic 
authorship of some other portions of the Pentateuch are agreed that Leviticus must have 
proceeded substantially from Moses. There is really no scope in this book for the Jehovistie 
and Elohistic controversy ; for although Knobel delights to point out the distinct portions 
by each writer, yet the name D'il /K never occurs in Lev. absolutely, but only with a pos- 
sessive pronoun marking the Deity as peculiarly Israel's God. (It is however once used, 
xix. 4, for false gods). The book contains every possible mark of contemporaneous author- 
ship, and there are constant indications of its having been written during the life in the 
wilderness. The words used for the sanctuary are either ]3pa (4 times) or f^)0 ^i^<^ (36 
times) and never any term implying a more permanent structure. For the dwellings of the 
people, n'a in the sense of a house, is never used except in reference to the future habitation 
of the promised land, which is the more striking because it occurs thirty-seven times in this 
sense, and in all of them with express reference to the future, except xxvii. 14,15, where this 
reference is implied; Sui. ]i;>a, and T^}: do not occur at all ; Srix tent, occurs once, while the 



J 2. UNITY AND CONTENTS OP LEVITICUS. 



indefinite word 3B''lO is found eight times ; nsp, which is neither house nor tent, but booth, 
occurs four times in the commands connected with the observance of the feast of tabernacles, 
and with especial reference to Israel's having dwelt in booths at their first coming out from 
Egypt (xxiii. 43). The use of all these terms is thus exactly suited to the wilderness period, 
but not to any other. The use of S'H for the feminine, so frequently changed in the Sama- 
ritan to '''H, and so pointed by the Masorets ; the use of ^^J^? for the people, so common in 
Ex., Lev., Num., and Josh., and so infrequent elsewhere ; the usual designation of them as 
the children of Israel, a phrase so largely exchanged for the simple Isrotel in later writers ; 
and many other marks point to the earliest period of Hebrew literature as the time of the 
composition of this book. The book itself repeatedly claims to record the laws which were 
given to Moses in Mount Sinai, or in the wilderness of Sinai (vii. 38 ; xxv. 1 ; xxvi 46 ; xxvii. 
34), and in one instance (xvi. 1), the time is sharply defined as after the death of Aaron's 
two sons, and sometimes (xxi. 24 ; xxiii. 44) the immediate publication of the laws is men- 
tioned. There are frequent references to the time " When ye be come into the land of Ca- 
naan" as yet in the future (xiv. 34; xix. 23; xxiii. 10) ; and laws are given for use in the 
wilderness, as e. g., the slaughter of all animals intended for food at the door of the tabernacle 
as sacrifices (xvii. 1-6), which would have been impossible to observe when the life in the 
camp was exchanged for that in the scattered cities of Canaan, and which was- actually abro- 
gated on the eve of the entrance into the promised land (Deut. xii. 15, 20-22)v In this abro- 
gation no mention is made of the previous law, but its existence is implied, and the change 
is based on the distance of their future homes. There is frequent reference in the laws to the 
" camp " (iv. 12, 21 ; vi. 11 ; xiii. 46 ; xiv. 3, 8 ; xvi. 26, 27, 28), so thiat in after times it 
became necessary to adopt as a rule of interpretation that this should' always be understood 
in the law of the city in which the sanctuary stood. Throughout the book Aaron appears as 
the only high-priest (although this term is never used) and provision is repeatedly made for 
his son, who should be anointed, and should minister in his stead ; and Aaron's sons appear 
as the only priests. The Levites have not yet been appointed, nor are they ever mentioned 
except in one passage in reference to their cities in the future promised land (xxv. 32, 33). 
Not to dwell further upon particulars, it may be said in a word that we have here, and here 
only, the full sacrificial and priestly system which is recognized as existing in the two fol- 
lowing books of the Pentateuch, and all subsequent Hebrew literature. For an excellent 
summary of the evidence, see Warrington's "When was the Pentateuch written?" (London: 
Christian Evidence Oom. of Sac. P. O. K ). 

The only passage presenting any real difficulty in regard to the date of the book is xviii. 
28, "That the land spue not you out also, when ye defile it, as it spued out the nations that 
were before you." For the true sense of these words, see the commentary; buc even taking 
it as it stands in the A. V., and supposing the whole exhortation, vers. 24-30, to have been 
added by divine direction when Moses made his final revision of the work on the plains of 
Moab, we can easily understand the language. Already, the conquest of the trans- Jordanic 
region was accomplished, and that of the rest of the land was to be immediately entered upon 
with the clearest promise of success. God warns the people through Moses, when all shall 
be done, not to follow in the ways of the Canaanites, lest they also themselves suffer as their 
predecessors had sufl'ered. It is simply a case of the Lord's speaking from the stand-point 
of an accomplished work, while the work was in progress, and assuredly soon to be com- 
pleted. It is to be noted that in the book itself the claim to Mosaic authorship is distinctly 
made in the last verse of chap, xxvi., and again of the appendix, chap, xxvii. (comp. Num. 
xxxvi. 13). 

\ 2. UNITY AND CONTENTS OF LEVITICtTS. 

The Book of Leviticus is marked on the surface with these elements of unity : it is all 
centred in the newly-erected tabernacle ; and only a few weeks passed away between its be- 
ginning and its close. There is necessarily much variety in so considerable a collection of 
laws, and something of historical narrative in connection with the immediate application of 
those laws ; but the main purpose is everywhere apparent and controlling — the arrangements 



INTRODUCTION TO LEVITICOS. 



whereby a sinful people may approach, and remain in permanent communion with a holy 
God. This will better appear in the following table of contents. The arrangement of the 
book is as systematic as the nature of its contents allowed. In regard to one or two alleged 
instances of repetition (xi. 39, 40 compared with xxii. 8, and xix. 9 with xxiii. 22) it is suffi- 
cient to say that they were intentional (see the commentary) ; and in regard to several 
chapters supposed to be placed out of their natural connection, (as e. g., chaps, xii. and xv.,) 
it simply does not appear that the thread of connection in the mind of Moses was the same 
as in that of the critic. In fact, in the instances alleged, the great Legislator seems to have 
taken especial pains to break that connection which is now spoken of as the natural one, and 
has thus, for important reasons, separated the purification after child-birth from all other 
purifications which might otherwise have seemed to be of the same character. Such points 
will be noticed in detail in the commentary. Nevertheless, it is to be remembered that Le- 
viticus was given at Sinai in view of an immediate and direct march to Canaan, which should 
have culminated in the possession of the promised land. When this had been prevented in 
consequence of the sin of the people, a long time — above thirty-eight years — passed away 
before the encampment on the plains of Moab. During this period the law was largely in 
abeyance, as is shown by the fact that its most imperative requirement, circumcision, was 
entirely omitted to the close (Josh. v. 5-8). After this long interval, it is not unreasonable 
to suppose that the writings of Moses would have been revised before his death, and such 
clauses and exhortations added as the changed circumstances might require. These passages, 
however, if really written at that time, so far from being in any degree incongruous with the 
original work, do but fill out and emphasize its teachings. 

The contents of Leviticus are arranged in the following table in such a way as to show 
something of the connection of its parts. 

BOOK I.— Of approach to Qod. (Chaps. I. — XVI.). 
FiEST Paet. (i.^vii.) Laws of Sacrifice. 

i 1. General rules for the Sacrifices, (i. — vi. 7). 

A. Burnt offerings, i. 

B. Oblations (Meat offerings), ii. 

C. Peace offerings, iii. 

D. Sin offerings, iv. — v. 13. 

E Trespass offerings, v. 14 — ^vi. 7. 

1 2. Special instructions chiefly for the Priests, vi. 8 — vii. 38. 

A. For Burnt offerings, vi. 8-13. 

B. " Oblations (Meat offerings), vi. 14r-28. 

C. " Sin offerings, vi. 24-30. 

D. " Trespass offerings, vii. 1-6. 

E " the Priests' portion of the above, vii. 7-10. 
P. " Peace offerings in their variety, vii. 11-21. 
G. " the Fat and the Blood, vii. 22-27. 
H. " the priests' portion of peace offerings, vii. 28-36. 
Conclusion of this Section, vii. 37, 38. 

Second Part. Historical, (viii.— x.). 
g 1. The Consecration of the Priests, viii. 

2 2. Entrance of Aaron and his sons on their office, ix. 
I 3. The sin and punishment of Nadab and Abihu. x. 



J 8. THE RELATION OF THE LBVITICAL CODE TO HEATHEN USAGES. 5 

Thied Paet. The Laws of Purity, (xi.— xv.). 
g 1. Laws of clean and unclean food. xi. 
? 2. Laws of purification after child-birth, xii. 
I 3, Laws concerning Leprosy, (xiii., xiv.). 

A. Examination and its result, xiii. 1-46. 

B. Leprosy in clothing and leather, xiii. 47-59. 

C. Cleansing and restoration of a Leper, xiv. 1-32. 

D. Leprosy in a house, xiv. 33-53. 
B. Conclusion, xiv. 54-57. 

§ 4. Sexual impurities and cleansings. xv. 

FouETH Paet. The Day of Atonement, xvi. 

BOOK II. — Of continuance In communion with God. (Chaps. XVII. — ZZVI.), 

|. FiEST Paet. Holiness on the part of the people, (xvii. — xx.). 

Iv' 2 1. Holiness in regard to Food. xvii. 

: ■ i 2. Holiness of the Marriage relation, xviii. 

§ 3. Holiness of Conduct towards God and man. xix. 

' 4. Punishment for Unholiness. xx. 

Second Paet. Holiness on the part of the Priests, and holiness of the 
Offerings, xxi., xxii. 

Thied Paet. Sanctification of Feasts, (xxiii. — xxv.). 
§ 1. Of the Sabbaths and Annual Feasts, xxiii. 
i 2. Of the Holy lamps and Shew-bread. xxiv. 1-9. 
2 3. Historical. The punishment of a Blasphemer, xxiv. 10-23. 
2 4. Of the Sabbatical and Jubilee years, xxv. 

FoTJETH Paet. Conclusion. Promises and Threats, xxvi. 
Appendix, Of vows, xxxvii. 

2 3. THE EELATION OF THE LEVITICAL CODE TO HEATHEN USAGES. 

Widely divergent views have been held by different writers upon this subject. Spencee 
{De legibus Hebrceorum) was disposed to find an Egyptian origin for almost every Mosaic in- 
stitution. Babhe [Symbolik des Mosaisehen Oultus) has sought to disprove all connection 
between them. The d, priori probability seems well expressed by Maesham {in Can. chron. 
^ypf; P- 154, ed. Leips.) as quoted by Eosenmuellee {Pre/, in Lev., p. 5, note). " We 
know from Scripture that the Hebrews were for a long time inhabitants of Egypt ; and we 
may suspect, not without reason, that they did not wholly cast off Egyptian usages, but 
rather that some traces of Egyptian habit remained. Many laws of Moses are from ancient 
customs. Whatever hindered the cultus of the true Deity, he strictly forbade. Moses abro- 
gated most of the Egyptian rites, some he changed, some he held as indifferent, some he per- 
mitted, and even commanded." Yet this legislation by its many additions and omissions, 
and the general remoulding of all that remained became, as Eosenmtjellee also remarks, 
peculiarly and distinctively Hebrew, adapted to their needs, and sharply separating them 
from all other people. 



INTRODUCTION TO LEVITICUS. 



It can scarcely be necessary to speak of what the Mosaic law taught in common with 
the customs of all people at this period of the world's history. The aim of the law was to 
elevate the Israelites to a higher and better standard, but gently, and as they were able to 
bear it. Certain essential laws were given, and these were insisted upon absolutely and with 
every varied form of command which could add to the emphasis. The unity of God, and 
His omnipotence, were taught with a distinctness which was fast fading out from the world's 
recollection, and which we scarcely find elsewhere at this period, except in the book of Job, 
which may itself have been modified in Mosaic hands. So, too, the necessity of outward sacra- 
mental observances for the whole people, whereby communion with God through His Church 
should be maintained, were strongly insisted upon, as in circumcision and the Passover, and 
other sacrifices. But when we come to consider the conduct of the ordinary life, we find the 
universally received customs of the times not abrogated, but only restrained and checked 
according to the capacity of the people. All these checks and restraints were in the direction 
of, and looking towards, the higher standard of the morality of the Gospel, as may be seen in 
the law of revenge, where unlimited vengeance was restricted to a return simply equal to the 
injury received; in the laws of marriage, which imposed many restrictions on the freedom 
of divorce and of polygamy ; in the laws of slavery, which so greatly mitigated the hardships 
of that condition. But in these, as in many other matters, their Heavenly Father deaK 
tenderly with His people, and "for the hardness of their hearts" suffered many things which 
were yet contrary to His will. 

The same general principles apply to the retention among them of very much of Egyp- 
tian custom and law. It is more important to speak of these because the Israelites lived so 
long and in such close contact with the Egyptians from the very time of their beginning to 
multiply into a nation until the eve of the promulgation of the Sinaitic legislation. Par- 
ticular points in which this legislation was adapted to the already acquired habits and ideas 
of the people, will be noticed in the commentary as occasion requires. It is only necessary 
here to point out on the one hand how apparent laeuncB in the Mosaic teaching may thus be 
explained, and on the other, how largely the Egyptian culius itself had already been modified, 
in all probability, by the influence of the fathers of the Jewish people. By consideration of 
the former it is seen, e. g., why so little should have been said in the Mosaic writings of 
immortality and the future life. This doctrine was deeply engraven in the Egyptian mind 
and interwoven as a fundamental principle with their whole theology and worship. It passed 
on to the Israelites as one of those elementary truths so universally received that it needed 
not to be dwelt upon. The latter is necessarily involved in more obscurity; but when we 
consider the terms on which Abraham was received by the monarch of Egypt ; the position 
occupied at a later date by Jacob ; the rank of Joseph, and his intermarriage with the high- 
priestly family ; and remember at the same time that the priesthood of Egypt was still in 
possession of a higher and purer secret theology than was communicated to the people— we 
see how Israel could have accepted from the land of the Pharaohs an extent of customs, (to 
be purified, modified, and toned by their own Sinaitic legislation) which it might have been 
dangerous to receive from any other people. Yet plainly, whatever of detail may have been 
adopted from Egyptian sources, it was so connected and correlated in the Mosaic legislation 
that the whole spirit of the two systems became totally unlike. 

? 4. LITERATUEB. 

The ancient versions are of great value in the interpretation of the technical language 
of the law. The Samaritan text and version (which however sometimes betray a want c£ 
familiarity in detail with the ritual as practised at Jerusalem) often give valuable readings; 
so also the Septuagint, the Chaldee Targums, and of later date, the Syriac and the Vulgate. 

The New Testament, especially the Epistle to the Hebrews, supplies to a large extent an 
inspired commentary upon Leviticus. The various treatises of Philo, and the antiquities or 
Josephus, give also fully the ancient explanations of many single passages and views oi 
larger sections. 

Since their time the literature of Leviticus is voluminous, consisting of commentaries, 



J 4. LITERATURE. 



of special treatises upon the subjects with which it is occupied, and of archaeological investi- 
gations illustrating it. Of special treatises sufficient mention will be made in connection 
with the subjects to which they relate, and it is unnecessary here to particularize works of 
arohseology. Of commentaries the following are those which have beea chiefly used in the 
preparation of the present work : Okigen : iSeleeta in Lev and Horn, in L' v. Theodoret, 
Qmst. in Lev. Augustine, Qucest. in Lev. Biblia Max. versionum, containing the annota- 
tions of Nicolas de Lyea, Tikinus, Mekochius, and Estius, Paris, 1660. Calvin, 
in PentcUeuahum. Critici Sacri, London, 1660. PoLl, Synopsis, London, 1689. Michaelis, 
Bibl. Hebr., Halle, 1720. Calmet, Wircesbur^ii, 1789. Patrick, London, 1842, and freq. 
RosENMUELLEE, Leipsic, 1824. Of more recent date, Knobel (of especial value), Leipsic, 
1858. BooTHROYD, Bibl. Hebr., Pontefract (no date). Barrett's Synopsis of Criticisms. 
London, 1847. Kalisch, Leviticus, London, 1872. Otto von Gerlach on the Pentateuch, 
translated by Downing, London, 1860. Wordsworth, London, 1865. Keil and Db- 
litzsch on the Pentateuch; (Keil), translated by Martin, Edinburgh, 1866. Murphy 
on LeuitiaiM, Am. Ed., Andover, 1872. Clark, in the Speaker's Commentary, New York, 
1872. Girdlestone, Synonyms of the Old Testament, London, 1871. To which must be 
added, as containing much of commentary on large portions of this book, Baehr, SymboUk 
del Mosaischen Cultus, Heidelberg, 1837-39, 2te Aufage, Erster Band, Heidelberg, 1874. 
OuTRAM on Sacrifices, translated by Allen, London, 1817. Hengstenberg, Die Op/er 
des heil. Schrift, Berlin, 1839. Kurtz on Sacrifice, Mitau, 1864. Hermann Schultz, 
AUtestamentliohe Theologie, Frankfurt a M.. 1869, 2 vols. GEhlee, Iheologie des Alien Testa- 
ments, 2 vols., Tubingen, 1873-74 (a translation is in the press of T. & T. Clark). Of Langb's 
own commentary (1874) as much as possible, and it is believed everything of importance, has 
been introduced into this work, which was already well advanced before its publication. Such 
portions are always distinctly marked. In several of the chapters his commentary is given 
in full; in others, nearly so. 



PRELIMINAET NOTE ON THE LEVITICAL SACRIFICES. 



PRELIMIMRY NOTE ON THE LEVITICAL SACRIFICES. 



Leviticus properly opens with the law of sacrifice, because this was the centre and basis 
of the Divinp service in the newly-erected tabernacle. But since sacrifices have to do with 
the relations of man to God, they can only satisfactorily be considered in connection with 
the established facts of those relations. Of these facts three are fundamental : the original 
condition of man in a state of holiness and of communion with God ; the fall, by which he 
became sinful, and thus alienated from God ; and the promise, given at the very moment of 
man's passing from the one state to the other. The promise was that in the future the wo- 
man's Seed should bruise the serpent's head — that in the long straggle between man and the 
power of evil, one born of woman should obtain the final victory. This promise was ever 
cherished by the devout in all the following ages as the anchor of their hope, audits realiza- 
tion, as seen at the birth of Cain and of Noah, was continually looked for. The expectation 
of a Deliverer, Redeemer, Messiah, became the common heritage of humanity, although as 
time rolled away, it tended to become faint and obscure. Therefore there came the call in 
Abraham of a peculiar people, in whom this hope should not only be kept -alive, but, as far 
as possible, saved from distortion and misconception. It was distinctly the blessing of Abra- 
ham's call, the birthright renewed to his son and grandson, and the reason for the choice and 
the care of a peculiar people. 

From the circumstances under which this promise was given, and the way in which it is 
constantly treated in Revelation, it is plain that the restoration of man to fall communion 
with God could only be brought about by the restoration of man's holiness ; it was only in 
obedience to the Divine will that man could obtain at-one-ment with his Maker. This might 
seem to be sufficiently plain as a truth of natural religion, but it was also abundantly taught 
in history and in Scripture. Not only was it shown by the great judgments upon transgres- 
sion in the deluge, in Babel, in the overthrow of Sodom, etc., but constantly the relative and 
partial attainment of holiness, as in the case of Enoch, Noah, and others, was made the 
ground of a relatively larger bestowal of the Divine favor. Abraham's acceptance was ex- 
pressly grounded upon his faith — necessarily including those works without which faith is 
dead— and so with the other heroes recounted in the eleventh chapter of Hebrews. Later, 
Moses in his parting exhortations in Deuteronomy, constantly and strongly urges the neces- 
sity of a loving obedience springing from the heart, and this is more and more fully unfolded 
by the prophets from Samuel down, as the people were able to bear it. 

Meantime from the first, in the case of Cain and Abel, and probably still earlier, and 
then among all nations as they arose, sacrifices were resorted to as a means of approach to 
God. From their universality, it is plain that they were looked upon as in some way helping 
to bring about that restoration of communion with God which should have been reached by 
a perfect holiness ; but since man was conscious he did not possess this holiness, sacrifices 
were resorted to. As they never could have been offered by a sinless being, they necessarily 
involve confession of sin. Whether sacrifice in its origin was a Divine institution, or whether 
it sprang from a human consciousness of its propriety, is here immaterial. Lange takes the 
latter view. It speedily received the Divine sanction and command. Theoretically the sa- 
crifice could have had no intrinsic value for the forgiveness of sin. The author of the Epistle 
to the Hebrews (ix. 13 ; x. 4) has abundantly shown that while sacrifices might have in 
themselves a certain absolute value for purposes of ceremonial purification, there was yet no 

16 



10 LEVITICUS. 

congruity or correlation between the blood of bulls and goats and the removal of human sin. 
Hence, theoretically also, sacrifices, while they received the Divine approbation, must have 
been a temporary institution, in some way useful to man for the time being, but looking for- 
ward to the true atonement by the victory of the woman's Seed over evil. Thus sacrifices 
are in their very nature typical ; having little force in themselves, and yet appointed for the 
accomplishment of a result which can only be truly attained in the fulfilment of the primeval 
promise. How far this true nature of sacrifices may have been more or less dimly perceived 
by man from the outset, it is not necessary here to inquire. It is obvious that from this point 
of view the intrinsic value of the sacrifices was entirely a secondary matter ; their whole 
efficacy resulted jfrom the Divine appointment or approbation of them. 

The tendency of man apart from Revelation to corruption in his ideas of God and of the 
means of approaching Him is nowhere more marked than in regard to sacrifice. The gods 
of the heathen were, for the most part, deifications of nature or her powers ; they represented 
natural forces, and instead of originating are themselves governed by natural laws. This is 
true, whether their creed were polytheistic, as that of the Greeks and Romans, or pantheistic^ 
as that of Buddhism. In Hebrew law, on the other hand, God appears " as the Creator and 
omnipotent Ruler of the universe, a personal Lord of an impersonal world, totally distinct 
from it in essence, and absolutely swaying it according to His will; but also the merciful 
Father of mankind." "Therefore the sacrifices of the Hebrews have a moral or MM, 
those of other nations a purely cosmical or physical character ; the former tend to work upon 
mind and soul, the latter upon fears and interests ; the one strives to elevate the offerer to 
the sanctity of God, the other to lower the gods to the narrowness and selfishness of man." 
Kalisch. Moreover, among the heathen, God was regarded as alienated, and to be propi- 
tiated in such ways as man could devise ; sacrifices were considered as having a certain satis- 
fying power in themselves, as in some sort a quid pro quo, and as an opus operafum, inde- 
pendent of the moral life of the offerer. Hence as the occasion rose in importance, the value 
of the sacrifice was increased even to the extent of sometimes using human victims. Among 
the Israelites, sacrifices were known to be of God's own appointment as a means of approach 
to Him. They had a shadow, indeed, of the heathen character, as offering actual compensa- 
tions for certain offences against the theocratic stat«, but this was very secondary. Their 
main object was to bridge over the gulf between sinful man and a holy God. Although the 
law of sacrifices necessarily stands by itself, yet the same Legislator everywhere insists upon 
the necessity of a loving obedience to God. Hence, however costly sacrifices might be allowed, 
and even encouraged as Free-will, and Peace, and Thank-offerings, and more numerous vic- 
tims were required at the festivals and on other occasions for burnt-offerings, the Sin-offering 
must (except in certain specially defined cases) be of the commonest and cheapest of the 
domestic animals, and even this always, as nearly as might be, of a uniform value. There 
was no gradation in the value of the offering in proportion to the heinousness of the offence; 
the atonement for all sins, whatever the degree of their gravity, was the same. Even the 
morning and evening sacrifice for the whole people which, although not strictly a sin-offering, 
yet had a somewhat propitiatory character, was still the single lamb. By this the typical 
nature of sacrifice as a temporary and, in itself, ineffectual means, was strongly expressed. 

That the ancients had the idea of sin as a moral offence against God, has indeed been 
called in question ; but seems too certain, at least among the Egyptians, the Hindoos, and 
the Israelites, to require proof. It is abundantly expressed in the book of Job. It may be 
well, however, to point out some of the heads of the evidence that sacrifice was regarded as a 
propitiation for such sin, i. e., as a means for obtaining the Divine pardon for its guilt. Pro- 
minent in this evidence is the fact just mentioned, that there was no proportion between the 
offence and the value of the sacrifice ; since the idea of compensation was thus excluded, it 
remains that what was sought for was forgiveness. Calvin (in Lev. i.) justly remarks that 
the idea of reconciliation with God was connected under the old dispensation with sacrifice 
after a sacramental fashion as with baptism now. Historically, this idea of sacrifice as a 
means of obtaining forgiveness is clearly brought out in the sacrifices of Job, both for his 
children in the time of his prosperity (Job i. 5), and for his friends after his affliction (xliL 



PRELIMINAEY NOTE ON THE LEVITICAL SACRIFICES. 11 

8). Tholuck, following Scholl, has shown (Diss. II., App. Ep. Hebr.) that the idea of 
Buch propitiation was prevalent throughout all antiquity ; that clean animals were changed 
in their stoiiw on the express ground of their being " a sin-offering," ''an atonement," so 
that the parts of them not consumed upon the altar might be eaten only by the priests, and 
their remains must be burned, or else the whole burned, without the camp (Ex. xxix. 14 ; 
Lev. iv. li; 12, 21 ; vi. 30 ; xvi. 27, 28, etc.) ; that the idea is distinctly brought out in Lev. 
xvii. 11, and in parallel passages. " The life of the flesh is in the blood : and I have given it 
to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls;'' that in the case of a murder by 
unknown hands (Deut. xxi. 9) the guilt of the crime must rest upon the whole neighborhood 
until the people had symbolically transferred that guilt to a victim, and this had been 
offered in sacrifice ; and finally, that the ritual of the day of atonement necessarily involves 
this idea. (See on chap, xvi.) " The notion of internal atonement .... formed a distinctive 
feature of the theology of the Pentateuch." Kalisch, I. p. 161. 

On passing from these more general considerations to the particular system of the Levi- 
tical sacrifices, it needs to be constantly borne in mind that these, far from being a new 
institution, were in fact a special arrangement and systematizing of one of the most ancient 
institutions known to man. The change from the one to the other was strictly parallel to 
the course of divine operations in nature. The earlier is ever the more general and compre- 
hensive ; the later the more specialized both in structure and functions. At the same time 
the law was not merely an evolution, a normal development of Divine teaching previously 
received, but it was distinctly " added because of transgressions until the promised seed 
should come." We must therefore be prepared to find in it especial safeguards for the 
chosen people against those misconceptions which became common among the heathen, and 
also a constant relation to its final cause and its terminus when " the Seed should come." 

It will help materially to a clear idea of the Mosaic sacrificial system if we examine the 
various words used for sacrifice before and under the law, having regard also to the subse- 
quent usage of the same words and to their various translations in the ancient versions. 

The earliest word that occurs is also the most general in its original sense, though under 
the law it acquires a strictly technical signification : nnJD, given by the lexicographers as 
from a root not used, n3n=nJ0==fo distribute, to deliver, and hence to make a present of, to 
give. IntheLXX.it is' translated before the law only by the words d&pov (Gen. iv. 4; 
xxxii. 13, 18, 20, 21, etc.) and Bvaia (Gen. iv. 3, 5 only) ; in the law, where it occurs very fre- 
quently, only by evaia or by the combination iapov Bvaia, and this is the case also in Ezekiel 
(although twice. Lev. ii. 13; Num. xviii. 9, the form is evalaa,ia), except in the single in- 
stanceoice^idaXii, Lev. ix. 4. After the books of the law both these translations are fre- 
quently employed, and also ^po<,<l>opi once (Ps. xxxix. 9), f^'o^ three times, and frequently 
the Hebrew word is simply expressed in Greek letters i^amd. The Vulg. translates by mu- 
nus, mmusculum, ablatio, oblatio sacrificii, and sacrificium ,■ but in the law ablatio and sacri- 
fldum are the terms commonly employed. In the A. V. meat-affering, or simply offering, is 
the only translation in Ex., Lev., Num. and Ezek.; \,vit present, gift, sa,crifice and oblatwn 
are used elsewhere as well as these, usually according to the sense implied by the context. 
The word is used outside of the law in the general sense of a propitiatory gift or tribute to 
any one, and hence of such a gift to God, or sacrifice in its most general sense. It is used 
of the offerings of both Cain and Abel, the one unbloody, the other bloody. In the prophets 
it is used as a word for sacrifice in general. It is used frequently in the historical books of 
gifts or tribute from man to man as from Jacob to Esau, to Joseph in Egypt, of the Moab- 
ites and Syrians to David, and distinctly of tribute, 2 Kings xvii. 3, 4, etc. In the law (Ex., 
Lev., Num., to which must be added Ezek.) it has a strictly defined technical signification 
and is applied only to the oblation (A. V. meat-offering) except in Num. v where it is used 
(six times) of the unbloody jealousy-offering of barley. It is always therefore in the law a 
bloodless offering, and being nearly always an accompaniment of a bloody offering may be 
regarded in its original sense of a gift to God, offered along with a sacrifice more strictly so 
called. In the few instances in which it stands alone it never appears as offered for the pur- 
pose of atonement. In the case of the sin-offering of flour allowed in extreme poverty ^Lev. 



12 LEVITICUS. 



V. 11-13) this is expressly distingaished from the nhprp in that the remainder should belong 
to the priest, nnpSS. 

The word which comes next in the order of the record is nSj', derived from iy!V, to 
ascend, to glow, to bum. It means uniformly throughout the Old Testament: the whole 
burnt-sacrifice, so specifically indeed that twice (Deut. xxxiii. 10 ; Ps. li. 19 [21] ) ''73= 
whole is substituted for it. In a few cases it is variously translated by the LXX. (once each 
admia avd^aat;, avafopa, six times Bvaia, thirteen times Kapn-ufia, three times mpTcaaig), but in 
the vast majority of cases by some term signifying the holocaust, S^KapTra/^a (three times), 
dXonaoTruais (eleven times), dloKaiiru/ja (most frequently), i'XoKavraai.t (seventy-three times). 
In the Vulg. the only renderings are holooaustum (seldom holocautoma) and hostia, except a 
very few times obkUio ; in the A. V., always either burnt-offering or bwnirsaerifice, which 
are used interchangeably, and seem to have been intended to convey the same meaning. It 
is first used in Gen. viii. 20 for the sacrifices offered by Noah, and throughout Gen. xxii. It 
is also used three times in Exodus (x. 25 ; xviii. 12 ; xxiv. 5) in relation to sacrifices previous 
to those of the Levitical system. In the law itself it occurs very frequently, and also in the 
subsequent books. It constitutes the daily morning and evening sacrifice for the congrega- 
tion. It was always an animal sacrifice and was wholly consumed, except the skin, upon 
the altar. In signification it was the most general of all the sacrifices, and in fact was the 
only unspecialized bloody sacrifice of the law. It must be regarded therefore as including 
within itself, more or less distinctly, the idea of all other sacrifices ; it wad a means of ap- 
proach to God in every way in which that approach could be expressed. It was not dis- 
tinctly a sin-ofiering ; yet the fact that it should be accepted for the offerer " to make atone- 
ment for him" C??'?, Lev. i. 4) is prominent in its ritual, and the same idea is distinctly 
brought out in the (probably earlier) sacrifices of Job (Job i. 5; xlii. 8). There is a rabbin- 
ical maxim : " the burnt offering expiates the transgressions of Israel," and this idea is fclly 
expressed in the Targums. "The burnt-offering, as it is the most ancient, so also is it ihe 
most general and important in the Mosaic culius, apicrri d'iarw ij 616mvTog (Philo de vict., p. 
838)." Tholuck (Diss. II. in Hebr.). Yet Tholuck afterwards separates this sacrifice 
quite too absolutely from the sin-offering. The latter indeed, as specializing one feature of 
the burnt-offering, had a different ritual, and was without the oblation ; as offered only for 
the expiation of sin, it carried with it to those who bore its unconsumed flesh a defilement 
which could not attach to the burnt-offering, since this included other ideas also within 
itself. But all this by no means forbids that in its general, comprehensive character, the 
burnt-offering should include the idea of expiation for sin which is distinctly attached to it 
in the law. It was often offered also as a praise or thank-offering (2 Sam. vi. 17, etc.). As 
already said, it was the one comprehensive sacrifice daily offered upon the altar of the taber- 
nacle (Ex. xxix. 38-42) ; it was doubled on the Sabbath (Num. xxviii. 9, 10), and multi- 
plied, with added victims of higher value, on the first of each month [ib. 11) ; and so also at 
the great yearly festivals {ib. 16 -xxix. 39). So far as the burnt-offering had a specific sig- 
nification of its own, its meaning is generally assumed by theologians to have been that of 
entire consecration to God. Such a meaning is certainly sufficiently appropriate; but ia 
never distinctly attributed to it in the Scriptures either of the Old or New Testament. It is 
however constantly described in the more general sense of a means of approach to God. 

n3I is used not so much for any particular kind of sacrifice aa for the victim for any 
sacrifice. It is frequently coupled with some other word determining the kind of sacrifice 
intended, especially Q'vha n_3j. When not so identified, it may mean any kind of sacrifice 
(although most frequently used of the peace-offerings), and does not therefore require parti- 
cular consideration. It occurs first in Gen. xxxi. 54 and xlvi. 1, and is generally rendered 
in the LXX. and Vulg. Bvaia and hostia. The verb is the technical word for slaughtering 
animals in sacrifice, nor is it ever used in any other sense in the Pentateuch except in Deut 
xii. 15, 21, where permission is given to those at a distance from the sanctuary to slay sacri- 
ficial animals simply for food. In the later books there are very few other exceptions to 
this usage: 1 Sam. xxviii. 24; 2 Chron. xviii. 2; Ezek. xxxiv. 3. From this word is derived 



PRELIMINARY NOTE ON THE LEVITICAL SACRIFICES. 13 

the Hebrew name for the altar, natp, not, as sometimes asserted, because sacrifices were 
originally slain upon the altar ; but because this was the place of destination for them. 

No other words for sacrifice occur until the time of the Exodus. There the various spe- 
cialized forms of the Mosaic sacrifices are described ; but before speaking of these the word 
TW^ must be mentioned, which is frequently rendered (chiefly in Lev. and Num.) offer or 
taerifice. It is not, however, properly a sacrificial term ; but merely a word of very broad 
signification— like jroiea or do — which is adapted in sense to its connection. It first occurs 
in the meaning sacrifice in Ex. xxix. 36. Therefore passing by this, the earliest especial 
sacrificial term of the law is ilDS, ndaxa, pascha, passover. It occurs first in Ex. xii. 11, and 
frequently afterwards, although only once in Lev. (xxiii. 5). The noun always means the 
lamb slain by the head of each house in Israel on the 14th Nisan, and eaten by him and his 
family the following evening, or at least the seven days' feast of which this was the begin- 
ning, and the characteristic feature. The history of its institution is fully given in Ex. xii. 
From the abundant references to it in the New Testament it was plainly designed as an 
especial type of Christ. It was distinctly a sacrifice, being reckoned a ]^'!\l in Num. ix. 7, 
13, and slain in the place of sacrifice (Deut. xvi. 5, 6), and its blood, after the first institu- 
tion, was sprinkled by the priests (2 Chron. xxx. 16; xxxv. 11), as affirmed by all Jewish 
authorities ; indeed, it is in connection with the Passover that the mention of the treatment 
of the blood of sacrifice first occurs. It is classed by Outram among the Eucharistic sacri- 
fices, and is assimilated to them by the fact that its flesh was eaten by the offerer and his 
household ; but is distinguished from them in having nothing of it given to the priest. It 
was really a sacrifice appointed before the institution of the priesthood in which each head 
of the family oflered, and thus it perpetuated the remembrance that, by their calling, the 
whole nation were a holy people, chosen " to draw near to God." Its historic relations are 
always most prominent, and it was in fact the great sacrament of the covenant by which 
God had delivered Israel and constituted them His chosen people. Its celebration consti- 
tuted the chief of the three great annual festivals, and was the only one of them having a 
fundamentally sacrificial character. It thus became a fit type of the new covenant and of the 
deliverance through Christ from the bondage of sin. 

The aW (from OjUi) or peace-offering, is first mentioned Ex. xx. 24, in reference to 
the future offerings of the law, but in a way that seems to imply a previous familiarity with 
this kind of sacrifice. It is rendered in' the LXX. sometimes by dpijvuid;, but more generally 
by aorfipioVj and in the Vulg. by paeificua and salutare ; in the A. V. uniformly peace-offering. 
Under the law it was separated into three varieties : the thank, the vow, and the free-will 
offering. See under vii. 12. In Lev. vii. 12, 13, 15; xxii. 29, the thank-offering has the 
distinct name, mip, which does not elsewhere occur in the law, though frequent afterwards. 
This variety included all the prescribed thank-offerings. The idea of propitiation was less 
prominent in this than in any other sacrifice, although the sprinkling of the blood — which 
was always propitiatory— formed a part of its ritual ; but it was especially the sacrifice of 
communion with God, in which the blood was sprinkled and the fat burned upon the altar, 
certain portions given to the priests, and the rest consumed by the offerer with his family 
and friends in a holy sacrificial meal. In the wilderness no sacrificial animal might be used 
for food except it had first been offered as a sacrifice. It naturally became one of the most 
common ofall the sacrifices, and the victims for it were sometimes provided in enormous 
numbers, as at Solomon's dedication of the temple (1 Kings viii. 63). Peace-offerings were, 
for the most part, voluntary, but were also prescribed on several occasions, as at the fulfill- 
ment of the Nazarite vow (Num. vi. 17), and are constantly expected at the great festivals. 
"The peace-offering was always preceded by the piacular victim, whenever any person of- 
fered both these kinds of sacrifices on the same day. Ex. xxix. 14, 22; Num. vi. 14, 16, 17." 
Outram. Although the dW is not mentioned under its distinctive name before Ex. xx. 
24, yet it cannot be doubted that sacrifices of the same character are included in the more 
general term, na?, at a much earlier period (see Gen. xxxi. 54 ; Ex. x. 25 ; xviii. 12), aa 
*ey were certainly common at all times among the heathen. In the New Testament they 
are alluded to in Phil. iv. 18 and Heb. xiii. 15, 16. 



14 LEVITICUS. 



nxan (from the Pihel of KOH) in the sense of sin occurs in Gen. iv. 7 and frequen 
but in the sense of sin-offering is not found before the establishment of the Levitical syst 
The first instance of this sense is in Ex. xxix. 14, after which it is very frequent both in 
law and in the later books. Besides a variety of occasional translations, the usual rendei 
in the LXX. is d/japria^ and in the Vulg. peccatum. In the A. V. it is variously transli 
punishment, punishment of sin, purification for sin, purifying, sinner, sin and sin-offering; 
the last two are by far the most common. It is the distinctive, technical word in the 
for the piacular offering for sin. For its ritual see iv. — v. 13. The sin-offerings of wh 
the blood was carried within the sanctuary, and whose bodies were burned without the cai 
are particularly referred to in the New Testament as typical of Christ ; but more gent 
references to Him as our Sin-offering are frequent. Sin-offerings were prescribed (a) at ei 
new moon. Num. xxviii. 15 ; (J) at each of the three great festivals, Num. xxviii. 22, 1 
xxix. 16, 19, 22, 25, 28, 31, 34, 38; (c) at the feast of trumpets on the first day of the sevei 
month, and on the tenth day of the same, ib. 5, 11 ; (d) the sin-offering, tor' i^ox^ on ( 
great day of atonement, ch. xvi. ; (e) private sin-offerings, for a woman after child-birth, ) 
6, 8 ; for the leper at his cleansing, xiv. 19, 22, 31 ; for a person cleansed of an issue, xv. 
30 ; for the Nazarite accidentally defiled, Num. vi. 11, and at the time of the fulfillment 
his vow, ib. 14, 16 ; and on other special occasions, Num. vii. 16, 22, 28, 34, 40, etc.; besic 
the ordinary sin-offerings of Lev. iv. The ordinary victim was a she-goat or a ewe, replac 
for the high-priest or for the whole congregation by a bullock, and for a prince by a he-gc 
for reasons given in the commentary on Lev. iv. In case of poverty, for the ordinary ofi! 
ing might be substituted turtle-doves or young pigeons, or even an offering of flour. B 
besides regular victims, there were various others prescribed for those exceptional occasio 
which from their nature required some such discrimination. Thus at Aaron's entrance np( 
his sacred functions his sin-offering was a calf (Lev. ix. 1-8) ; at the end of the Nazarih 
vow (Num. vi. 14), and at the recovery of a leper able to bring this offering (Lev. xiv. 1 
19), a ewe-lamb was the prescribed victim. Though not strictly sin-offerings, yet to tl 
same general category belong the red heifer whose ashes were used for purifications (Nui 
xix. 2-22), and the heifer to be slain in case of an unknown murder (Deut. xxi. 1-9). Y 
these were all peculiar and exceptional cases, and the rule remains that the ordinary sii 
offering was always the same. 

t5?i^ is first used Lev. i. 2, occurs very frequently in Leviticus and Numbers, and 
never used elsewhere except twice in Ezekiel. (With the pointing, |3"lp, it is also four 
twice in Neh.) There are but one or two variations from the translation^ iapov, in the LXX 
and donum in the Vulg. In the A. V. it is generally translated offering, but sometimes obli 
lion, and once (Lev. xxvii. 11) sacrifice. Its meaning is perfectly clear — ^that which is o 
fered (brought nigh) to God, whether as a sacrifice or as a dedicatory gift ; if, however, tt 
thing offered be a sacrificial animal, then of course it necessarily means a sacrifice. In eithf 
case, it is something given to God. 

Om, like the nearly related nxBn, has the double sense of trespass or guilt and trespm 
offering. It occurs once in Genesis (xxvi. 10) in the former sense, but is not found in ti 
latter earlier than Lev. v. 6. It is frequent in Leviticus, and less so in subsequent books i 
both senses. In the LXX. and Vulg. it has a considerable variety of renderings; hut th 
most frequent are LXX. ■K^/iiitXeca, and Vulg. delictum. For the distinction between tlii 
and the sin-offering, see iv. 1 and v. 14. 

There remains, as belonging to the list of the sacrifices, the incense, for which two word 
are used, neither of which occur before the giving of the law. nj'iaS first occurs Ex. xx) 
34, and is uniformly translated in the LXX. Xi^owf (once, however, Xi^avuriif), and in th 
Vulg. thus ; it is always /rareAiwcera«e in the A. V. except in Isa. and Jer. where it is alway 
incense. It is "a costly, sweet-smelling, pale-yellow resin, the milky exudation of a shrub' 
(FuERST). rnpY^ which first occurs Ex. xxv. 6, on the other hand, is an incense com 
pounded of frankincense and various sweet spices (Ex. xxx. 34). It is usually translated ii 
the LXX. and Vulg. ffv/iiafm, thymiama, but sometimes aiivBcai^, compositio. In the A. V. i 
IB rendered either incense, or sweet incense, or a few times perfume. This incense was to b 



PRELIMINAET NOTE ON THE LEVITICAL SACRIFICES. 15 



burnt only within the sanctuary, twice daily on the golden altar (Ex. xxx. 7, 8), and also by 
the high-priest in the holy of holies on the day of atonement (Lev. xvi. 12, 13). The frank- 
incense was offered by the people as a part of their oblations, and was mostly burnt in the 
court. The burning of all incense was a strictly priestly act, and is constantly spoken of in 
the Scriptures as symbolical of prayer (e. £r. Eev. v. 8; viii. 8, 4). Pre-eminently does it 
typify the intercession of the true High Priest in heaven itself. 

The word nm=offerings made by fire, is not so much the name of a sacrifice as a de- 
scription of all sacrifices burned upon the altar. It is applied to various kinds of sacrifices, 
Lev. i. 9 ; ii. 3 ; iii. 5, ete. '^OJ=drink-offerinff is first used Gen. xxxv. 14, and is not pro- 
perly a sacrifice itself, but an accompaniment of other sacrifices. n3?3n=wave-offering, and 
nnn]Jl=heave-offering, refer to particular modes of presentation of certain offerings. 

The animals used for victims were either " of the flock or of the herd," or in case of 
poverty, doves or pigeons. These were all clean animals, and were consequently among 
those commonly used for food; the quadrupeds were from domestic animals, aud the birds 
thosemost easy of capture. (Domestic fowls are said not to have been known before the 
time of Solomon.) The ease and certainty of procuring these various victims seems a more 
likely reason for their selection than either their tameness— which certainly does not apply 
to the bull -or their value as property, since the cost of procuring wild animals would usually 
have been far greater. The idea that these animals were especially appointed for sacrificial 
victims because they were held sacred among heathen nations, and particularly among the 
Egyptians, although often advanced, is unsatisfactory for two reasons: first, because on this 
ground there is no reason why the number of sacrificial animals should not have been greatly 
enlarged ; secondly, because these very animals, for the most part, were used in sacrifice by 
the nations that also worshipped them. Whatever typical significance they may have had, 
this can hardly be considered as the reason for their selection, since in the typical language 
of the prophets various other animals (e. g. the lion and the eagle) are so largely used. la 
fact the lamb seems to be the only one of the sacrificial animals typically employed in pro- 
phecy, the dove being only an alternative victim for the poor. 

The public animal-sacrifices of the Israelites may be broadly separated into three great 
classes, according to the prominent purpose of each. I. The Burnt-offerings, or offerings of 
approach to God. The main idea of these, in so far as they had any especially distinctive 
idea, is generally considered to have been consecration to God's service as the necessary con- 
dition of approaching Him, and yet also including in a subordinate way the idea of expia- 
tion, without which sinful men might not draw near to God at all. This idea is represented 
outwardly and once for all in the Christian Church by baptism, and in its continual repeti- 
tion by the various acta of worship and efforts to conform the life to Christ's example. With 
the burnt-offering belonged the unbloody, eucharistic oblation, together with its incense 
gymbolizing prayer. II. The sin-offering, in its various forms, expressly provided for the 
purpose of atonement. Having no inherent efficacy, this yet clearly pointed forward to the 
only effectual atonement made by Christ Himself upon the cross. This sacrifice, as is most 
clearly shown in Hebrews, being efficacious for the forgiveness of all sin, can never be re- 
peated ; yet according to Christ's own command, we are to show forth His death until He 
come again in the Lord's supper, and thus historically the great sacrament of the Christian 
Church points back to that which the Levitical system prefigured. The central point of 
both dispensations is the same, but in the one case prophetic, in the other historic. III. 
The Peace-offerings were the ordinary means of communion with God through an external 
rite, and of expressing outwardly thanksgiving for His mercies, or supplication for His favors. 
They are to be considered not so much as typical definitely of any one thing in the new dis- 
pensation, but rather as meeting under the old a need which is now otherwise supplied ; yet 
still in common with all sacrifices, they serve to set forth in shadow Him " who is our peace," 
and on whom feeding by faith we now have peace with God. 

Besides these great classes of sacrifices, there were a multitude of others, mostly for indi- 
viduals, some of which are distinctly included under one or the other of these classes, while 
Others share the character of more than one of them, and others, like the Passover, have a, 



16 LEVITiuua. 



character peculiar to themselves. These will be treated in their appropriate places. The 
is one of them which must be mentioned on account of its great importance — the red heii 
— but its treatment belongs in the following book, Num. xix. 1-10. In general it may 1 
said, that as God's works will not conform very precisely to any human classification, sia 
each creature is an individual entity to the Infinite, but always there will be characteristi 
in one group allying the genera in which it is found to some other widely se parated grou 
so also in the works of the Divine word, we can only classify broadly and having regard i 
the most salient features, while, in view of less important characteristics, we might often 1: 
compelled to change the best classification that can be formed. 

The vegetable sacrifices, or oblations, were correspondingly varied. These were usuall; 
accompaniments of the animal-offerings, but sometimes were independent. This was th 
case not only with the alternative sin-offering (Lev. v. 11), and the jealousy-offering (Nnm 
V. 15), but also with the shew-bread, the Passover sheaf of barley and the Pentecostal wheatei 
loaves. Incense also was at times an independent offering. Drink-offerings appear excln 
sively as accompaniments of the animal sacrifices, and were of wine; but their ritual is no 
where prescribed. 

The mineral kingdom was represented in the sacrifices only by the salt with which al 
other offerings were to be salted. 

The ritual of the various sacrifices will be treated as they occur in the text. Suffice i 
here to say that three essential points are to be observed in all : First, that the victim shoulc 
be solemnly offered to God. This, as Outram clearly shows (I. xv. 4), was accomplishec 
by presenting the living victim or the oblation before the altar, and was the act of the offerer 
Second, that the offerer should lay his hand upon the head of the victim thereby personallj 
identifying himself with what he did. The exceptions to this are in the case of birds, foi 
obvious reasons, and in the case of the Paschal lamb, instituted before the Levitical system, 
and when this act was unnecessary as the offerer acted himself in some sort as priest. Third, 
the intervention of a priest, as the mediator between God and man, who must sprinkle the 
blood and burn the parts required upon the altar ; and in the case of the ordinary sin-offering 
as well as of many of the oblations, he must himself, as the representative of God, consume 
the remainder. 

It appears from constant Rabbinical tradition, as well as from the probability of the 
case, that prayer or confession on the part of the offerer always accompanied the sacrifice. 
Indeed, this is often spoken of in particular cases in Scripture itself, and language is there 
used in regard to the sacrifices which implies the universality of the custom. When the 
patriarchs built altars, they "called upon the name of the Lord" (Gen. xii. 8, etc.). Con- 
fession is required in connection with the sin and trespass-offerings (Lev. v. 5 ; Num. v. 7), 
and especially with the great propitiation on the day of atonement (Lev. xvi. 21). A form 
of prayer is prescribed for the oblation of the first fruits (Deut. xxvi. 3-10), and of the tithes 
(ib. 13-15). Sacrificing and calling upon God are often used as equivalent terms (1 Sam. 
xiii. 12; Prov. xv. 8, etc.), and the temple is indifferently called "the house of sacrifice" (2 
Chron. vii. 12, etc.), and " the house of prayer'' (Isa. Ivi. 7, etc.), and frequently prayer and 
confession are mentioned in connection with sacrifice on particular occasions, or in a general 
way as showing that the one accompanied the other as a matter of course (1 Sam. vii. 9 ; Job 
xlii. 8 ; Ezra vi. 10 ; 1 Chron. xxi. 26 ; xxix. 10-21 ; 2 Chron. xxx. 22 ; Ps. Ixvi. 13-20 ; cxvi, 13, 
17, etc.). For further details of the ritual, and especially for the Eabbinical traditions on the 
subject, the reader is referred to Otjtram, Kalisch, and other special treatises on sacrifice. 

Of the purpose and design of the whole sacrificial cultus, but little need be added to 
what has already been said. That in a theocratic state the expiatory offerings had, as an 
incidental object, the compensation for minor offences against that state, and the doing away 
with ceremonial hindrances to worship is undeniable ; but that they had also a farther and 
higher object is plain both from the study of the Mosaic legislation itself and from their 
treatment throughout the New Testament, especially in the Epistle to the Hebrews. Besides 
their typical value, they had a powerful educational use. " As we survey the expiatory 
offerings of the Hebrews, which for purity stand unrivalled in the ancient world, we are 



PRELIMINARY NOTE ON THE LEVITICAL SACRIFICES. 17 

bouod to admit that they were pre-eminently calculated to keep alive among the nation 
those feelings on which all religious life depends, and from which it flows as its natural 
source, the feelings of human sinfulness and the conviction of the divine holiness, by the 
standard of which that sinfulness is to be measured; they fostered, therefore, at once humi- 
lity and an ideal yearning ; and they effectually counteracted that sense of self-righteousness 
natural indeed to the pride of man, but utterly destructive of all noble virtues. They were 
well suited to secure in the directest and completest manner that singleness of life and heart 
which is the true end of all sacrifices. * * * Though bearing the character of vicarious- 
ness, the sin-offerings were far from encouraging an external worship by lifeless ceremonies ; 
in themselves the spontaneous offspring of religious repentance, and thus naturally helping 
to nourish the same beneficent feeling, they were the strongest guarantee for a life of honesty 
and active virtue." Kalisch I., p. 187 sq. 

It is, however, to be remembered that while sacrifices were abundantly provided for him 
who sinned inadvertently, on the other hand no sacrifice was allowed for him who sinned 
" presumptuously '' (Num. xv. 30, 31 ; Deut. xvii. 12), that is, with deliberate and high-handed 
purpose ; for the offender thus declared that he did not desire to be at one with God ; there 
was in him no -internal disposition to correspond with the outward act of sacrifice. Certainly 
nothing could show more clearly that the efficacy of sacrifice is connected with the disposi- 
tion of the heart. It was natural that many of the fathers, in the strong re-action of early 
Christianity from Judaism, should have thought the Jewish sacrifices were " instituted be- 
cause the people, having been long accustomed to such modes of worship in Egypt, could 
scarcely have been confined to the worship of the one true God without the indulgence and 
introduction into their religion of those rites to which they had been long habituated and 
were exceedingly attached " (Justin Martyr, Irenseus, Tertullian, Theodoret, Cyril of Alex- 
andria, as referred to by Otjteam). Nevertheless, they saw in them distinctly a typical 
reference to Christ, and Oeigen is elsewhere quoted as showing that this belonged to all the 
sacrifices because they all ceased with His sacrifice. 

Lange [Dogmatik in Lev.), after showing the connection between this and the prece- 
ding book, continues : " Leviticus then is right in treating first of the sacrifice. Nothing is 
clearer than that the sacrifice is not herein a new, positive. Divine command, but is a ground- 
form, true of natural religion, which as such depends originally on a spiritual impulse. It is 
said of Cain and Abel, that they offered sacrifice, but not that sacrifice was commanded them. 
Noah in the same way sacrificed from free inclination." [Is not something more implied in 
the command to take into the ark of the clean animals by sevens?] " It seems significant 
that only after the performance of the sacrifice is the divine satisfaction mentioned. Thus 
the theocratic sacrifice is the consecration of the natural sacrifice existing before. * * * 
This then is the meaning of the symbolic sacrifice ; it is the expression of the fact that the 
offerer, in his sin and sinfulness, feels his need of an inward resignation and confesses it with 
the offering of the symbolic sacrifice and requests that the grace of God may supply his need, 
t. e. may lead him by the sacrificial teaching to the completion of the sacrificial offering in 
faith. So there lies in the idea of sacrifice, as in the law, the spring of a positive movement; 
and as Christ is certainly the final cause of the law as the objective requirement of sacrifice, 
so is He of the sacrifice as the subjective law of life. The law and the sacrifice come toge- 
ther inseparably in the fulfillment which the life of Jesus Christ tas brought. * * * * 
On the various theories which concern sacrifice, compare the dictionaries, particularly Winee ; 
also the archseological works ; especially also the article by Oehlee in Herzog's Bealency- 
elopMU, entitled OpfercuUm im Alien Testament. For more detailed treatment of the sub- 
ject, see also my Positive Dogmatik. * * * First of all, the legal sacrifices are indeed, 
in the sacrificial system of worship, themselves real satisfactions, that is, the discharge of 
duties and the reparation for transgressions against the social law. But the social law would 
be entirely arbitrary if it had no higher sense ; this sense is the prayer for grace to complete 
it, for perfection. It does not come finally to a satisfactory end if it does not attain to the 
granting of the prayer, to the peace of Gnd, to expiation. In the first particular, the sacri- 
fice is a real performance in the court, which can be misconceived to be self-righteousness; 



18 LEvmcns; 



in the second, it is a symbolic treatment of prayer as incense in the temple ; in the high 
particular, it is an act of the typical hope of faith, of the atonement in the holy of holi 
which the priest accomplished with hazard and inward resignation of his life under the fa 
effect of the sight of the majesty of God. 

" These three particulars are displayed in the three different forms of sacrifice, euehar 
fica, impetratoria, piacularia ; but so that whatever form predominates, the others are sb 
posed with it. The trunk-root or fundamental form, however, is furnished by the bun 
offering, for which reason all sacrifices are burnt-offerings in a narrower or wider sense; i 
are God's fire, God's bread, on the altar; hence, in the first case the Fire, as the symbol i 
the Divine power, may consume the whole sacrifice ( ''73) ; in the second case the Bh 
may signify the prevailing thought in sacrifice, as the symbol of the resignation of the soi 
the life ; the third case is the Holy food, the sacrificial meal, as a symbol of the consecratii 
of life's enjoyment in the midst of life itself. These three particulars are found fully co 
nected in the Passover, which forms the general theocratic hallowing of the natural prin( 
pie of sacrifice, and pre-supposes the symbolical new birth, i. e. the circumcision or physio 
cleansing. So too in reference to the curse-sacrifice : cherem." • * * 

The sacrifices " are themselves divided into pure and applied forms of worship. Tl 
pure cultus-sacrifices are divided into universal, fixed and carnal. The first are the Sabbai 
and the Feast-day sacrifices, normal sacrifices of all Israel ; the last are those occasioned 1 
and commanded in various circumstances. Both kinds, however, are often interchange! 
absolutely as antitheses of the sacrifice of destruction, the Cherem. 

"1. The hallowed fundamental form of the sacrifice — the Passover. 

" 2. The central point of all sacrifices, the imperishable symbolical idea, the burnt-offerin] 

" 3. On the left hand of the burnt-sacrifice we find the sin and trespass-offerings, i 
which also the transition-forms come into consideration (see the Exegesis) ; on the rigl 
hand is the prosperity or salvation-offering — in the forms of the praise-offering, the voti\ 
(the prayer) offering, and that of the simple well-being — and besides generally, the hallowe 
slaying and the consecration of the blood. 

" 4. The summit of all sacrifices, the great propitiatory sacrifice, in which the antithesi 
of the salviition-offering with the curse-offering is rendered especially prominent in the hf 
goat of the Azazel." [But on this see the Exegetical, ch. xvi.] 

" As forms of the applied sacrifice, appear the covenant-sacrifice, the sacrifices at th 
consecration of the priests, the various sacrifices of purification, the central sacrifice of pari 
fication, or the ashes of the red heifer, and in antithetical position the jealousy-sacrifice an 
the sacrifice at the festival of a completed vow." * * * 

Lange then describes the sacrificial material and the sacrificial act, which are sufficient! 
treated in the commentary. In conclusion, he adds : " The line of the three altars, the alta 
of burnt-offering, the altar of incense, and the mercy-seat, is completed by still a fourth.hal 
lowed place of sacrifice without the camp, that is, the ash-heap of the red heifer, for th 
meaning of which Heb. xiii. 13 is a passage especially to be considered. Out beyond thi 
place lay the wilderness, also the place of death for the cherem, the curse-sacrifice. 

" With the gradations of the altar, the gradations of the sprinking of the blood ar 
parallel even to the sprinkling " [before] " the mercy-seat in the holy of holies. They stani 
in contrast to the gradations of the burning whose minimum appears in the meat-offering' 
[which was, however, in some cases wholly consumed (Lev. vi. 22)], "and whose maximut 
is in the burnt-offering. In the blood is expressed the entire resignation of man to death 
in the fire, the complete consuming, power of God over man's strength of life. 

" In the whole matter of sacrifice the idea of communion, of the feast of fellowship 
between God and man becomes prominent in many ways, and is especially represented h; 
the table of shew-bread, and by the portions of the priests. In reference to this communioii 
however, Jehovah has exclusively reserved to Himself the blood and the fat, and has excln 
sively forbidden leaven in the offering (though not in what was presented before God forth 
use of the priests) and honey. But the people are represented, too, in the whole priestl; 
communion, and receive the whole effect of their service : the blessing of Jehovah, which als 



PRELIMINARY NOTE ON THE LEVITICAL SACRIFICES. 19 

rises in distinct gradations, from the absolution in the court, the light in the temple, to the vi- 
sion of God in the holy of holies ; and thence comes back to the people under corresponding con- 
ditions : confession, prayer, consecration by means of death ( Tbdesvriehe). Thus also the fur- 
ther relations of the sacrifice are explained. The sacrifice of the heart unfolds itself in the 
sacrifice of the lips, in prayer, and in the sacrifices of the respective death-consecrations, or 
of the renunciation and dedication in vows by which the Nazarite was connected with 
the priests." 

In his Homiletik in Lev., Lange further says : " The Israelitiah sacrifice is taken into 
the care of Jehovah, is the sanctified offering, the symbol of the internal sacrifice, the 
type of the future completed sacrifice, the instruction which prepared for the sacrifice of 
Christ and the sacrifices of Christianity. The difference between the outward and the in- 
ward sacrifice, between the symbol and the thought it expresses, is rendered definitely pro- 
minent even in the Old Testament. 

"Literature. — See Keil, Handbuch der biblischen Archaologie. Die gottesdiemtlichen 
Verhdttnisse der Israeliten, p. 47 ss. Das mosaische Opfer, p. 195 ss. Baehe (see above). 
Bramesfeld, Der alttestamentliohe Oottesdienst in seiner sinndbildlichen und vorhildlichen 
Bedeutung. Gutersloh, 1864. Hestgstenbeeg, Die Opfer der heil. Schrift. Berlin, 1859. 
Keil, Die Opfer des Alien Bundes (Guebicke's Zeitschrift, 1836, 37). Kliefoth, Die 
wsprungliche Gottesdiemtordnung der deutschen Kirche. 1. Bel. Schwfrin, 1858. Kurtz, 
Der alltestamentliche Opfereultus. Mittau, 1864. Neumann, Die Opfer des Alten Bundes. 
Oehler, Der Opfereultus, in Hbbzog's Realeneyclopddie. Sartobius, Ueber den ali-und 
nmtestamentlichen Kultus. Stuttgart, 1852. Tholuck, Das Alte Testament in Neuen 
Testament. Hamburg, 1849. LiSKO, Das Ceremonialgesetz des Alten Testaments, seine 
ErfHUung im Neuen Testament. Berlin, 1842. Wangemann, Die Opfer der heiligen 
Schrift naeh der Lehre des Alten Testaments. 2 Bde. Berlin, 1866. (Worthy of especial 
note is the catalogue of literature. Gen. Introd. A. I 5, B., and the statement in reference to 
the development of the ecclesiastical idea of sacrifice, ib. J 6)." Add: Philo de Victimis. 
OuTRAM, De sacrifieiis. London, 1677 (translated by Allen, London, 1817). Spencee, 
De legibus Sebrceorum, Tubingen, 1732. Maimonides, De sacrifieiis, London, 1683. CuD- 
WORTH, De Goena Domini, Leyden, 1773 (Vol. II., translation of Intel. System, Andover, 
1837). A. A. Sykes, Essay on the Nature, Design and Origin of Sacrifices 1748. J. D. Ml- 
CHAELIS, Commentaries on the Laws of Moses (translated by A. Smith, London, 1814). 
EOSENMUELLEE, Exewrsus II. in Lev., Leipsic, 1824. Fabeb, On the Origin of Saerijice, 
London, 1827. J. Davison, Inquiry into the Origin and Intent of Primitive Sacrifice 
{Bemains). Tholuck, Diss. II. in App. to Ep. to the Heb. (Trans, by Eyland, Edinb., 
1842). F. D. Maurice, The Doctrine of Sacrifice deduced from Scripture, Cambridge, 1854. 
Kalisch, Lev., Pt. I., London, 1867. Clabk, Introd. to Lev. (Speaker's Corn.), London and 
New York, 1872. Also further authorities cited by CONANT in Smith's Bih. Diet. Art 
Lev., Am. £d. 



LEVITICUS. 

THE THIRD BOOK OF MOSES. 



:b<ooisz X. 

OF APPROACH TO GOD. 

Chaps. I.— XVI. 

"FIRST DIVISION.— The sanctifying acts (or consecrations for Ood) to bring 
about typical holiness by means of various sacriSoes, universally ordained for 
universal sin. The removal of the sinful condition incurred by inadvertence 
(pardonable sins r\iiW2 chaps. I.— XVL [a. positive enactments, I.— X.; b. 
negative, XI.— XVI.]")."— Langb. 



PART I. THE LAWS OF SACRIFICE. 

Chaps. I.— VII. 



FIRST SECTION. 

Chaps. I.— VI. 7. 

[Lange makes the division "Personal Sacrifices" Chapters I. — V.^ 

A.— BURNT-OFFERINGS. 

Chap. I. 1-17. 

1 And the Lord called' unto Moses, and spake unto him out of the tabernacle' of 

2 the [omit the'] congregation, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say 
unto them, If any man of you bring an offering unto the Lord,* ye shall bring your 

TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL. 

• Ver. 1. NTp'1^ in our text has the final X of smaller size than the other letters. The reason (leaving out of view 

CabaljBtic Interpretations) seems to be that suggesteil by KoBenmOllcr— that there was an ancient variation of the MSS., 
Bome having our present reading ; while others, omitting the X, read "lp"V Fut. Apoc. Niphal of Hip— and the Lord 

mrt (or appeared lo) Moses. Comp. Num. xxiii. 4, 16. 

* Ver. 1. 7nj< means strictly the covering of haircloth over the pK'D of boards with linen curtains. Both occur 

together, Ex. xl. 29. Both are translated in the A. V. alike by tent and by tabernacle, and both in the LXX. most frequently 
uj^icqvfi. Iq the original both are used to designate the structure in which the ark was placed. There is therefore no 
BUCBclent reason for changing the tamiliar name of TabemacU. 

^ Ver. 1. ^J?')D is without the article, as always. The word is used very frequently (Lev. xxiii. 2, 4, 37, 44, etc.) of the 

religions festivals of the Law, of which the tabernacle was the centre, and perhaps both in the Heb. and the Chald. the 
times of the festivals " is the most prominent idea of the word. Hence, as the place of assembly, the centre around which 

the congregation was at such times to gather, the Tabernacle came to be called I^I^'lD 7nN, as Jerusalem is called (Isa. 

xxxiil. 20) ^D JT''1B. The proposal to translate TbtU of meeting (Speaker's Com., Kalisch, Murphy, and many others) as 

referring to God's meeting with Moses, seems nnsupported by the usage of the word, and is sustained by none of the ancient 
versioM. (The LXX. and Vulgate take the word in the sense of covenant or law). The article, however, should be omitted. 
Hevertheless, Lange says " The Tabernacle is designated as the Tabernacle of the meeting. That the Israelites should 
assemble themselves in that place, is only the secondary result of the primary meeting with Jehovah." 

* Ter. 2. The Misoretic punctuation places the Athnach on ri'in^^, and this is sustained by the E^am., Ohald., LXX., 

AT :- 21 



22 LEVITICUS. 



offering' of the cattle, even of the herd, and of the flock [of the cattle unto the Lord, 
ye shall bring your offering of the herd or of the flock]. 

3 If his offering be a burnt sacrifice of the herd, let him offer a male without blem- 
ish : he shall offer it of his own voluntary will at the door of the tabernacle of the 
[omit the'] congregation before the Loed* [offer it at the door of the tabernacle of 

4 congregation for his acceptance before the Loed]. And he shall put his hand 
upon the head of the burnt offering ; and it shall be accepted for him to make 

5 atonement for him. And he shall kill the bullock before the Loed : and the 
priests, Aaron's sons, shall bring the blood, and sprinkle the blood round about 
upon' the altar that is by [before ] the door of the tabernacle of the [omit the'] 

6 congregation. And he' shall flay the burnt offering, and cut it into his pieces. 

7 And the sons of Aaron the priest shall put fire upon the altar, and lay the wood in 

8 order upon the fire : and the priests, Aaron's sons, shall lay the parts, the head, 
and the fat, in order upon the wood that ia on the fire which is upon the altar: 

9 but his inwards and his legs shall he' wash in water : and the priest shall burn all 
on the altar, to be a burnt sacrifice,'" an offering made by fire, of a sweet savour 
unto the Loed. 

10 And if his offering be of the flocks," namely, of the sheep, or of the goats, for a 

11 burnt sacrifice ; he shall bring it a male without blemish." "And he shall kill it 
on the side of the altar northward before the Loed : and the priests, Aaron's sons, 

12 shall sprinkle his blood round about upon' the altar. And he" shall cut it into his 
pieces, with his head and his fat : and the priest shall lay them in order on the 

13 wood that is on the fire which is upon the altar : but he shall wash the inwards and 
the legs with water : and the priest shall bring it all, and bum it upon the altar : 
it is a burnt sacrifice, an offering made by fire, of a sweet savour unto the Loed. 

14 And if the burnt sacrifice for his offering to the Loed be of fowls, then he shall 

15 bring his offering of turtledoves, or of young pigeons. And the priest shall bring 
it unto the altar, and wring [pinch] off his head, and bum it on the altar ; and the 

16 blood thereof shall be wrung out at [pressed out against] the side of the altar: and 
he shall pluck away his crop with his feathers [the filth thereof"], and cast it beside 

17 the altar on the east part, by the place of the ashes : and he shall cleave it with the 
wings thereof, bvi^^ shall not divide it asunder : and the priest shall burn it upon the 
altar, upon the wood that is upon the fire : it is a burnt sacrifice, and offering made 
by fire, of a sweet savour unto the Loed. 

Vnlg., and followed by the A. V. Houbigant suggests that it shonld rather be placed on the next word, HDHSn M ^ 

M" ■•- 
the Syr, The latter sense is followed in the commentary. . 

^ Yer. 2, " OfTerings " in the plural is read in the Sam., LXX., Vulg., and Syr. 

• Ver. 3. nin' ''iS'^ "USlS. The translalion of the A. V. is defooded by GiotinB, but most interpreters followtto 
T : •■ : • :• 

nnanimous voice of the ancient vprsions in giving the sense as corrected above. Comp. Ex. xxviii. 38 ; Lev. xxii. 20, 21, «. 
The A. V. varies in the translation even in the same pa-^sage, as L^v. xxii. 19, 20, 21, 29. 

' Ver. 5. The sense is, upon all the sides of the altar, not on its upper surface. 

8 Ter. 6. The Sam. and LXX. by reading the verbs of this verse in the plural, apparently make the flaying and catting 
up of the victim the act of thu priests. 

B Ver. 9. The Sam. and the LXX. here also, by the use of the plural, make the washing the act of the priests, 

10 Ver. 9. The Sam. followed by the LXX. and Syr., read NTI nS j? — this is the bumt.flff6ring, «. e., the law of tb« 
bumt.offering8. , , 

11 Ver. 10. The Sam. followed by the LXX. reads Tl'liTT ij31p 717^ t'''^^"P~l2'*^' "'° ^*'°" '""''"''* "" 
subsequent n7J?, which makes the sense clearer. 

12 Ver. 10. TheSim.adds — at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation shall he offer 11 ^ 

18 Ver. 11. The LXX. prefixes from ver. 4, leai €7ri0^cr«t ttiv x^^pa eiri ttjv xeifiaMiv avrov — ^which is of course to IM 
understood, 

" Ver, 12, The Sam. (now followed both by the LXX. and the Vulg.) here again as in vers. 6 and 9 nti> tk' 
plu^a^ 

1' Ver. 16. nnS J3 (Sam. Ifl— ) Is variously translated. In the LXX. and Vulg., as in the A. V., it is rendered fffl- 

T T : 

there ; in the Sam. Vers., however, the Chald. of Onkelos, of Jonathan, and of Jerusalem, and in the Syr,, the idea i» l*J 

food in the crop, or the filth connected therewith, as is expressed in the margin of the A, V. By Oeseidus and Faeist It 

is translated as filth or excrement in the crop ; "they consider it a contracted form of Part, Niph, of i<V^. T^i^ ^ protow 

the tme sense, lange explains it " the excrement ft^m the crop yet to he found in the body." 

10 Ver. 17, The Sam., 16'MSS., and all the versions supply the conjunction, which must of cou se be understood. 



CHAP. I. 1-17. 



23 



EXEQETIOAL AND CRITICAL. 

The Divine presence having now been mani- 
fested in the newly erected tabernacle (Ex. xl. 
34), God according to His promise (Ex. xxv. 22), 
there reveals Himself to Moses, and makes known 
through him His will to the people. As this was 
the place where they were to draw nigh to Him, 
the first commands uttered from the tabernacle 
relate to the means of this approach, and occupy 
the first sixteen chapters of Leviticus. Of these, 
seven are concerned with the general laws of 
sacrifice, of which ir, would appear some know- 
ledge must have been previously communicated 
to Moses to make the directions of Ex. zxix. in- 
telligible to him, and also to guide him in the 
sacrifices offered by himself, Ex. xl. 28, 29 ; but 
now for the first time he is directed to proclaim 
these laws to the people. The law is first de- 
clared in regard to the people's part in the offer- 
ings (i. — vi. 7), although this involves incident- 
ally something also of the duties of the priests ; 
this is foUoweil by special instructions chiefly 
for the priests (vi. 8 — vii. 38), although the line 
cannot be so sharply drawn that this part shall 
not also contain something for the people. Each 
kind of offering is treated by itself, the first chap- 
ter being occupied with the whole burnt-offering, 
which must always be an animal, but might be 
either a quadruped (2-13), or a fowl (14-17). 
The former again, might be either "of the herd," 
i.e., a bullock (3-9), or "of the flock," i.e.. a 
sheep or a goat (10-13). The directions forburut- 
eacrifioes are arranged under these three heads. 
Ver. 1. The Lord. — Jehovah is the distinc- 
tive Divine title throughout Leviticus; the names 
'I'lK (occurring so frequently elsewhere), 'IE'. 

and the very common 7X do not occur, nor even 
the ordinary Cri /X, except the last joined with 
a possessive pronoun or some other construc- 
tion, to mark Him as in a peculiar sense the God 
of Israel. 

Out of the tabernacle of congregation. 
— There can be no reasonable doubt that this 
is the newly-erected tabernacle ; the attempt to 
prove that these laws were given from some 
other tent upon the slopes of Mt. Sinai by refe- 
rence to Lev. vii. 38, has no foundation, as the 
parallelism of that ver. shows that mount is there 
only another expression for the place called the 
wildi^ness of Sinai. 

" Ver. 2 8S, Tke common regulations concerning 
all tke sacrifices. The whole motive of animal 
sacrifice is appropriately exhibited in the verb 
3^p to draw near; in the Hiphil to cause to draw 
near. The sense of the word is fully shown in 
Jer. XXX. 21. Sinful man, as such, dares not 
draw near to Jehovah. But Jehovah forms one 
chosen out of His people (the Messiah) for the 
purpose of approach, until he draws nearest of 
all to Him, touches Him, yields up himself to 
Him, and becomes one with Him. With reve- 
rent dread man, conscious of sin, pushes forward 
the guiltless animal as an offering of drawing 
near (Korban), as a symbol of his desire to draw 
near himself to Jehovah. As yet the sacrifice 
was not commanded in its particulars ; but the 
general idea of sacrifice as now necessary was 



oommanded, and in every case it must be of the 
cattle, either large or small, and thus of the 
clean domestic animals. The subsequent addi- 
tion of pigeons and turtle-doves are as substi- 
tutes." Lange. 

If any man of you bring.— The sacrifices 
of the first three chapters we<e those of indivi- 
duals, and were purely voluntary in so far as 
respects their being offered at all ; when, how- 
ever, the individual had determined to offer any 
of them, the instructions as to the selection of 
the victim, and the manner of offering, were mi- 
nute and peremptory. The duty of the priests 
in regard to these offerings was simply minis- 
terial. 

Offering. — ]^'}P, always translated by the 
LXX. iStpov, and most frequently by the Vulg. 
ohlatio. Except in two instances in Ezek. (xx. 
28 ; xl. 43), and in two of the same consonants 
differently pointed in Neh. (x. 34 (35) ; xiii. 31), 
its use is confined to Lev. and Num. It is the 
technical word for an offering to the Lord, in- 
cluding sacrifices both bloody, as here, and un- 
bloody as in ch. ii., and also dedicatory offerings 
for the sanctuary, as in Num. vii. 

Ye shall bring. — ^The Babbins infer from 
this use of the plural that two or more persons 
might unite in the same offering. This was un- 
doubtedly the fact ; but does not seem to be the 
reason for the use of the plural here, which is 
rather required simply by the generality of the 
law. Comp. ii. 11, 12, etc. 

Of the cattle unto the Lord. — The Maao- 
retic punctuation must here be modified in order 
to represent the systematic arrangement in- 
tended. See Textual Note 4. The nana = 

T •• : 
quadruped, is in contradistinction to the fowls 
of ver. 14 ; and the direction is that if an offer- 
ing of this kind be brought, it shall be taken 
from the herd or the flock, not from wild ani- 
mals. The word sometimes includes all quad- 
rupeds, wild and tame (Gen. vi. 7 ; Ex. ix. 2-5, 
e(c. I, but is more commonly used, according to 
the restriction here, of the domestic animals. It 
includes both the herd and the flock. The range 
of animals allowed for sacrifice was much nar- 
rower than that of those clean for food, and far 
narrower than among the heathen. See Knobel, 
p. 352. The Egyptians, among other victims, 
(jffered swine, and the Hindoos and Germans, 
horses. 

Vers. 3-9. The law of the burnt-offering of a 

bullock, TDy = whole burnt offering. Lange : 

" The names : Tn]} the going up (in a specific 
sense, for all sacrifices were brought up on 
the altar), TyS the whole, the entirely finished, 
consumed, burned, holocaustum. Thus the burnt- 
offering, or the fire-offering in the most especial 
sense, which was entirely consumed in the fire, 
forms the central point of the whole sacrificial 
system." " The New Testament antitype of the 
burnt-offering is expressed by Paul in Rom. xii. 
1." See the preliminary note on sacrifices, p. 12. 
Ver. 3. A male. — The burnt-offering, unlike 
the sin and peace-offering, must always be a 
male. The case of the cows offered in 1 Sam. 



24 



LEVITICUS. 



ri. 14, was altogetlier exceptional, and the red 
heifer (Num xix. 1-10) was not burned upon the 
altar at all. — Without blemish, LXX., a/<u- 
/ioQ. The bullock, like all other victims, (xxii. 
19-24) except in the case of free will offerings, 
must be free from bodily faults either of defect 
or redundancy ; and it was provided that no 
victim obtained by the price of a dog, or of 
whoredom, might be offered to God (Deut. xxiii. 
18). It was the Jewish custom to appoint a 
priest as a special inspector of victims, to whose 
scrutiny every animal must be subjected before 
being offered. — At the door. — At the wide en- 
trance of the court in which the great altar stood. 
Lange, however, considers that the door " not 
of the court, but of the Holy Place, is the bound- 
ary between the holy things and the region of 
that to be hallowed, and therefore the appropri- 
ate point for the meeting which in the name of 
Jehovah was obtained by the priests for the 
people through the sacrifice." This presentation 
of the victim before the Lord was the technical 
offering, so essential a part of the sacrifice that 
it is often put for the sacrifice itself. The de- 
tails of the sacrifice were so ordered that when 
occasion required, great multitudes of victims 
might be offered quickly and without confusion. 
After the erection of the temple, rings were fixed 
in the pavement, to which the victims were se- 
cured ; with u sharp knife the throat was then 
cut at one stroke quite through the arteries and 
the jugular veins, so that the blood might flow 
rapidly into a vessel held underneath; this ves- 
sel was then (when there were many sacrifices) 
passed from hand to hand by a row of priests 
and Levites extending to the altar; meantime 
the flaying and cutting up of the victim was go- 
ing on ; on the north side of the altar there were 
eight stone pillars connected by three rows of 
beams, each bearing a row of hooks ; upon these 
the victims were hung, the largest upon the high- 
est books, the smaller upon the others. Outram 
I., xvi., and the authorities there cited. By 
Buch means an almost incredible number of vic- 
tims are said to have been sacrificed with perfect 
order in a short time. — For his acceptance 
before the Lord. — It was the object of the 
burnt-offering, as of all sacrifices, to secure to 
the offerer the good pleasure of God. How far 
the burnt-offering partook of a strictly expiatory 
character has already been discussed in the pre- 
liminary essay ; but that this, with all other vo- 
luntary offerings, sprang from a, sense of need 
on the part of the worshipper, and a desire by 
some means to draw nearer to God, there can be 
no doubt. This expression, however, as Knobel 
notes, is never used in connection with the sin- 
offering, whose peculiar office was to obtain the 
pardon, rather than the gracious favor of God. 
Lange : " The sacrifices follow one another in a 
natural sequence. The burnt-offering denotes 
the giving up of life to God; the meat-offering, 
the giving up of life's enjoyment. Both were 
offered for a covering for the universal sinful- 
ness of man. Only the expiatory sacrifices re- 
late to particular sins." 

Yer. 4. And he shall pnt bis hand upon 
the head. — This solemn and essential part of 
the ceremonial is always specified when the law 
is given in detail, not only in connection with 



the burnt-offerings, but also with the peace- 
offerings (iii. 2, 8, 13), and the sin-offerings (it. 
4, 15, 24, 29, 33) ; where in the brevity of tlie 
description it is omitted (ver. 11, ch. v. 6, 15, 18, 
it is yet to be understood. As to the signi- 
ficance of the act, » great variety of opinions lias 
been held ; by many, both of the ancients and 
moderns, it has been understood to symbolize 
the transfer of his sins from the offerer to tlie 
victim, or the substitution of the victim to die in 
his stead (Theodoret, Qusest. 61 in Ex., and 
many others). Thisviewhas countenancefromthe 
laying on of both the hands of the high-priest on 
the head of thescape-goat on the day of atonement 
(xvi. 21) for the express purpose of "putting all 
their sins upon the head of the goat," that he 
might " bear upon him all their iniquities unto 
aland not inhabited;" but the ritual is here 
very different, and this goat was not burned upon 
the altar. On the other band in the case of the 
blasphemer who was to be stoned (xxiv, 14), all 
the witnesses were to lay their hands upon his 
head, clearly not for the purpose of transferring 
their sins to him. By others the act has been 
regarded as a surrender and dedication of the 
offerer's property to God; by still others as a 
dedication of himself through the victim repre- 
senting him ; Lange : " The laying (pressing) 
on of the hand has the effect of substituting ins 
typical sense the animal to be offered for the 

offerer (for him 17). It denotes the transferring 
of the individual life to the offering in a symbo- 
lical sense, not merely the giving up of this pos- 
session (as a gift) to Jehovah." Various other 
views also have been advocated. None of them, 
however, can claim exclusively the sanction of 
Scripture, which prescribes the act, but does not 
define its significance. Neither do any of them 
rest upon evidence independent of preconceived 
views, and of the doctrinal interpretation of 
other Scriptures. This much will be generally 
admitted : That the act connected the offerer 
personally with the victim, and denoted that his 
sacrifice was offered solemnly and for the pur- 
pose of securing to himself that "covering" or 
atonement of which mention is immediately after- 
wards made. The connection of the two clauses 
shows that the laying on of the hand was direotlj 
connected with this atonement. It was certainly 
an expression of faith in the use of the means 
God had appointed for drawing near to Him, and 
the act may be beyond the reach of a closer 
analysis. 

Accepted — the word is of the same root and 
sense as in ver. 3. , 

To make atonement for him. — IvjJ IM]. 
This verb is not used in the Kal. In the Piel 
the primary sense is to cover, and hence to atone 
for. It is used sometimes simply with the acous. 
of the thing (Ps. Ixv. 4 ; Ixxviii. 38 ; Dan. ix. 

24), but usually with *?£ of the thing (Ps. IxM. 
9 ; Jer. xviii. 23, etc.), or of the person (oh, 
xix. 22), or with both (oh. v. 18) ; less frequently 
with S, and more rarely with hi>_ of the person 
and IP of the thing (iv. 26, etc.) ; seldom with 
3 of the thing (ch. xvii. 11). The phrase is used 
chiefly in reference to the sin and trespas* 



CHAP. I. 1-17. 



29 



offerings (chs. iv., v., vi. ) and but rarely in con- 
neotioa witli I lie burnt-oflferings. It is tiere used 
ia connection with the laying on of the hand of 
the offerer, not as in the case of the sin-offering 
[iv. 20, 26, 35) and the trespass-offering (v. 6, 10, 
18, 18; vi. 7, etc.), witb the act of the priest, 
although in all cases the mediatorial function of 
the priest was, as here, necessarily involved. 

Ver. 5. He shall kill. — The killing, skin- 
ning, washing and preparation of the victim, 
were the duty of the offerer, or, according to 
Outram, of some clean person appointed by him. 
Lange : " This is also an expression of the free- 
will of the sacrificer. He must indeed slay his 
own offering himself, just as the devout can offer 
his will to God only in free self-determination. 
Only false priests took the sacrifice by craft or 
force into the court, and slew it themselves, or 
had it slain at their command. ' The functions 
of the priest were concerned with the presenta- 
tion and sprinkling of the blood, and the burning 
of the victim upon the altar. In the case, how- 
ever, of national offerings, the offerer's part also 
was undertaken by the priests assisted by th * 
Levites {'1 Chr. xxix. 24, 34), apparently not in 
consequence of their office, but as representa- 
tives of the whole people. So also in the case 
of the Passovers of Hezekiah (2 Chr. xxx. 17) 
and of Josiah (i6. xxxv. 10, 11) the Levites 
performed these duties on behalf of the people, 
because many of them were disqualified by uq- 
cleanness. Hence, as appears in the ancient 
versions, there has arisen a difference of opiniou 
as to the part performed by the offerer. 

Kill. — tsnty is a general word exactly ren- 
dered, and is frequently used for killing in sa- 
crifice. It does not therefore need to be changed. 
The teehnical word used only for sacrifice ia 
031, while fl'DH = to put to death is never used 
in this connection. 

The bullock. —"Ip3 ]3 = lit, son of an ox, 
applied to a calf (ix. 2) and to a mature young 
bull (13 iv. 3, 14). , 

Before the Lord — i. »., in immediate view 
of the place where His presence was especiaDy 
manifested. Knobel {in loco) notes how the 
slaughtering of the victim where it might be con- 
sidered h bijiBakijmlg tov Beov was provided for 
among the heathen. 

And the piiests. — With the blood began the 
exclusively priestly functions. In the case of 
very numerous sacrifices the Levites might catch 
the blood and pass it to the priests (2 Chr. xxx. 
16). but the "sprinkling" was always done by 
the priests alone. 

Sprinkle. — The word p^I is a different one 
from the T\U (more common in the Hiphil form 
^'l\^) generally used of sprinkling with the finger 
or with hyssop, and refers to the throwing of the 
blood by a jerk against the sides of the altar from 
the plJD or bowl in which the blood of the vic- 
tim was caught. Bosenmiiller shows that the 
word cannot be translated, as some would have 
it. by pour. The LXX. usually, but not always, 
renders the former by wpocxe'tv, the latter by 
palvuv. There seems, however, no sufBoient rea- 
son for changing the translation of the A. V. 
17 



The priest was to sprinkle the blood against all 
the sides of the altar ; and this was done, ac- 
cording to Jewish tradition, by throwing it from 
the bowl successively against the opposite cor- 
ners of the altar, so that it sprinkled against 
each of the adjoining sides. The same law held 
for the peace-offerings (iii. 2, 8, 13 ; ix. 18), and 
trespass-offerings (vii. 2) ; but noc for the sin- 
offering (iv. 5-7). Lange: "The blood is the sym- 
bol of the spiritual life which is given up to 
Jehovah (at the door of the tabernacle of the 
congregation) but which may not be consumed 
with the body of mortality by the fire of God's 
appointment. As it is said ttiat it is * to be 
brought up,' it follows that the slaying belongs 
between the altar and the door of the court, 
where the station of the sacrificer is. That it 
must be poured out on the altar before the burnt- 
offering can be kindled, tells us plainly that no 
offering up of life or body is profitable unless the 
soul has first been given to Jehovah. But this 
lias been given up to the God of the altar, not 
surrendered to the altar -fire to destroy or 
change." 

Before the door of the tabernacle. — The 
altar was in full view of the gate-way or door, 

as it is expressed Ex. xl. 6 nr)3 'Jp^ 

Ver. 6. He shall flay. — The offerer skinned 
the animal, and the skin was the perquisite of 
the officiating priest (vii. 8). Kalisob, however, 
says that " the flaying was probably performed 
by a Levite under the direction of the officiating 
priest." Lange says, " With the slaying the 
life departs, with the skin goes the old appear- 
ance of life, under the conventionally commanded 
division disappears also the old figure of life, in 
the burning disappears the substance of the body 
itself. Only the blood, the soul, does not disap- 
pear, but passes through the purifying process 
of sacrifice, and goes hence into the invisible, 
to God. The pouring out, of the blood at the 
foot of the altar round about, can in no case 
mean 'the convenient disposal of the blood.' 
The blood goes through the sanctified earth to 
God." 

Cut it into his pieces — i. e., properly divide 
it according to custom. 

Vers. 7-9. The priests. — We here again 
come upon those essential parts of the sacrifice 
which could be performed by the priests alone. 
The direction to put fire upon the altar is under- 
stood by Knobel and others to refer only to the 
first sacrifice upon the newly-erected altar, as it 
was required afterwards (vi. 13) that the fire 
should be kept always burning upon the altar ; 
or it may be understood of po arranging the fire 
— when not in use, raked together — as to con- 
sume the sacrifice. The head is especially men- 
tioned in order that the whole animal may be 
expressly included, sin.-ie it would not be con- 
sidered one of the "pieces" into which the ani- 
mal was divided. The/a< 113 used only in con- 
nection with burnt-offerings (vers. 8, 12 ; viii. 
20) probably means tbe fat separated from the 
entrails and taken out to wash. Boohart, a(f(?;;s 
a came sejunctua. All was to be laid in ordrr upon 
the wood; everything about the sacritioe must 
have that method and regard to propriety be- 
coming in an act of worship. According to Jew- 



26 



LEVITICUS. 



ish writers, the parts were so laid upon one an- 
other as to have the same relative positions as in 
the living animal. Outram I. 16, J 13. 

His inwards and his legs, which were to 
be washed, are generally understood of the lower 
viscera and the legs, especially the hind legs, 
below the knee ; it is doubtful whether the wash- 
ing was required for the heart, the lungs and the 
liver — LXX. iymiXia Kal ol nods;; Vulg., intes- 
tina et pedes. Lange: "Head and Fat. The 
knowledge of earth and its prosperity must first 
pass into the fiery death ; then also the purified 
organs of growth, nourishment, and motion," 

Shall burn. — "''E'pn ^ to cause to ascend in 
smoke, as incense. The word is used only of the 
burning of incense, of the sacred lamps, and of 
sacrifices, and is a very different one from 'llj? 
the word for common burning, which is applied 
to the victims, or parts of victims burned with- 
out the camp (iv. 12, 21, etc.). It connects the 
bloody sacrifice with the incense, and shows that 
the object of the burning was not to destroy the 
victim, hut rather, as declared just below, to 
cause its essence to ascend as a sweet savor unto 
God. 

An offering made by fire. — H^N a word 
applied exclusively to sacrifices (although some- 
times to the parts of them eaten by the priests. 
Bent, xviii. 1 ; Josh. xiii. 14), in xxiv. 7 applied 
to the incense laid upon the shewbread. The 
appearance of tautology, hardly to be avoided in 
the translation, does not exist in the original. 
The word is usually associated, as here, with the 
phrase "a sweet savour unto the Lord" 
(LXX. oaiiil Evucliac). This phrase is applied to 
all sacrifices, hut belongs peculiarly to the burnt- 
offering ; as the phrase to make atoneTnenthelonga 
peculiarly, but not exclusively, to the sin- offer- 
ing. Its intent is plainly to describe the divine 
pleasure in the sacrifice offered. Theodoret 
( Qusest. 62 in Ex.) : " By human things he teaches 
Divine. As we delight in sweet odors, so he 
calls the sacrifice made according to the law a 
Bweet savor. But that this is not to be taken in 
the naked letter is shown both by the Divine na- 
ture which is incorporeal, and by the ill smell 
of the burnt bones. For what can smell worse 
than these?" Lange: "The conception is not 
exhausted in the conception of a sweet, pleasant 
smell. As in a pictorial sense, anger is repre- 
sented by the snorting of the nostrils, bo the re- 
signation of self to God and His rule is called a 
eavnr well-pleasing to the nose." 

Vers. 10-13. The burnt-offering from the flock. 
The law here being essentially the same as for 
the bullock is more briefly given, except in re- 
gard to the place of slaying. The offering might 
be either from the sheep or goats, but the former 
were probably more esteemed. 

Ver. 11. On the side of the altar north- 
vrard. — So also the table of shew-bread with 
the continual meat-offering stood on the north 
side of the holy place (Ex. xxvi. 35) The east 
side of the altar was the place for the heap of 
ashes on the side towards the door by which they 
must be carried out; the west side would have 
been inconvenient, being towards the holy place 
with the laver between; the south side had pro- 
bably (as Josephus says was the case in the se- 



cond temple. Bell. Jud. V. 5, 6, a-rrb /iea^/iPptafJ: 
ctt' avrov avoSog) the ascent to the' altar whicfc ' 
must be kept clear ; so that the north side alone 
remained. Lange : " Death is something be- 
longing to the mysterious night, and belongs as 
a night-side of life, to the night-side of the earth; 
just as also the priestly eating of the shew-bread 
must be considered as a night meal." In the 
same place were also to be slain the sin-offerings 
(iv. 24, 29, 33) and the trespass-offerings (vii. 2). 
There being ample room in the court for the sa- 
crifice of the smaller victims, which also required 
less time in their preparation, they were killed 
near the altar instead of at the door. Nothing 
is said of the peace-offerings which, acooriiingto 
Mishna, might be killed in any part of the court. 
When not too numerous, however, they would 
have been more conveniently slain in the same 
place. 

Ver 12. His head, etc. — is to be connected 
per zeugma with he shall cut, i. e., he shall out 
it into his pieces and (sever) his head and 
his fat. 

Vers. 14-17. The burnt-offering of fowls. 
From chap. v. 7-11 ; xii. 8, it is probable that 
this offering was for those who were unable to 
bring the more costly offerings. It might be 
either of turtledoves, or of young pigeons; but 
only one bird was required. The turtledoves 
(iurtur auritus) appear in vast numbers in Pales- 
tine early in April, and are easily captured; 
later in the season they entirely disappear. The 
common pigeon has been bred in the country 
from time immemorial, and also is found wild, 
at all seasons, in great abundance ; but when full- 
grown is difficult of capture. It has, however, 
in the course of the year, several broods of two 
each, which may be easily taken on the nest. 
Hence, in the case of the pigeon, the mention of 
the age. Knobel observes that the allowing of 
doves or pigeons in sacrifice was quite excep- 
tional among the ancient Orientals, and distin- 
guished the Hebrew law from others. We have 
then in this a fresh instance of the especial care 
for the poor in the Divine law. 

Ver. 15. And the priest shall. — In this case 
the offerer's part must be performed by the priest 
to prevent the loss of the small quantity of blood 
contained in the bird. No mention is made of 
the laying on of hands which was perhaps omit- 
ted on account of the diminutive size of the 
victim. 

Pinch off his head. — p'lD occurs only here 
and in v, 8, and its precise meaning has been 
much questioned. In v. 8 it is expressly limited 
by the provision that the head was not to be en- 
tirely separated from the body in the case of the 
bird to be eaten by the priest ; in regard to the 
other bird (v. 7, 10), it was to be treated as the 
bird for a burnt-offering. As there is no such 
limitation here, as it is implied that the treat- 
ment was different from that of the bird in v. 
8, and as the head was to be immediately burned 
on the altar, while something further was to be 
done to the body, the precept must be unders'oi'' 
to require an entire separation of the head. So 
Outram, following the Mishna and other Jewish 
authorities. Lange, however, considers from 
the analogy of v. 8, that the head was not to 



CHAP. I. 1-17. 



27 



be disjoined from the body. He translates pSp, 
" cleave in two, so that death is produced and the 
blood can flow out as from a vessel. The closely 
related Vho means apparently to tear off; the 
closely related njS means to cleave, cut into." 
The LXX. has avoKvi^eiv in both places. The 
exact sense seems best expressed by tlie margin 
of the A. V. — pinch off the head with the nail. 

Pressed out against. — The small quantity 
of blood made it practically impossible to deal 
with it as in the case of the larger sacrifices. 
The sense of 'U1 nsOJ is that the blood of the 

T ; • 
bird should be thoroughly squeezed out against 
the side of the altar. 

Ver. 16. His crop with its filth. The ob- 
scure word nnVJS has occnsioned much differ- 

TT : 
ence of opinion ; see Textual Notes. The ren- 
dering here given is ably supported at length 
by Rosenmiiller. This was to be flun» on the 
heap of ashes and refuse east of the altar. 

Ver. 17. He shall cleave. — The priest was 
to split the binl open, (by its wings, or by means 
of its outspread wings, Lange), but so as not to 
separate the parts ; in the same way a fowl is 
now prepared for broiling. Lange : " The di- 
rection was given to take the place, as tar as 
possible, of the cutting in pieces of the burnt- 
offering, i. e., the destruction of the figure of the 
body." 

A sweet savour. — The repetition of the same 
words as in ver. 9 and ver. 13, shows that this 
humbler sacrifice of the poor was acceptable 
equally with the more costly sacrifice of the 
rich. 

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL. 

I. The ofi'erings mentioned in this chapter 
were purely voluntary ; yet when offered, the 
law in regard to them was strict and sharply 
defined. In this the Israelites were taught 
a general principle of the Divine will. Who- 
ever seeks to draw near to God must do so 
in the way of God's own appointment. That 
worship only is acceptable to Him which is in 
accordance with His will. Not that which may 
seem most effective, not that which may be 
thought best adapted to man's needs; but sim- 
ply that which God approves may be offered to 
Him. 

II. These offerings must be " perfect," 1i. «., 
without blemish, and the most scrupulous clean- 
liness was required in offering them. These re- 
quirements were of course necessary in view of 
the typical relation of the sacrifices to Christ ; 
but they also taught the general principle that 
in his offerings to God man may not try to put 
off upon Him what is of inferior value — the light 
coin, or the scraps of unoccupied time. God is 
to be served with the best that man can com- 
mand. And in this service regard must be had 
to the infinite purity and holiness of Him with 
whom we have to do. 

III. The sacrifice might not be completed by 
the offerer. Man, being sinful, was unworthy 
to offer propitiation to God for himself. The 
priest must intervene for the sprinkling of the 



blood and the burning of the victim. In view 
of the peculiar virtue everywhere attributed 
to blood as "the life" (Gen. ix. 4, etc.), and 
the especial office of that "life" in connec- 
tion with the disturbed relations between God 
and man (oh. xvii. 10-12, etc.), and of the ap- 
pointment of the priest to this duty, it is plain 
that he here acts in a mediatorial capacity. As 
Cajvin (in loco) notes, "ministers of reconcilia- 
tion must be sought, made competent to their 
high function by Divine anointing. This points 
to Christ not only as the Victim offered for sin, 
but also (as is shown at length in the Ep. to the 
Heb.) as Himself the Priest." In general it es- 
tablishes the principle that they only may exer- 
cise authority on God's behalf whom He has 
commissioned for the purpose. 

IV. In the provision for a less costly burnt- 
offering, we see that while in His providence 
God distributes unequally the means of offering 
to Himself, He yet provides that an equally ac- 
ceptable offering shall be within the reach of all. 
The poor widow's two mites were greater in His 
eyes than the costly gifts of the rich. The same 
thing is true when the propitiatory character of 
the offering is considered. Before God all souls 
are alike precious, and all equally have the op- 
portunity of drawing near to Him. 

V. In the New Testament certain words and 
phrases are applied to Christ which are the Sep- 
tuagint translations of the technical words here 
and elsewhere used of the sacrifices. Thus He 
is called (Eph. v. 2) irpoaijiopav Kal Bvaian t( fef 
£if b<nii)v EtKjrfiaf, and in Heb. ii. 17 He is said to 
be •Ktarbg apx^epevc ^a Trpbg rdv tiedv, elg to V^dcuea- 
dat rag afiapriag tov ^aoii, and in 1 Jno. ii. 2. and 
iv. 10, He is described as our 'Aaojiog vepl ran 
afiapnCni. It seems impossible to suppose that 
the Apostles could have used these expressions 
and others like them without intending to point 
to Christ as the Antitype of the sacrifices, and as 
actually accomplishing that which they had pre- 
figured. From the work of Christ, therefore, in 
effecting reconciliation between God and man, 
light is thrown back upon the function of the 
sacrifices; and that function once established, 
we may learn again from the sacrifices something 
of the nature of the propitiatory work of Christ. 

VI. Wordsworth notes that a new Parashah, 
or section of the law, as read in Synagogues, 
begins at i. 1, and extends to vi. 7. "The pa- 
rallel Haphtarah," or Section of the Prophets, 
"is Isa. xliii. 21 — xliv. 23, where God reproves 
Israel for their neglect of His worship, and pro- 
mises them forgiveness of sins, and comforts the 
church with the pledges of divine mercy. Thus 
the ancient Jewish church, when listening to 
the law concerning offerings for sin, declared its 
faith in a better Covenant, and in larger out- 
pourings of divine favor and spiritual grace in 
Christ." 

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL. 

The course of God's dealings with man always, 
since man's fall, is to bring about a closer com- 
munion with Himself, as man is able to bear it. 
The legislation from Mt. Sinai was a great ad- 
vance ; but here there is a fresh advance. The 
Divine voice calls no longer from the Mount, but 



28 



LEVITICUS. 



from the tabernacle in the midst of the congre- 
gation. Thus another step is talien towards 
God's speaking " unto us by His Son." 

Provision is made in these three chapters for 
voluntary sacrifices. The definitely prescribed 
duties of man are always a minimum ; God re- 
quires of man the absolute devotion of himself 
and all that he is and has ; this is recognized in 
the law by the provision for voluntary sacrifices 
and free-will-offerings of every kind. 

All sacrifices were types of Christ inasmuch as 
after His sacrifice all others ceased. Origen. 
No one sucrifice could express the manifoldness 
of that which He wrought ; therefore the several 
aspects of His work are adumbrated by various 
types. In this chapter we have the whole burnt- 
offering, the most general and comprehensive, as 
the most ancient, of the sacrifices ; it is there- 
fore the one which in the most general way sets 
forth the sacrifice of Christ. In so far as it be- 
came specialized by the introduction of other 
kinds of sacrifice, it is thought to be n symbol 
of entire consecration. It therefore typifies the 
entire consecration of Christ to God, and through 



Him, that of His followers, according to the allu- 
sion in Rom. xii. 1, which probably has this su- 
crifice more particularly in view. 

Whatever is offered to God must be perfect in 
its kind. The offering may be varied in value 
according to the ability of the offerer, for all 
souls are alike precious to God, and He provides 
that all may be able to draw near to Him. Still, 
from the largest to the smallest offering, none 
may be allowed with blemish or defect. 

On each sacrifice the offerer must lay his 
hands ; so must man identify himself with what 
he offers to God. Such offering is a serious and 
a personal matter, and one may not delegate such 
duty to another ; but must give to it personal 
thought and care. Sinful man cannot directly 
approach the Majesty on high, before whom he 
stands as a sinner; he must come through a Me- 
diator, typified of old by the priest, and He 
"makes atonement for him." 

As the law had but "a shadow of good things 
to come," (Heb. x. 1), so do they who now con- 
secrate themselves to God offer that ri'al sacri- 
fice which the Israelites, offering various animals 
under the law, did but prefigure. Theodoret. 



B.— OBLATIONS (MEAT-OFFERINGS). 

Chapter II. 1-16. 

And when any [a souP] will oiFer a meat-offering [an offering of an oblation'] 
unto the Lord, his offering shall be o/fine flour ; and he shall pour oil upon it, and 
put frankincense thereon :^ and he shall bring it to Aaron's sons the priests : and 
he shall take thereout his handful of the flour thereof, and of the oil thereof, with' 
all the frankincense thereof; and the priest shall burn the memorial of it upon the 
altar, to be an offering made by fire, of a sweet savour unto the Lord : and the 
remnant of the meat-offering [oblation^] shall be Aaron's and his sons' : ii is a thing 
most holy of the offerings of the Loed made by fire. 

And if thou bring an oblation of a meat-offering [an offering of an oblation'] 
baken in the oven, it shall be unleavened cakes of fine flour mingled with oil, or 
unleavened wafers anointed with oil. And if thy oblation be a meat-offering [offer- 
ing be an oblation^] baken in a pan, it shall be of fine flour unleavened, mingled 
with oil. Thou shalt' part it in pieces, and pour oil thereon : it* la a meat-offering 



TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL. 

1 Ver. 1. iy33. — Ab this word ia generally rendered a aouX in the A. V., eBpecially in the similar places, iv. 2; v. 1, 2, 
4, 15, 17 ; vi. 2, e(c., it seems better to preserve as far as may be uniformity of translation. 

2 Ver. 1, The words hr-re traoslaterl in the A. V. meai-offering are the same as those rendered in ver. 4 an ohlaMm of 
a mtatrqffering. In this technical language of the law it is certninly desirable to preserve a strict consistency of transla- 
tion, even if it must sometimes cause an appearance of tautology. The word T3"in will therefore be rendered throughout 

I T :It 
offering ; gift might be in itself considered a better translation ; but as it is already rendered offering twenty-nine times la 
Iicv., and almost universally (with only two exceptions) in Num , less change is req\iired to make that Iranslation uniform. 
On the other hand nnjD is already always in Lev. meat-offering in the A. V., and generally so in Num.; but the sense of 

meat has so generally changed since that version was made, that the term had better be replaced. In this book therefore 
it will be always rendered oblation, as it is in the Vulg. very frequently oblatio, 

* Ver. 1. The Sam. and LXX. add oblatio eet, i. e., this is the law of the oblation. 

* Ver. 2. With ; for a similar construction of 7J?, see Ex. xii. 8. 

s Ver. 6. nina ; on this use of the Infln. abs. comp. Ex. xiii. 3; xx. 8. 

T 

' Ver. 6. The ancient form NIH is here changed in ten MSS. and in the Sam. to the later NTI- 



CHAP II. 1-16. 



29 



7 [an oblation'']. And if thy oblation be a meat-offering [offering be an oblation'] 
baken in the frying-pan [boiled in the pot'], it shall be made of fine flour with oil. 

8 And thou shalt bring the meat-offering [oblation*] that is made of these things 
unto the Loed : and when it is presented unto the priest, he shall bring' it unto 

9 the altar. And the priest shall take from the meat-offering [oblation'] a memorial 
thereof, and shall burn it upon the altar : it is a.n offering made by fire, of a sweet 

10 savour unto the Lord. And that which is. left of thp meat-offering [oblation*] shall 
be Aaron's and his sons' : it is a thing most holy of the offerings of the Loed made 

11 by fire. No meat-offering [oblation'], which ye shall bring unto the Lord, shall 
be made with leaven : for ye shall burn no leaven, nor any honey, in any offering 

12 of the Lord made by fire. As for the oblation [As an° offering'] of the first-fruits, 
ye shall offer them unto the Lord : but they shall not be burnt on the altar for a 

13 sweet savour. And every oblation of thy meat-offering [offering of thy oblation'] 
shalt thou season with salt ; neither shalt thou suffer the salt of the covenant of 
thy God to be lacking from thy meat-offering [oblation'] : with all thine offerings 

14 thou shalt offer salt. And if thou offer a meat-offering [an oblation'] of thy [the] 
first-fruits unto the Lord, thou shalt offer for the meat-offeriag [an oblation'] of 
thy first-fruits, green ears of corn [grain'"] dried [roasted"] by the fire, even corn 

15 [grain'"] beaten out of full ears. And thou shalt put oil upon it, and lay frankin- 

16 cense thereon : it" is a meat-offering [an oblation']. And the priest shall burn 
the memorial of it, part of the beaten corn [grain'"] thereof, and part of the oil 
thereof, with aU the frankincense thereof: His &n offering made by fire unto the 
Lord. 

' Ver. 7. ril^n*10, derived (Gesenius, Fuerst) from K?n^, to boil up, and interpreted by Maimonldes, Knobel, Keil 

and others of a pot or kettle for boiling; — "a deep vessel snitable for boiling flour and other substances thoroughly." 
EaliBch. 

8 Ver. 8. "KJJJ in Hiph. is here used as the enhanced, second power of JTp in Hiph. as in Jer. xxx. 21." Lange. 

9 Ver. 12. The A. V. is singularly unfortunate ; this clause plainly refers to the leaven and honey of ver. 11. 

10 Ver. 14. Com is in this country so generally understood of maize that it seems better to substitute the more general 



11 Ver. 14. Dried does not sufficiently give the sense of ^^7p^=roasted. 

w Ver. 15. Eighteen MSS. and the Sam here again, as in ver. 6, read XTl. 



EXEGETICAI, AND CRITICAL. 

The oblation, or meat-offering, naturally fol- 
lows next after the burnt-offering, because it 
was usually an accompanimeat of that offering. 
That it was invariably so has been often main- 
tained (Outram, Bahr, Kurtz, etc.), and in- 
deed it was always offered, and also a drink- 
offering, with most of the other sacrifices (Num. 
XV. 2-13); but from this chapter with vi. 14, 
and with Num. v. 15, it appears that the obla- 
tion might be offered separately, although the 
reasons given for this by Kalisch need not be 
admitted. It is also associated with the burnt- 
offering in the generality of its signification as 
opposed to the more special offerings which fol- 
low. Ijange : " It signifies not so much resig- 
nation as giving, or a return, in the sense of 
childlike thankfulness, resignation of the sup- 
port of life, of the enjoyment of life. Its motive 
is not through a divine demand as the perform- 
ance of a duty or a debt, but through an in- 
stinctive desire of communion with Jehovah. 
Hence it is here indeed the soul, tyflJ, that 
brings the sacrifice, not the ms as in the burnt- 

, TT 

offering ; and in spite of the grammatical equi- 
valence of both expressions, we must not oblite- 
rate this distinction." The word PinjD itself 
originally means a present with which one seeks 
to obtain the favor of a superior (Gen. xzxii. 21, 



22; xliii. 11, 15, etc.); then /car' i^ox^v, what 
is presented to God, a sacrifice. At first it was 
used alike of the bloody and the unbloody sacri- 
fice (Gen. iv. 3, 4) ; but under the law il is 
restricted absolutely to bloodless offerings. The 
full expression, as in vers. 1 and 4, is ]3"1j^ 
nnjD, LXX. dapoD 6vaia, although often either 
iopov or dvaia alone. Besides the kinds of obla- 
tion mentioned here, there were others, as the 
shew-bread and the jealousy-offering. With 
those enumerated in this chapter salt was always 
to be used (ver. 13) and oil (vers. 1, 4-7, 15); 
and with those of flour and grain, incense also 
(vers. 1, 15). 

Only a handful of these oblations was to be 
burnt upon the altar, the rest being eaten by 
the priests in " a holy place." The oblation of 
unprepared flour or of flour simply mingled 
with oil (vii. 10) was the common property of 
the priests (ver. 3) ; while that which was cooked 
belonged to the officiating priest (vii. 9, 10). 

" While the bloody sacrifice is to be purified 
of its unclean portions, the unbloody sacrifice is 
to be enriched by the addition of oil, incense 
and salt ; i. e. the enjoyment of life becomes en- 
riched and preserved clean through spirit and 
through prayer, and especially through the salt 
of the covenant— through the hard spiritual dis- 
cipline which keeps pure the divine fellowship. 
In its nature the "meat-offering" [oblation] is 
closely related to the salvation (or peace) offer- 



80 



LEVITICUS. 



ino-; yet the latter has reference to the enjoy- 
ment or desire of uncommon prosperity, while 
the former relates to the enjoyment of usual and 
quiet existence. The meat-offering culminates 
in the shew-bread (Ex. xxv. 30; Lev. xxiv. 5)." 
Lange. " In all these cases the sacred charac- 
ter of the offering was conveyed not only by the 
admixture of oil, the type of holiness and sauo- 
tifioation, the addition of frankincense, the em- 
blem of devotion, and the use of salt, the agent 
of preservation, and therefore called ' the salt 
of the covenant;' but more decidedly still by 
the rigid prohibition of honey and leaven, rep- 
resenting fermentation and corruption, by the 
portion devoted to God and burnt in His honor 
as a 'memorial' to bring the worshipper to His 
gracious remembrance, and lastly by the injunc- 
tion to leave to the priests the remainder as 
most holy." Kalisch. 

Three kinds of oblation are here mentioned, 
the second of which had three varieties : I. Fine 
flour with frankincense (vers. 1-^3) ; II. Cakes 
or pastry : (a) of unleavened cakes mixed with 
oil and baked in an oven (ver. 4), or (6) of thin 
cakes, also unleavened, baked and then broken 
up and oil poured over them (vers. 5, 6), or (c) 
of fine flour boiled iu oil (ver. 7) ; the directions 
common to all these varieties occupy vers. 8-10, 
while those concerning all oblations are in vers. 
11-13; III. Parched kernels of the first-fruits 
of grain with frankincense. 

I. The first kind of oblation. Vers. 1-3. 

Ver. 1. A soul=a person, any one of either 
sex. 

Fine flour — nib, a word of uncertain deri- 
vation, but clearly meaning fine flour, whe- 
ther as separated from the bran, or as sifted 
from the coarser particles. The Syr. here 
renders puram, and in Gen. xviii. 6 it is 
put in apposition with HOp D'Sp. It is proba- 
ble that this flour was generally of wheat (see 
Ex. xxix. 2), and the LXX. always translate it 

atfiiSaliQ. The Vulg has similia. T\lb does not 
occur in connection with the jealousy-oblation 
of barley. Num. v. 15. 

Put frankincense thereto. — The incense 
was not mixed with the flour and oil, but so 
added that it might be wholly removed with the 
"handful" which was taken to be burned with 
the incense upon the altar. Frankincense was 
"a costly, sweet-smelling, pale yellow resin, 
the milky exudation of a shrub, used for sacred 
fumigations" (Fuerst), and also for purposes 
of royal luxury (Cant. iii. 6). It is considered 
to have been a pioduct of Southwestern Arabia. 
lis use in the oblations presented with the ani- 
mal sacrifices must have been important. Mai- 
monides (More Neboch., lib. III., c. 46) : Ele- 
gitque ad earn thus, propter bonitalem odoris fumi 
ipsius in illis locis, ubi fcetor est ez carnibus com- 
bustis. 

Ver. 2. And he shall take.— The A. V. 
like the Heb. leaves the antecedent of the pro- 
noun somewhat uncertain ; but the Targ. Onke- 
los and the Vulg. are undoubtedly right in re- 
ferring it to the priest, see vi. 15, and oomp. 
also V. 12. The transfer of the handful from 



the offerer to the priest who was to burn it 
would have been inconvenient. 

Haudful. — Plainly what the hand could hold, 
and not, as the Rabbins have it, with the thumb 
and little finger closed, leaving three fingers 
open. 

Memorial. — ni3iX, applied only to that 
part of the oblation which was burnt upon the 
altar (vers. 9, 16 ; vi. 15), to the corresponding 
part of the sin-offering of flour (v. 12), of the 
jealousy-offering (Num. v 26), and also to the 
frankincense placed upon the shew-bread (xxiv. 
7), which last was also burnt upon the altar. 
The LXX. render by /ivtjfidawov, and the figura- 
tive application of that word to the prayers and 
alms of Cornelius (Acts x. 4) throws light upon 
the significance of the oblation. 

An ofiering made by fire, of a sweet 
savour unto the Lord. — The same expression 
as is applied to the burnt-offering, i. 9, 13, 17. 

Ver. 3. And the remnant, etc. — So far as 
the offerer was concerned, the oblation was as 
wholly given to the Lord as the burnt-offering; 
nothing of it was restored to him. There was a 
difference in the method by which it was given: 
the burnt-offering was wholly burned except 
the skin, which was given to the priest; the 
oblation had only an handful burned, together 
with all the incense, and the bulk of it was con- 
sumed by the priests. 

A thing most holy.— D'-if'np^ i^lp, lit. holy 
of holies. This term is applied to all sacrificial 
gifts which were wholly devoted to God, yet of 
which a part was given to Him by being given 
to His priests It is not applied to the burnt- 
offerings, nor to the priestly oblations (vi. 19- 
23), nor to any other sacrifices which were 
wholly consumed upon the altar. All sacrifices 
were holy, and the phrase most holy is not to 
mark those to which it is applied as holier than 
the others ; but is used only in regard to those 
which, having been wholly devoted, might pos- 
sibly be perverted to other uses. Thus it is 
used of the oblations (vers. 3, 10; vi. 17; x. 
12) of such of the sin and trespass-offerings as 
were not burned without the camp (vi. 25, 29; 
vii. 1, 6; X. 17; xiv. 13; Num. xviii. 9), and 
of the shew-bread (xxiv. 9). Its use is similar 
when applied to other things than sacrifices; 
thus, Ex. xl. 10, it is used of the altar in con- 
tradistinction to the tabernacle which is called 
holy (ver. 9), because the altar was thus to be 
guarded from the touch of the people, while 
there was no danger in regard to the tabernacle 
proper, since they were forbidden to enter it at 
all (comp. Ex. xxix. 37) ; so the term is applied 
to the sacred incense (Ex. xxx. 36), and to all 
objects devoted by vow, whether man or beast 
or field (xxvii. 28). The parts of all "most 
holy " sacrifices which were not placed upon 
the altar must be eaten by the priests themselves 
in " a holy place " (vi. 26; vii. 6; x. 17, etc.); 
and this "holy place" — not the sanctuary itself 
— is more particularly described (vi. 26) as "in . 
the court of the tabernacle of the congregation," 
and " beside the altar ' (x. 12), Whereas the 
priests' portion of other sacrifices might be 
eaten with their families in any "clean place" 
(X. 14). 



CHAP. II. 1-16. 



31 



II. The second kind of oblation. Vers. 4-13. 

This included several Tarieties of cakes or 
pastry all prepared from fine flour and with oil, 
but without frankincense. 

(a) The first variety, ver. 4. 

Ver. 4. Baken in the oven. — "^^iin is an 
oven of any kind, but must here mean a porta- 
ble oven, or rather a large earthen pot or jar, 
such as is still in use in the East for baking 
cakes, such as is mentioned in xi. 35 as capable 
of being broken ; this was heated by a fire 
inside. 

Cakes. — Hwn from 77nr^to be perforated. 
A thick kind of cake pierced with holes after 
the fashion of our bakers' biscuit. These were 
mixed up with oil before baking. 

Wafers — from L)p^=:to beat or spread out thin, 
This denotes a kind of cake well described by 
wafer. It is often cooked by the Arabs on the 

outside of the same vessel in which the Hlvn 
are baked at the same time. The oil was ap- 
plied to these after they were baked. 
(6) The second variety, vers. 6, 6. 

Ver. 5. In a pan. — H^nsn-?;?. Authori- 
ties differ as to whether this is to be understood 
as in the text of the A. V. of a frying-pan, or as 
in the margin of a flat plate. The LXX. render 
T^yavov which seems to be equally perpetuated 
in the iron frying-pans of the Cabyles of Africa, 
and the earthen plates of the Bedouins of the 
East, both being called tajen. The distinction 
of this variety of oblation from the former will 
be more marked if we may understand it of 
fried cakes, according to the translation of the 
A. V. in 1 ChroQ. xxiii. 29. This was both to 
be made up with oil, and to have oil poured on 
it after it was cooked and broken into pieces. 

(c) The third variety, ver. 7. 

Ver. 7. Boiled in a pot. — This is another 
variety made up with oil and boiled, perhaps 
also boiled in oil. Lange notes that with each 
successive advance in the form of the oblation 
" the addition of the oil seems to rise, as if the 
varying grade of spiritual life was distinguished 
by the consecration of life's enjoyment. (See 
Keil, Knobel, 363.) But throughout the oil of 
the Spirit is the peculiar or appropriate vital 
essence of the offering, especially in the burnt- 
offering and the thank-offering, and above all in 
the sacrifice of the priests." 

Directions common to both these varieties of 
oblation. Vers. 8-10. These scarcely differ from 
the directions ia vers. 2, 3, except in the omis- 
sion of incense which was not used with the 
cooked oblation. The [D O^fU in ver. 9 has 
the same sense with the ]D Yiyp of ver. 2 
(comp. iii. 3 with iv. 8, 31, 35 ; and iv. 10 with 
iv. 31, 35), and means simply to lift off the part 
to be burned. It does not denote, as the Rab- 
bins and others assert, any special waving cere- 
mony. 

Vers. 11-13. General directions concerning all 
oblations. 

Ye shall burn no leaven, nor any 
honey. — These were strictly prohibited as of- 
ferings lo be laid upon the altar, but not for 
those offered to God by being given to His 



priests; thus they are allowed in ver. 12. Lea- 
vened bread is also required in the peace-offer- 
ing to be used as a heave-offering (vii. 13, 14), 
and in the Pentecostal loaves to be waved before 
the Lord (xxiii. 17, 20), and honey is expressly 
enumerated among the first-fruits offered under 
Hezekiah (2 Chron. xxxi. 5). The reason for 
the exclusion of these from the altar was un- 
doubtedly their fermenting property (for honey 
was anciently used in the preparation of vinegar, 
Plin. Nat. Hist. xi. 15 ; xxi. 48) ; fermentation 
has ever been recognized " as an apt symbol of 
the working of corruption in the human heart" 
(Clark) both in Scripture (Luke xii. 1 ; 1 Cor. 
V. 8; Gal. V. 9), and among the ancients gene- 
rally (Aul. Gell. Noct. Att. x. 15), and hence 
was unsuitable for the altar of Jehovah, although 
as abundantly shown by Bochart [Sieroe. Ed. 
Rosen. III., p. 394 sq. ) continually offered to 
the heathen deities. Honey was also by the 
ancient interpreters generally connected with 
the delicise carnis so destructive of the spiritual 
life. " The leaven signifies an incongruous fel- 
lowship with the world, easily becoming conta- 
gious, which must be excluded from the priestly 
fellowship with Jehovah. The honey, on the 
other hand, signified in contrast with the leaven, 
the dainty enjoyment of children, or especially 
infants (Isa. vii. 15), and was no food for the 
communion of priestly men with Jehovah." 
Lange. 

Ver. 12. As an offering. — The sense is 
plainly that while leaven, i. e. anything made 
with leaven, and honey might not be burned 
upon the altar, they were yet allowable as offer- 
ings of first-fruits to be consumed by the priests. 

Ver. 13. This verse gives directions applica- 
ble to all oblations, and in fact to all sacrifices. 
The salt of the covenant of thy God.— 
A covenant of salt is a perpetual covenant. 
Num. xviii. 19; 2 Chron. xiii. 5; and this ex- 
pression is said to be still in use among the 
Arabs at this day. Salt in its unalterable and 
preserving property is the opposite of leaven 
and of honey. Its symbolical meaning is there- 
fore plain ; the purifying and preserving prin- 
ciple must never be wanting from any offering 
made in covenant-relation with God. 

•With all thine offerings. — From the con- 
nection of this clause it might, with Knobel, be 
taken as applicable only to oblations; but as 
salt was used with all offerings (Ezek. xliii. 24 : 
Mark ix. 49), not only among the Hebrews, but 
other nations also (Plin. Nat. Hist, xxxi, 41 in 
sacris . . . nulla eonficiuntur sine mola salsa), and 
as on account of this universally recognized 
usage no other direction is anywhere given 
about it in the law, it seems better to take the 
words as a parenthetical clause meant to apply 
to all offerings of every kind. 

III. The third kind of oblation. Vers. 14-16. 
This kind of oblation is separated from the others 
probably because it was not like them offered in 
connection with the bloody sacrifices, but by 
itself, like the same kind of offering mentioned 
in Num. xviii. 12, 13. That offering, however, 
was obligatory, while this was voluntary. 
Lange, however, considers that "this direction 
looks back to ver. 12, completing it. It is true 
that the leavened loaves of the first-fruits might 



S2 



LEVITICUS. 



not be brought to the sacrificial fire; but it is 
not on that account to be said that in general 
the first-fruits were not to be offered. Accord- 
ingly the form is now prescribed." These pre- 
cepts are of course to be understood of private 
and voluntary oblations of first-fruits ; both the 
time (on the morrow after the Passover-Sabbath, 
xxiii. 11 ) and the material (barley — for this only 
was ripe at that time) of the public and required 
oblation grain were prescribed, 

Ver. 14. Green ears of grain. — Ears freshly 
gathered of the maturing grain scarcely yet 
quite ripe. Stalks of wheat with the ears, 
gathered before tbey are entirely ripe, roasted 
by the fire, and the kernels of grain then beaten 
out. is still a favorite food in the East. 

Vers. 15. 16. Oil and frankincense were 
to be added, and the oblation treated as that in 
vers. 2, 3. 

DOCTEINAL AND ETHICAL. 

I. As the burnt-offerings were of such domes- 
tic animals as were used for food, and yet not 
from every kind of them ; so the oblations were 
of certain kinds of farinaceous food in common 
use — uot indeed of all kinds, but of a sufficient 
variety to place the material of the offering 
always within easy reach. Both kinds of offer- 
ings, which were entirely voluntary, were thus 
made easily accessible to the people, and they 
were taught that the things of the daily life 
were to be sanctified by offerings to God. As 
the perfect animal was required for the burnt- 
offering, so the fine flour was demanded for tlie 
oblation ; that which is given to God is to be of 
the best man has. 

II. Tbat which is once absolutely given to 
God may not afterwards be turned aside to any 
other use. However voluntary the gift, when it 
has once been stamped "most holy," it belongs 
to Him alone. The principle is recognized in 
the N. T. in the case of Ananias and Sapphira. 
Yet what is given to God must often, as in the 
oblation, be largely consumed by those who 
minister on His behalf, and by secondary instru- 
mentalities generally. This is recognized by 
St. Paul in 1 Cor. ix. 13, 14, and must necessa- 
rily be true of the great mass of the gifts in the 
Christian Church given to God for the uphold- 
ing and advancement of His kingdom on earth. 

III. In the exclusion from the oblation of all 
ferment and the requirement of the salt of purity 
and preservation is plainly taught that approach 
to God must be free from contamination of " the 
leaven of hypocrisy," and must have in it both 
purity and steadfastness. 

IV. In the oblation, recognizing as a whole 
that man gives back to God of that which God 
has given to him, the us« of the oil seems to 
have a more special significance. As an article 
of food it meant also what was meant by the 
fine flour; but inasmuch as oil is constantly in 
Scripture the emblem of Divine grace given 
through the Spirit, it was perhaps intended by 



its use in the oblation to signify also the ac- 
knowledgment that spiritual gifts are from God 
and belong to Him. 

V. Much of the ritual of the oblation is ap- 
plied in the N. T. to Christian duties and affec- 
tions, sometimes in what is common to this with 
other offerings, sometimes in what belonged to 
this alone. Several such passages have already 
been pointed out ; others may be added: Matt. 
xvi. 6, Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees 
and S>idducees : Mark ix. 49, 50, Every sacrifice 

shall be salted with salt Have salt in 

yourselves, and have peace one with another; 
1 Cor. v. 7, 8; Col. iv. 6, Let your speech be 
alway with grace, seasoned with salt ; Heb. xiii. 
15, through Christ, Let us offer the sacrifice of 
praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our 
lips giving thanks to His name. 

HOMILETICAL AND PEACTICAL. 

The oblation to God, though unbloody and 
among the least of the sacrifices, must still be 
the best of its kind, of fine flour. It must have 
upon it the oil of an act of the Spirit, and the 
sweet frankincense of prayer. That it may be 
truly a gift to God, and acceptable, it is only 
necessary that a mere handful of it be actually 
burned upon His altar ; the rest is still a gift to 
Him, although consumed by those who minister 
in His service. ** It is joined with the burnt- 
offering like blessing with faithful discharge of 
duty." Lange. 

Every variety of food, fit for the altar, must 
be sanctified by an oblation. We ever ask: 
"Give us this day our daily bread," and re- 
ceiving it, we are called upon to acknowledge 
the Giver by giving to Him an offering of that 
which is His own. Even the leaven and the 
honey, which, from their fermenting properties, 
may uot go upon the altar, may yet be offered 
as first-fruits. There is none of God's gifts 
which we may use ourselves, with which we 
may not show our gratitude to the Giver. 

In the worship of God " we may not adopt 
our own inventions, though they may be sweet 
and delicious as honey to our own palates. . . . 
Honey is good in its proper place, and heaven 
itself is typified by 'a land fiowing with milk 
and honey' (Ex. iii. 8; xiii 5); but if God for- 
bids it, we must abstain from it, or we shall not 
come to tbat heavenly Canaan." Wordsworth. 

That seasoning of salt which the apostle re- 
quires for our conversation (Col. iv. 6), may not 
be wanting from our gifts to God. They are not 
to be insipid, but having " that freshness and 
vital briskness which characterizes the Spirit's 
presence and work." Alford. 

Of first-fruits especially is an oblation to be 
brought. Not only should we give to God as 
He blesses us all along; but especially with 
each new harvest received from His bounty 
should a first portion be laid aside for His ser- 
vice. 



CHAP. III. 1-17. 33 



C— PEACE-OFFERINGS. 
Chap. III. 1-17. 

1 And if his oblation [offering'] be a sacrifice of peace-offering, if he offer it of the 
herd ; whether U be a male or female, he shall offer it without blemish before the 

2 LoEB. And he shall lay his hand upon the head of his offering, and kill it at the 
door of the tabernacle of the [om. the'] congregation: and Aaron's sons the priests 

3 shall sprinkle the blood upon the altar round about. And he shall offer of the 
sacrifice of the peace-offering an offering made by fire unto the Lord ; the fat that 

4 covereth the inwards, and all the fat that is upon the inwards, and the two kidneys, 
and the fat that is on them, which is by the flanks, and the caul above the liver, 

5 with [on'] the kidneys, it shall he take away. And Aaron's sons* shall burn it on 
the altar upon the burnt-sacrifice, which is upon the wood that is on the fire : it is 
an offering made by fire, of a sweet savour unto the Lord. 

6 And if his offering for a sacrifice of peace-offering unto the Lord be of the flock ; 

7 male or female, he shall offer it without blemish. If he offer a lamb [sheep°] for 

8 his offering, then shall he offer it before the Lord. And he shall lay his band 
upon the head of his offering, and kill it before^ the tabernacle of the [om. the^] 
congregation : and Aaron's sons shall sprinkle the blood thereof round about upon 

9 the altar. And he shall offer of the sacrifice of the peace-offering an offering made 
by fire unto the Lord ; the fat thereof, and the whole rump [fat tail'], it shall he 
take off hard by the back-bone : and the fat that covereth the inwards, and all the 

10 fat that is upon the inwards, and the two kidneys, and the fat that is upon them, 
which is by the flanks, and the caul above the liver, with [on*] the kidneys, it shall 

11 he take away. And the priest shall burn it upon the altar: it is the food of the 
offering made by fire^ unto the Lord. 

12, 13 And if his offering be a goat, then he shall offer it before the Lord. And he 
shall lay his hand upon the head of it, and kill it before the tabernacle of the [om. 
the''] congregation : and the sons of Aaron shall sprinkle the blood thereof upon 

14 the altar round about. And he shall offer thereof his offering, even an offering 
made by fire unto the Lord ; the fat that covereth the inwards, and all the fat that 

15 is upon the inwards, and the two kidneys, and the fat that is upon them, which is 
by the flanks, and the caul above the liver, with [on'] the kidneys, it shall he take 

16 away. And the priest shall burn them upon the altar : it is the food of the offer- 
ing made by fire for a sweet savour : aU the fat is the Lord's [as food of an offer- 

TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL. 

I Ter. 1. |3'lp=off6ring, as in ch. ii. 

' Ver. 2. See on i. 3, Text. Note ». 

1 Ver. 4. Si> must here be translated on, not imlh, since the kidneys have just been mentioned. 

« Ter. 5. The Sem., LXX. and one MS. add the prietts. So also the LXX. and one MS. in ver. 8, and the Sam. and 
LXX. in Tor. 13. r 

« Ver. 7. 2\a3—^^3, according to Bochart (Bieroz. I. 33), a sheep of intermediate a?e between the n7t3-=lanib 
and the S'N of three years old. It is, however, often applied to the sheep of one year in which case the age is mentioned, 
as xiv. 10; Nnm. yii. 15, 17, 21, etc. In ProT. xivii. 26 it is described as yielding wool. In the A. V. the form W2^ is 
uniformly rendernd tamft.excf pt in Ex. xii. 5, while the other form is translated »*«ep nine times, and lamb four times. 
There is no ground for this distinction. 

« Ver.8. The locality for killing the victim is made' more definite by the insertion in one MS. and in the Syr.: "be- 
fore the Lord at the door of." The LXX. makes the samb insertion in vr. 13. 

' Ter. 9. H'Sn, according to all interpreters the fat tail of the ovia latiamdala, a variety common in Arabia and 

Syria, but in mJdern Palestine -aid to be the only variety. The tail i» descrbed a^ of rich marrowy '"*! »''„*!'% !^'''tU °i- 
the hind quarter-, and often trailing on the ground. Th« worl occurs onlv in this connection (Jix. xxix. iji, i. • . , 
viii. 25; ix, 19), and is rendered by all the ancient versions, except the LXX. (6(r((.i;!), tail. So also JOJ. •»-'"^- '"•_'.• '• 

• Ver. 11. Tbe senne is expressed by the addition in 2 MS8. and in the LXX. of the words from i. 9, 13, 17, ninJ-n T 

(Ml Bweet-s-oelling savor.) 



34 



LEVITICUS. 



17 iug made by fire for a sweet savour, shall all the fat he the Loed's']. It shall be a 
perpetual statute for your generations throughout all your dwellings, that ye eat 
neither fat nor blood. 

9 Ver. 16. The A. V. seemB unnecessarily complicated, as there are but two clauses in this verse. After "saYour" the 
Sam., LXX , and some JMSS. add " to the Lord.' 



EXEGETICAL AND CEITICAL. 

The peace-offering, like the offerings of the 
preceding chapters, is spoken of as already in 
common use, and the law is given for its proper 
regulation. The offerings of this, as of the pre- 
vious chapters, were voluntary. The peace- 
offering differed from the oblation in being ani- 
mal, and from the burnt-offering in not being 
wholly consumed, but after a small portion had 
been burned, and a portion given to the priest, 
the remainder reverted to the offerer for a sac- 
rificial mpal (vii. 11-21) ; a further difference is 
in that the burnt- offerings were only male, the 
peace-offerings either male or female; and still 
further, doves were not allowed in the peace- 
offerings, because they were too small for the 
necessary division, and for the sacrificial feast. 

The full form D'dSk' n3I used here, is nearly 
always employed in Leviticus ; but the peace- 
offering is probably intended by the simple n3I 
of xxiii. 37 (vii. 16, 17 docs not, and xvii. 8 
may not mean peace-offering), and it certainly 

is by D'oSttf in ix. 22. The latter, as the de- 
termining word, is frequently used elsewhere 
alone, as Ex. xx. 24; xxxii. 6; Dent, xxvii. 7; 
Josh. viii. 31, etc. The word is variously de- 
rived and has various shades of signification 
attached to it: (1) Thank- offering, Gesenius, 
Fiirst, Luther, Rosenmiiller, Winer, Bahr, 
etc., 6vaia ;fapiiTT!?p/a, Jos. Ant. iii. 9, 2 ; (2) 
Meat-offering, Zunz ; (3) Salvation-offering, auTfj- 
piov, LXX. most frequently (i. e. in the Pent., 
Josh., Judges, Chron., Ezra, Amos), Pnito; 
(4) Peace-offering, eip?)VM6(, LXX. (in Samuel, 
Kings, Prov.), Aq., Sym., Theod., Vulg., A. V. 
The last two senses are very similar; the first 
seems less appropriate, partly because the 
strictly thank-offering appears as a special variety 
of this more general class (vii. 11, 12); partly 

because the O'tphw were offered not only in 
thanks for benefits received, but also in times 
of distress and in supplication for the divine 
help (Judg. xx. 26; xxi. 4; 1 Sam. xiii. 9; 2 
Sam. xxiv. 2-5). Outram says: Sacrificia salu- 
taria in sacris Uteris shelamim dicta, ut gum semper 
de rebus prosperis fieri solerent. impetratis utique 
aut impctrandis. Lange brings together the 
several meanings in the name Heilsopfer, salva- 
tion or saving offering "in the common sense 
of blessing or prosperity-offering." In English 
the already accepted peace-offering seems to ex- 
press sufficiently the same sense, and is there- 
fore retained. The law (vii. 12-16) distinguishes 
three kinds of peace-offerings — thanksgiving, 
vow and free-will offerings ; the only difference 
in their ritual being in the length of time during 
which their flesh might be eaten. 

The peace-offerings are not called "most 



holy" like the oblation, but only "holy," and 
the priests' portion might be eaten by their 
families in any "clean place" (vii. 31 with i, 
14; xxiii. 20). The portion which reverted to 
the offerer to be eaten as a sacrificial feast 
might be partaken of only by those who were 
legally "clean" (vii. 20, 21). The peace-offer- 
ings were prescribed on a variety of occasions, 
and as they were the necessary offerings of sac- 
rificial feasts, and hence of all solemn national 
rejoicings, they were the most common of all 
sacrifices. From Num. xv. it appears that, like 
the burnt-offering, they were always accompa- 
nied by the meat and the drink-offering. — 
Lange: " The peace-offering refers to prosperity 
as Jehovah's free gift in past, present, and future. 
As regards the past, it is a simple praise and 
thank-offering (an Eben Ezer, Amos v. 2i), In 
reference to a happy present, it is a content- 
ment, joy, or feast-offering. As it relates to a 
future to be realized, to an experience of salva- 
tion yet to come, to a deliverance or an exhibi- 
tion of mercy that is prayed for with a vow, it 
is a votive offering. The prescriptions in regard 
to the various kinds are different. Here it is 
said, that the animal to be slain may be either 
male or female, only it must be without blemish. 
In ch. vii. 15 sq. nothing of the praise-offering 
might be left over until the next day, whereas 
the vow, or free-will offering might be eaten also 
on the next day, but not on the third day." 
Lange then points out that in the case of those 
vow, or free-will offerings which were to be 
burnt-offerings, a male was required, xxii. 19, 
without blemish. "Even an abnormal forma- 
tion of the victim, too long or too short legs of 
the animal [vii. 22, 23] was enough to make it 
unsuitable for the vow-offering, but still not for 
the free-will offering. So every kind of pros- 
perity was to be hallowed to the Lord."* 

Sacrificial feasts were at least as old as the 
time of Jacob (Gen. xxxi. 54), and became com- 
mon among all nations; but the distinoti?e 
name of peace-offering first appears when Moses 
came down with the law from Mt. Sinai (Ex. 
xxiv. 5). The thing signified, however, must 
have been already familiar to the people, for 
the word recurs in connection with the idola- 
trous sacrifice of Aaron when Moses had again 
gone up into the Mount (Ex. xxxii. 6). 

Two kinds of victims were allowable: of the 
" herd," or of the " flock." 

Vers. 1-5. The peace-offering of the herd, !. «• 
a bullock or a cow. 



* In reisard to the question whether the peaoe-offMing 
embraces also the supplicatory offering, Lange says: *'It u 
understood that the vows themselves were supplicatioi s, 
irom which the accompanying offering might also be lalleo 
a supplicatory offering ; but a peculiar supplicatery offinng 
to strengtiien the supplication would have been priyadicial 
to the freedom of the divine hearing. It shows a tine dis- 
tinction that the free praise and thank-offeringa {Thorn), 
which were preceded by no vows, were exalted abo?e tbe 
vow-offerings and free-will offerings, inasmuch as theae l»t^ 
ter mghc be accompanied by a suit! h feeling." 



CHAP. III. 1-17. 



35 



Ver. 1. The viotim both in this and in the 
other kind (ver. 6) might be of either sex. Ac- 
cording to Herodotus, this was directly contrary 
to the Egyptian law, which forbade offering the 
female in sacrifice: 6i)lela^ m a<pi l^eari ffieiv (ii. 
41). As in the case of other offerings, the tic- 
tim must be "without blemish." There was 
ordinarily no restriction of age, although in 
some special cases yearling lambs are mentioned 
(xxiii. 19; Num. vii. 17) 

Ver. 2. The laying on of the offerer's hand 
and the sprinkling of the blood by the priest are 
the same as in the case of the burnt-offering; 
hence no signification can be attached to these 
acts in the one case which will not apply in the 
other also, except of course in so far as an act 
of essentially the same meaning might be some- 
what modified by its connections. 

Vers. 3, 4. There were four parts to be burned 
upon the altar: (1) the fat that oovereth 
the inwards, i. e. the large net, omentum, Jos. 
iii. 9, 2, emK^ovg, caul, or adipose membrane 
found in mammals attached to the stomach and 
spreading over the bowels, and which in the 
ruminants abounds with fat; (2) all the fat 
which is upon the in'wards, i. e. the fat 
attached to the intestines, and which could be 
peeled off; (3) the two kidneys, and the 
fat that is on them, which is by the flanks, 
or loins, i. e. the kidneys and all the fat con- 
nected with them; the kidneys are the only 
thing to be burned except the fat ; (4) the smaller 
net, omentum minus, or caul above the liver, 
which stretches on one side to the region of the 

kidneys, hence on the kidneys, l}l=iyj them, 
not with them, they having been just before 
mentioned. The word Pt'^X]'' oocnrs only in Ex. 
(twice) and Lev. (nine times) always in connec- 
tion with 133=the liver ; it is described as 
abovt or upon the liver, and hence is not to be 
understood, as has often been done, of the liver 
itself, or of a part of it. These four include all 
the separable fat in the inside of the animal 
(and in addition to these was the fat tail in the 
case of the sheep), so that, ver. 16, they are 
called "all the fat," so also iv. 8, 19, 26, 31, 35; 
vii. 3. 

Ver. 5. Aaron's sons shall burn. — The 
burning on the altar, and the sprinkling of the 
blood (ver. 2), being the acts by which the sac- 
rifice was especially offered to God, were always 
and in all sacrifices the priestly function. 

Upon the burnt sacrifice. — This rendering 
is quite correct, and is in accordance with the 
ancient versions. The sense given by Knobel 
" according to " or " in the manner of the burnt- 
offering" is inadmissible. iJ' may sometimes 
bear this sense (Ex. xii. 51 ; Ps. ex. 4) ; but it 
is rare, and not likely to be the meaning here. 
As a matter of fact, peace-offerings ordinarily 
followed especial burnt-offerings, and always 
the daily burnt- offering, which would so seldom 
have been entirely consumed when the peace- 
offering was offered, that the fat might naturally 
be described as placed upon it. 

Vers. 6-16. The peace-offerings of sheep or 



The ritual for the second kind of peace-offer- 
ing is the same as for the first ; it is repeated in 
case the victim should be a sheep (vers. 6-11), 
and in case it should be a goat (vers. 12-16). 
Only in the case of the sheep, on the principle 
of burning all the separable fat, the tail (see 
Textual, ver. 9) must also be laid upon the 
altar. 

Ver. 11. (Oomp. Ter 16.) The food of the 
offering made by fire unto the Lord. — ' 
This is a common expression applied to sacrifices 
generally ( " my bread," Num. xxviii. 2 ; " Bread 
of God," ch. xxi. 6, 8, 17, 21, 22; xxii. 25); 
yet especially mentioned only in connection 
with the peaoe-offerings. It is used only of the 
portions of the victim burned upon the altar, 
and is expressly distinguished from the portion 
eaten by the priests (xxi. 22). By a natural 
figure, the whole victim being food, the part of 
it given to Jehovah by burning upon the altar is 
called the food of Jehovah, and shows the com- 
munion between Him and the worshipper brought 
about by the sacrifice It is not necessary, 
however, to realize this figure by attributing to 
the Hebrews the thought — belonging to the later 
heathen — that God actually required food ; such 
a notion was foreign to their whole theology. 

Ver. 16. All the fat — i. e., all that has been 
enumerated — all the separable fat of the victim. 

Ver. 17. Throughout all your dwellings. 
— This applies to the life in the wilderness when 
all sacrificial animals slain for food were re- 
quired to be offered as peaoe-offerings before the 
LoED (xvii. 3-7) ; whether it applies also to the 
subsequent life in the land of promise, when this 
restriction was to be removed (0eut. xii. 15; xiv. 
22, 23 ; XV. 22, 2.S), has been much debated. In 
the passages removing that restriction, mention 
is made only of the blood which must be poured 
out, and in the Song of Moses (Deut. xxxii. 14), 
the "fat of lambs" is especially mentioned among 
the blessings to be enjoyed. 

ye shall eat neither fat nor blood. — The 

prohibition of the separable fat (SlT) in contra- 
distinction to the tOE'D or JDE' the fat mixed 
with the flesh which might be eaten, Neh. viii. 
10) for food springs immediately from the fact 
that it was especially consecrated to God, and 
therefore not to be used by man. If we seek the 
reason of this consecration it is not to be sought 
on hygienic grounds (Rosenmiiller), but ra- 
ther in its connection with the animal economy. 
As blood is described as "the life" of the ani- 
mal, so is the fat a stored-up source of life, 
drawn upon for sustaining life whenever, in de- 
ficiency of food or other exigency, it is required. 
It thus stands more nearly related in function to 
the blood, and became naturally the appropriate 
portion for the altar. Its proper development 
was also a mark of perfection in the animal. It 
is further to be borne in mind that the fat was 
considered the choice portion, and hence the 
word was figuratively used of excellence (Gen. 
xxvii. 28; xlv. 18, e.te.) and thus the fat, as the 
best, was reserved for God's portion. The pro- 
hibition is repeated with still stronger emphasis, 
vii. 23-25, but with the exception that the fat of 
animals dying of themselves may be applied to 
other uses (ver. 24). It has always been under- 



LEVITICUS. 



stood by the Jews that the prohibition respects 
only the fat of animals tliat might be offered in 
Bacrifice. Comp. vii. 23. 

Nothing is here said of the disposal of the flesh 
of the victim, the law of this being given in de- 
tail, vii. 11-36. 

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL. 

I. As all vegetable food was sanctified by the 
oblation, so all animal food was by the peace 
offering. In (he wilderness this was literally 
carried out by the presenting of all animals fit 
for sacrifice as offerings, sprinkling their bipod 
and burning their fat upon the altar; later, when 
in Palestine this became impossible on account 
of the distances, the idea was kept up in the 
prohioition of the blood for food. The ge- 
neral principle thus expressed for all time is that 
God's gifts to man are to be acknowledged as 
from Him, and duo return made to Him, or other- 
wise they are profaned. 

II. In the expression " Food of the Lokd," 
although figurative, we recognize the idea of 
communion between God and man, expressed by 
a part of the sacrifice burned on the altar, and 
called by this name, while another part was 
eaten by the offerer at the sacrificial feast. Simi- 
larly the Eucharist is spoken of in 1 Cor. x. 21 
as the " Lord's table." In this respect the peace- 
offering under the old dispensation signified the 
same thing as the Eucharist under the new — the 
communion of the devout worshipper with God. 
It was eminently a feast of love towards God and 
man; the worshipper communicated with God 
by feasting on the sacrifice offered to Him, and 
by the portion eaten by the priests as His repre- 
sentatives, and with man by feasting with his 
friends on the remainder. It is happily de- 
scribed by Wordsworth as " an Eucharist cou- 
pled wilh an offertory." 

in. All sacrifices were necessarily typical of 
Christ, and each of them had in this respect its 
peculiar significance ; with the peace-offering He 
is especially connected by the prophecy of Isaiah 
(liii. 5) " the chastisement of our pence was upon 
Him," and by the frequent application of this 
word to Him and to His sacrifice in the New Tes- 
tament, (Rom. T. 1; Eph. ii. 14-16; Col. i. 20, 
etc.). 

HOMILETICAL AND PEACTICAL. 

" The Peace-offering ia the expression of the 



feeling that man might receive or ask only 
pure prosperity from God, and might offer it 
Him again." Lange. In this offering " 6oi 
the Master and Judge, was merged in God, (1 
Benefactor and Rescuer " Kalisch. In (1 
feasting of the offerer with his friends upon tl 
flesh of the sacrifice was expressed clearly th 
idea of communion with God; yet even in Ihi 
offering, the blood must be sprinkled upon th 
altar ; — in the nearest approach of sinful man t 
God, there must still be propitiation. 

In the peace-offering any sacrificial animal, o 
either sex, and of any age was allowable ; Go 
gives man the largest latitude of choice in th 
ways of expressing his gratitude. He also sane 
tifies as a means of communion with Him what 
ever He has appointed as the means of ap 
preaching Him in any way. The Christian ma, 
commune with Gud in work, in prayer, in sacra 
ments, in study of His word. 

In this sacrifice the fat was burnt upon Ihi 
altar, and certain choice parts given to It 
priests to be eaten with their families ; so in ou: 
thanksgivings, first let the Giver of all good bi 
recognized, and the best of all be given back ti 
Him ; and then let a portion be given also t( 
those who maintain His service, that the mau 
part which remains may be enjoyed by us will 
a holy joy. 

The sacrifice for sin (see oh. iv.) was limited 
to that which was prescribed, nothing more was 
allowed ; the peace-offerings might be unlimited 
in number and in value : so man now may seel 
forgiveness only in the way God has provided,— 
he can add nothing to its efficacy ; but (o the ex 
pression of his thankfulness, and to his desin 
for communion with God, no bounds are set. H( 
may go as far as he can, and his offerings wil 
be looked upon with approbation as " a sweel 
savor unto the Lord.'' 

The feast upon the sacrifice of peace-offeringi 
might include all the members of the offerer's 
family. Thus was the joyous family feast, lik( 
every other human relation and condition, 
brought by the Levitical law into relation witli 
duties to God, and sanctified by His blessing and 
by symbolical communion with Him. 

A true sacrifice of praise is offered by Ihos! 
who glorify God in their lives. This constitute! 
the Christian peace-offering of communion witb 
God in its highest form — that of thanksgiving 
for His inestimable benefits showed forth in i 
sincere obedience to His commands. Origen. 



1,2 



D.— SIN OFFERINGS. 
Chapters IV. 1-35— V. 1-13. 
And the Loed, spake unto Moses, sayiag, Speak unto the children of Israel 



saying, If a soul shall sin through ignorance [inadvertence'] against any oi tm 

TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL. 

1 Ver. 2. n J JS'a from ii^ -^ T\VS — Hi'l) = lo tnUer lo and fro, to mancUr, to go wrong. It includes not only siii 

Tiing unawares, through ignorance (vers. 1.3, 22, 27 ; v, 17), or carelessness, and want nf considerrttion {v. 1, 4) ; but "'s"^| 
intentional sins (like that of manslaughter without malice. Mum. xxxv. 11, 15, 22), and therefore sins arising fvom Irani 
infirmity in contradistinction to intentional and defiant sins— sins " with a high hand "—for which no saorifico was aim 



CHAP. IV. 1-35— V. 1-23. 37 



commandments of tlie Lobd concerning things which ought not to be done, and shall 
do [omit against''] any of them : 

3 If the priest that is anointed do sin according to the sin of the people [to the 
guilt of the people'] ; then let him bring for his sin, which he hath sinned, a young 

4 bullock without blemish unto the Loed for a sin offering. And he shall bring the 
bullock unto the door of the tabernacle of the \_omit the] congregation before the 
Lord; and shall lay hia hand upon the bullock's head, and kill the bullock before 

5 the Lord. And the priest that is anointed* shall take of the bullock's blood, and 

6 bring it to the tabernacle of the [omit the] congregation : and the priest shall dip 
his finger in the blood, and sprinkle of the blood seven times before the Lokd, be- 

7 fore the vail of the sanctuary. And the priest shall put some of the blood' upon 
the horns of the altar of sweet incense before the Lord, which is in the tabernacle 
of the [omit the] congregation ; and shall pour all the [other] blood of the bullock 
at the bottom of the altar of the burnt offering, which is at the door of the taber- 

8 nacle of the [omit the] congregation. And he shall take off from it all the fat of 
the bullock for the sin offering ; the fat that covereth the' inwards, and all the fat 

9 that is upon the inwards, and the two kidneys, and the fat that is upon them, which 
is by the flanks, and the caul above the liver, with [on*'] the kidneys, it shall he 

10 take away, as it was taken off from the bullock of the sacrifice of peace offerings ; 

11 and the priest shall burn them upon the altar of the burnt offering. And the skin 
of the bullock, and all his flesh, with his head, and with his legs, and his inwards, 

12 and bis dung, even the whole bullock shall he' carry forth without the camp unto 
a clean place, where the ashes are poured out, and burn him on the wood with fire : 
where the ashes are poured out shall he be burnt. 

13 "And if the whole congregation' of Israel sin [err'] through ignorance [inadver- 
tence'!, and the thing be hid"* from the eyes of the assembly,' and they have done 
sohiewhat against any of the commandments of the Lord concerning things which 

14 should not be done, and are guilty ; when the sin, which they have sinned against 
it, is known, then the congregation shall offer a young bullock" for the sin [a sin 
offeripg''^] and bring him before the'' tabernacle of the [omit the] congregation. 

able {Num. xv. 27-31). The LXX. has aKovo-iu?, the Targ. Onk. (alao Ben TJz. and JeruB.) 1)71^5 = through error, so also 

T ! 

the Syr. The oH It&Uc has imprude*tter. Aquila reads ei/ aYifota, and it was perhaps by a literal tiBnsIation of this that 
tlifj Vulg. came to re»d per ignffranLiam, which has been perpetuated in the A. V. ; but in Hellenistic Greek ayvota ani ay- 
vo^,aa (Heb. )x. 7) bear rather the sense given above. See Schleus. Lex. in LXX. Through going astray might better ex- 
press the meaning, except that it does not sufficiently bring out the distinction as in the animm of the sinner. 

3 Ver. 2. n3nO nnXD. The A. V. haa supplied against, as in the former clause, where the construction i^ the same ; 

hnt t>iere it is required, and here worse than useless to the sense. It should be omitted as in nearly all the ancient ver- 
Bious. The 7:3 in both clauses is to be taken partitively. 

^ Yer. 3. nOE'N / Prop. in£ const. Kal., and there used as a noun = io hring guilt upon. So most of the ancient ver- 

s'ons and the modern expositors generally. 

• Ver. 5. To anointed the LXX. and Sam. Vers, add whoae hand is conxecrated. The Sam. text has a similar addition. 
^ Yer. 7. The Sam. and 8 MS3. prefix the article to □*!, while the Sam., 3 MSS., and Yulg., omit the hulloch. 

• Yer. 8. 2'^pT\~hy- This is translated in the A. V. and in the ancient versions as if it were "T\~r\i^ as in iii. 14. 
So it must be translated, and such is actually the reading in the Sam. and many MSS. 

' Yer. 12. The Sam. and LXX. here have the plural. Of course th i high-priest did not do this with his own hands, but 
is said to do that which he caused to be done, according to common usage of all languages. 

s* Yer. 9. On. See iii. 4, Textual Note 8. 

8 Yer. 13. Vd^'hs {congregation) Slip {assembly) the two words used here, and IjJlO Num. xvi. 2 and freq. have 
no difference in signification which can be recognized in translation. They are used in apposition. 

• Yer. 13. njE'. In the A. Y. em always in Lev. is the translation of NC3n. This being the only exception, should be 

XT T T 

changed. , , 

'» Ver. 13. D7J^3 has dagesh in the 7 here and in v. 2, 4 According to Delitzsch it is an old rule of pointing " that 

every consonant which followed a syllable terminating with a guttural should be pointed ^^ith dageih, if the guttural was 

to be read with a quiescent thma and not with chateph." Oomp. "IDX'l Gen. xlvi. 29 ; Ex. xiv. 6, D'7J?jT (according to 

some copies) P(<. x. 1. 

" Yer. 14. The Sam. and LXX. here add the " without blemish " so frequently expressed, and always to be un- 
derstood. 

12 Yer. 14. nXtan'?. the word is used in both senses— a sin, and a sin-offering. The context requires the latter here. 
It has no article. 

" Yer. 14. The LXX. and Yulg. add the door of, which is implied. 



88 LEVI..^ 

15 And the elders of the congregation shall lay their hands upon the head of the b 
lock before the Lord : and the bullock shall be killed [one shall kill the bullocl 

16 before the Lokd. And the priest that is anointed shall bring of the bullock's bio 

17 to the tabernacle of the [omi< the] congregation: and the priest shall dip hisfinj 
in some of the blood, aud sprinkle if^^ seven times before the Lord, even before t 

18 vail. And he shall put some of the blood upon the horns of the altar'" which 
before the Lord, that is in the taberuacle of the [omit the] congregation, and shi 
pour out all the [other] blood at the bottom of the altar of the burnt offering, whi 

19 is at the door of the tabernacle of the [omit the] congregation. And he shall ta 

20 all his fat from him, and burn it upon the altar. And he shall do with the bi 
lock as he did with the bullock for a [the"] sin offering, so shall he do with thi 
and the priest shall make an atonement for them, and it shall be forgiven thei 

21 And he shall carry forth the bullock without the camp, and burn him as he bumi 
the first bullock : it'* is a sin offering for the congregation. 

22 When a ruler [prince"] hath sinned, and done somewhat through ignorance [ii 
advertence'] against any of the commandments of the Lord his God eoncemh 

23 things which should not be done, and is guilty ; or if [if perhaps™] his sin, wherei 
he hath sinned, come to his knowledge ; he shall bring his offering, a kid [a buck' 

24 of the goats, a male without blemish : and he shall lay his hand upon the head c 
the goat, and kilP^ it in the place where they kill the burnt offering before tl 

25 Lord : it is a sin-offering. And the priest shall take of the blood of the sin offerii) 
with his finger, and put it upon the horns of the altar of burnt offering, and sha 

26 pour out^ his blood at the bottom of the altar of burnt offering. And he sha 
burn all his fat upon the altar, as the fat of the sacrifice of peace offerings : an 
the priest shall make an atonement for him as concerning his sin, and it shall 1 
forgiven him. 

27 And if any one of the common people [any soul of the people of the land^] si 
through ignorance [inadverttiice' J while he doeth somewhatagamut auy ot the commaLi 

28 mentsofthe Lord concernm^i/im^s which ought not to be done, and be guilty; orif[ 
perhaps™] his sin, which he hath sinned, come to bis knowledge : then he sha 
bring his offering, a kid of the goats [a she-goat^] a female without blemish, forh 

29 sin which he hath sinned. And he shall lay his hand upon the head of the si 

30 offering, and slay the sin offering in the place of the burnt offering. And tt 
priest shall take of the blood thereof with his finger, and put it upon the horns o 
the altar of burnt offering, and shall pour out all the [other] blood thereof at tl 

" Ver. 15. The subject of OVWS is one of the elders. 

i» Ver. 17. The ellipsis supplied by U in the A. V. is filled out in the Sam., in one MS., and in the Syr., by "of tl 
blood," comp. yer. 6. Several other words are filled out lu the same yerdion in the following yei-ees from the precedii 
pani graph. 

18 Ver. 18. The Sam. and LXX. unnecessarily specify " altar of incense." 

17 Ver. 20. The article of the original shonld be retained as the reference is to the sin-offering of the high-priest. 

18 Ver. 21. The Sam. and many MSS. have here again the later feminine form NTI- 

18 Ver. 22. X^E^J. This word yariously rendered in the A. V. captain, chief, governor, prince, and ruler, occurs in U 

only here, but very frequently in Num., where it is translated cayfain in ch. ii. 02 times), chief in cbs. iii., iv. (5 timei 
once ruler, xiii. 2, and prince tliroughout the rest of tlie book (42 times) as well as tlironghout Gen. and Josh. lu Ex. 
occurs four times uniformly translated ruhr. In nearly all these places it refers to persons of subsiantially the same ras 
and it would be better therefore that its translation should be uniform. It means literally, an exalted persoti, andisapplt 
to the head of a tribe, or other large division of the people, whether of Israel or of other nations. Lange interpret it 
" the tribe chieftain," referring to Num. iii. 24. As prince is on the whole the most common rendering of the A. v., ai 
expresses very well the sense, it is retained here. 

» Ver. 23. The conjunction IK should be rendered if perhaps, Fuerat, Gesenins. The Syr. renders by if, the IX 
Kai, Vulg. et postea. 

21 Ver. 23. Tj^Jy = o he-goat, generally understood of one older than the "[^i^^ or young he-goat used in the our 

and peace-offerings (Puerst, Knobel). It is often rendered Wd in the A. V. It is also rendered devil xvii. 7 ; 2 Chr. xi. 
where the reference is to tlie idolatrous worship of the goat, (or goat-like deity) and twice aatt/r in Isa. (xiii. 21; xxxiv. i' 
It is the kind of goat used in the sinMjffering generally. Bochart supposes it to mean a goat of a peculiar breed ; so m 

22 Ver. 24. The Sam. puta the verb in the plnral ; so also in ver. 33. 

2« Ver. 25. Tlie LXX. and 4 MSS. have all his blood, as in the other places. ^^ 

2< Ver. 27. There seems no occa,sion here to deviate from the literal translation which la retained so far as peopw 

the land" is concerned, in xx. 2, 4; 2 Ki. xi. 18,19; xvi. 16. It was the common name of the whole people as distinguU" 

from the priests (in this case probably from the high-priest) and the rulers. 

25 Ver. 28. ni'JJtJ' is simply the feminine of the word discussed under ver. 23. 

» Ver. 30. Two MSS., the Sam., and the Syr., unnevjssarlly add " of burnt-offering." The Sam. and the LXX. "" 
the same adoition at tlie end of v* r. 34. 



CHAP. IV. 1-35— V. 1-13. 



31 bottom of the altar.'" And he shall take away all the fat thereof, as the fat is taken 
away from off the sacrifice of peace offerings ; and the priest shall burn it upon the 
altar for a sweet savour unto the Lord ; and the priest shall make an atonement for 
him, and it shall be forgiven him. 

32 And if he bring a lamb [a sheep"] f >r a sin offering, he shall bring it a female 

33 without blemish. And he shall lay his hand upon the head of the sin-offering, 

34 and slay it for a sin offering in the place where they kill the burnt offering. And 
the priest shall take of the blood of the sin offering with his finger, and put li upon 
the horns of the altar of burnt offering, and shall pour out all the [otlier] blood 

35 thereof at the bottom of the altar : and he shall take away all the fat thereof, as 
the fat of the lamb [sheep"] is taken away from the sacrifice of the peace offerings ; 
and the priest shall bum them upon the altar, according to [upon'''] the offerings 
made by fire unto the Loed : and the prisst shall make an atonement for his sin 
that he hath committed, and it shall be forgiven him. 

Chap. V. 1. And if a soul sin, and hear [in that he hear''] the voice of swearing 
[adjuration'"], and is a witness, whether he hath seen or known ofit; if he do not 

2 utter it, then he shall bear his iniquity. Or if" a soul touch any unclean thing, 
whether it be a carcase of an unclean beast/" or a carcase of unclean cattle, or the 
carcase of uncleau creeping things, and tjit be hidden from him; he also shall be 

3 unclean, and guilty. Or if he touch the uncleanness of man, whatsoever uncleau- 
ness it be that a man shall be defiled withal, and it be hid from him ; when he kno w- 

4 eth ofit, then he shall be guilty. Or if a soul swear, pronouncing [speaking idly^^] 
with his lips to do evil, or to do good, whatsoever it be that a man shall pronounce 
[speak idly"'] with an oath, and it be hid from him ; when he knoweth of it, then 

5 he shall be guilty in one of these. And it shall be, when he shall be guiltv^' in one 

6 of these things, that he shall confess that he hath sinned in that thing: and he shall 
bring his trespass offering [bring for his trespass^] unto the Lord, for his sin which 
he hath sinned, a female from the flock, a lamb or a kid of the goats [a sheep" or 
a she-goaf^], for a sin offering; and the priest shall make an atonement for him 
concerning his sin. 

7 And if he be not able'' to bring a lamb [sheep"], then he shall bring for his tres- 
pass, which he hath committed, two turtledoves, or two young pigeons, unto the 

8 Loed; one for a sin offering, and the other fir a burnt offering. And he shall 
bring them unto the priest, who shall offer that which is for the sin offering first, 

9 and wring [pinch] off his head from his neck, but shall not divide it asunder : and 
he shall sprinkle of the blood of the sin offering upon the side of the altar ; and the 
rest of the blood shall be wrung [pressed'*] out at the bottom of the altar : it is a 

" Ver. 32. ty23 — a sheep, see Text, note 6 under iii. 7. 

" Ter. 35. 'tJ^X' h))- The sense is here as in iii. 5 upon. These be'ng special offerings, tlie daily burnt-iiffering wouM 
always have been upon the altar before them, and even if that wire already wholly consumed, the expression " upon " it 
conld still be naturally used. 

S" Chap. T. Ver 1 "Partioula 1 ante nVDE' hie usurpatur ainoKoyucm, estquevortenda pn'n, ei guid, utQen. xxyi. 

T ■■ It 
12 ; Deut. xvii. 16." KoBenmueller. 

"> Ver. 1. n'^X- Commentators are generally agreed that this should be translated adjm-aUrm. The veib hi the Hiph. 
is translated ailjitre in 1 Sam. xiv. 2t. See Exeg. Com. The Heb. has no word for adjuration as distinct from mmring. It 
is expressed in the LXX. by ookhtjuoi). . j, -,.,(,* 

" Ver. 2. Tiie full form would be IK'S '3; accordingly ihe Sam. and some MSS. prefix 'J) here and add "lu'K 

in ver. 4. "' Ver. 2. See note i on xi. 2. 

82 Ver. 4. Nt337, NI33', speoli idly, or ill-admsedly. Conip. jSaTToAoyeio, Malt. vi. 7. 

" Ver. 5. For DtyX' the Sam. and 20 MSS. here substitute KtSTV- 

" Ver. 6. DtyN, like JlXtSn, is us'd in the sense both of trespass and trespass-offering. The ancient versions have 
the question between them open. The Vulg. has simply agat pmitentiam, LXX. oicrei irepl Siv eTAijfijieAijire Kupi'io, while 
the Semitic versions leave the same doubt as the Hebrew. Modern commentators aie divided, but the weight of "P™'™ 
accords with the Exeg. Com. At the end of the verse the Sam.and t e LXX. have the fuller form, " and the prie,-t Bliall 
make an atonement for him, for his sin which be hath sinn-id, and ic shiill be forgiven him." 

"Ter. 7. IT J^'JO x'7~DNl lit. // his hand cannot acquire. The sense is well expressed by the A. V. 

" Ver. 9. nis'^ the translation of the A. V. wrung i"ight answer here, but aa the same word must be translated iir«iis<i 
In 1. 16, It seems better to preserve uniforjiicy. 



40 



LEVITICUS. 



10 sin offering." And he shall offer the second for a burnt offering, according to the 
manner [ordinance] : and the priest shall make an atonement for him for his sin 
•which he hath sinned, and it shall be forgiven him. 

11 But if he be not able to bring two turtledoves, or two young pigeons, then he that 
sinned shall bring for his offering the tenth part of an ephah of fine flour for a sin 
offering : he shall put no oil upon it, neither shall he put any frankincense thereon : 

12 for it is a sin offering." Then shall he bring it to the priest, and the priest shall 
take his handful of it, eoen a memorial thereof, and burn it on the altar, according 

13 to [upon'*] the offerings made by fire unto the Lord : it is a sin offering." And the 
priest shall make an atonement for him as touching his sin that he hath sinned in 
one of these, and it shall be forgiven him : and the remnant shall be the priest's, 
as a meat offering [an oblation"']. 

^ Vera. 9, 11. 12. The Sam. and many MSS. have the later feminine f.»rm of the pronoun X^p. 

38 Ver. 12. Si? = upov, aa iii. 5 ; iv. 35. 

»> Ver. 13. OMation. Comp. ii. 1, Textual Note 2, and Exeg. at beginning of ch. ii. 



EXEGETIOAL AND CRITICAL. 

The formula by which this chapter is intro- 
duced — And the LORD spake unto Moses 
— answering to i. 1, 2; v. 14; vi. I; vi. 8, etc., 
marks this passage as a distinct portion of the 
law. The offerings of chaps, i. — iii., when 
brought by individuals, were all voluntary, and 
are recognized as already familiar; but in chaps, 
iv., V. sacrifices are appointed (no longer volun- 
tary) for certain offences, and these sacrifices 
now for the first time receive names from the 
purposes for which they were commanded — Sin 
and Trespass offerings. These specialized sacri- 
fices were a creation of the Mosaic law, and are 
therefore naturally placed after the more gene- 
ral sacrifices of chaps, i. — iii. Lange says also: 
"The former class of sacrifices refer to innate 
sinfulness, and in so far forth to the general par- 
ticipation in guilt of the offerer (on which ac- 
count throughout a 133, a covering of the offerer, 
takes place) ; but does not have reference to pe- 
culiar persOLial transgressions to be atoned for by 
the sin and trespass offerings." In the present 
section we have to do only with the sin offering 
(iv. 1 — V. 13) ; yet this and the trespass offering 
are closely related, and are distinguished only 
as the sin or the trespass comes into the fore- 
ground, so that the line of separation is not al- 
ways strongly marked, and in particular cases 
might even be difficult to trace. "Sin is the 
transgression of the law," and may involve no 
further harm, and requires expiation only for its 
own guilt; while trespass is wrong done to ano- 
ther (whether God or man), and involves not 
only sacrifice for its sin, but also amends for its 
hurra. With neither were oblations or drink- 
offerings allowed ; and when, in case of extreme 
poverty, flour was permitted as a sin-offering, it 
must be without oil or frankincense (v. 11). 

Lange lakes a somewhat different view of the 
relation of these two offerings, and consequently 
of the proper analysis of (his whole passage, iv. 
1 — vi. 7. The substance of his views may be ga- 
thered from the headings of his several sub- 
divisions as follows: The Sin offering and the 
Trespass offering (iv.— vi. 7). (a) The Sin-of- 
fering and the little Sin and Trespass offering 
(,iv.— V. 13). 1. The Sin offering (iv. 1-21). 2. 



The little Sin offering (iv. 22-35). (6) The 
Trespass offering. 1. The little Sin and Tres- 
pass offering, or the uucleannesa of the common 
people (v. 1-13). 2. The great Trespass offer- 
ing, or guilt offering (v. 14 — vi. 7). Accordingly 
he says: "The following considerations may 
serve somewhat to disentangle the question how 
the sections of the sin offering and the trespass 
offering are to be separated from one another, 
and whether v. 1-13 treats of the sin offering or 
of the trespass offering. There is, certainly, no 
question that all sin is at the same time guilt, a 
deed which has made itself into an actual stale 
of things which must be atoned for, or has be- 
come liable to punishment. And there is also no 
question that guilt in general is also sin, although 
as participation in guilt, it may be widely sepa- 
rated from the centre of sinfulness, as far as the 
disappearing minimum, even until it is said of 
the guiltless Messiah in Isa. liii. that He would 
give his life as a trespass offering — Asham; and 
from this arises also the possibility that two 
classes may be formed in which the one empha- 
sizes sin as such, while the other emphasises 
more the slate of guilt. The state of guilt may 
be very trifling, as being accessory to a guilty 
principal, or very evil as an original offence; in 
all cases it requires a proportionate penance 
(not expiation) or satisfaction. From the inde- 
terminate character of the antithesis, it also 
comes that there may be a transitional form be- 
tween the sin and the trespass offerings — a form 
of sin offerings which, at the same time, becomes 
elevated as a trespass offering. There are forms 
of the predominating participation in guilt, and 
one Buoh we find in the section chap. v. 1-13. 
On the other hand, in the strict trespass offer- 
ings which follow further on, we shall take up 
all cases in which the offence against the holy 
places and rights of Jehovah, or in regard to the 
property of a neighbor, amount to an offence 
that is a violation of right, which must be atoned 
for by restitution, punishment and sacrifioe. 

"In chap. iv. 3 the sin of the High Priest 
brings guilt on the people — that is, the guilt of 
participation in guilt. Luther translates 
Vi}}T\ n'DE^N"? that he scandalizes the people— AHim- 
oeption not very different from our own— fi^'' 
that he brings upon them liability of penalty w^ 
punishment. So it is also with the congregatii'* 



CHAP. IV. 1-35— V. 1-13. 



41 



of Israel : it becomes guilty through its sin 
(ver. 13). So also with the noble (ver. 22). So 
too, at last, with the oommoa Israelite (ver. 
27). Ought now the section chap. v. 1-13 to be 
(as Knobel) only an example to illustrate the 
foregoing transaction in the case of the sin offer- 
ing of the common Israelite? Ver. 6 says: 
And he shall biing his trespass ofiering 
unto the IiORD for his sin." [This is pro- 
bably the key to the whole view of Lange. If, 
however, DI^K be here considered as standing 
not for trespass offering, but for trespass (see 
Text, note 34 on verse 6), the view before given 
seems preferable.] "It is true that both vers. 
11 and 12 repeat the statement that his offering 
is a sin offering. But according to the context, 
the meaning of this is that this sacrifice must be 
treated entirely after the analogy of the sin of- 
fering. No incense nor oil are to be added to 
this sacrifice. The same rule is applied to the 
great trespass offerings that follow, chap. v. 
14 sq. The first instance, chap. v. 1, has pecu- 
liarly the character of participation in guilt. 
The properly guilty person in this case is the 
blasphemer ; the participation in guilt comes 
from a soul hearing the curse and not cleansing 
itself from defilement by giving information. 
The view of the Heidelberg Catechism, that "by 
silence and looking on one may become a parti- 
cipant in such fearful sins," appears here. So 
the touching a corpse is set with the unclean 
states of men by its natural connection, and the 
rash swearing, by traditional and common cus- 
tom. That which is spoken of in the special 
greater crimes, as they are raised into a class by 
themselves by the introduction in ver. 14, is the 
gross violation of the law. Here, then, rightly 
appear the actions in which a man is guilty 
against Jehovah, i. e., against His holy things or 
His law. The fraud of which the sinner h^s at 
last become conscious must be atoned for in 
most cases by a restitution which was increased 
by one-fifth of the whole amount. But legal 
restitution alone was not enough ; it must be 
preceded (without mentioning the trespass offer- 
ing elsewhere prescribed) by a costly sacrifice 
of a ram worth two shekels. As religious atone- 
ment was of little value alone, when social resti- 
tution was directed, so also restitution, as a sup- 
plementary payment, was of little worth without 
religious atonement. 

"Now, on the one hand, we must not mistake 
the fact that the section chap. v. 14 sq. draws a 
distinction between those faults which at the 
same time have become debts or relate to customs 
(mostly legal transgressions of right, as viola- 
tions of the rights of property), and the purely 
religious faults in which throughout (with the 
exception of the case in chap. v. 17-19) the sin- 
ner has only to deal with God, and so far the 
newer division must be considtre 1 right, as in 
Knobel and Keil (and so also in Kurtz and 
others). But, on the other hand, it must not be 
overlooked that the subject has already been 
about the offering of the Asham in the section v. 
1 sq. [?], and this is in favor of the older opinion 
which may be found in the headings of Stier's 
translation. There is also no question thst to 
reduce the whole guilt-idea to legal transgres- 
18 



sions will obscure very much the guilt-idea in 
the present case, as when Knobel wishes to 
leave out of consideration the passage Isa. liii. 
10, when he says " Dt?X can be no actual tres- 
pass offering." According to Knobel, the 
Asham arises from the rights of neighbors. But 
here evidently it arises from the rights of Jeho- 
vah, which Keil also emphasizes, and Knobel 
states indirectly. But we should rather say that 
it arises from the absolute right which is consi- 
dered to be under Jehovah's protection, in hea- 
ven and earth, and which has been completely 
confused with the guilt-idea itself in the theology 
of the day, in which justice in its many forms is 
travestied by "Good disposition" (the substan- 
tive and the adjective are allowed to evaporate 
into the adverb). It would have been better to 
have found the key to the conception of guilt in 
Isa. liii. For just as the guilt of a sinner can 
extend over a community, so also the exculpation 
wrought by the Redeemer. The W'A expresses 
that man has become guilty, liable to punish- 
ment, towards Jehovah or towards bis fellow- 
man ; and the emphasis lies so strongly on the 
liability to punishment that the same word de- 
notes at the same time satisfaction; and con- 
versely, the Hiphil means not merely to give sa- 
tisfaction, but also to bring over others the b.an 
of guilt as a penalty. As concerns the varying 
distinction between the respective sections, we 
must especially notice that one must proceed 
from the difctinction between the universal guilt 
idea and the conception of a legal fault, falling;; 
into the theocratic judicial sphere. If this dif- 
ference be held to, we can certainly establish, 
the newer division ; for in the ritual of sa- 
crifice the distinction between the sin and 
trespass offerings is not to be mistaken. Kno- 
bel has stated this difference accurately, p. 394 
sq. It is properly made prominent that the 
trespass-offering — as a religious offence makes 
the forgiveness of God necessary — may also be 
a sin-offering, so that it is frequently cited as a 
sin-offering " The trespas.s-offering, it may 
then be said, was always available only for the 
single Israelite, and was the same for all; while 
the sin-offering served also for the whole people, 
and varied according to the standing of the sin- 
ner in the Theocracy ; the trespass-offering con- 
sisted always of sheep, while in the sin-offering 
all sacrificial animals were allowed;, the tres- 
pass-offering must be worth a definite price, and 
was not modified, in the case of those who were 
unable to offer it, to a pair of doves or a meat- 
offering, as was the sin-offering ; in the trespass- 
offering, as in the burnt-offering and thank- 
offering, the blood was sprinkled on the side of 
the aliar of burnt offering (vii. 2); in the sin- 
offering, on the other hand, departing from the 
custom in all other sacrifices, it was brought 
before God (iv. 5); the flesh in the trespass- 
offering always belonged to the priest (vii. 6), 
while in the more especial sin-offerings it was 
burned." Then the distinction of the occasions 
may be expressed as follows: 1) Dishonesty 
against the revenues of the priests, as against 
the holy things of Jehovah. 2) Dishonesty in 
the due fidelity towards a neighbor (in a trust, 
in a deposit, in property found). 8) Dishonest 



42 



LEVITICUS. 



use of auth rity over a maid betrothed to ano- 
ther man (xix. iO). 4) Defeaudino in regard 
to the preference of the daughters of Israel over 
heathen women lEzra x. 19). Besides these, 
the VIOLATION of the Ark of the Covenant by the 
Philistines (1 Sam. vi. 3); imperillinq the con- 
gregation by the contagious leprosy (xiv. 12) ; 
DEFILEMENT of the Nazarite, as wealieuing the 
inviolability of his vow (Num. vi. 12). "Ac- 
cording to tliese examples the trespass-offering 
is distinguished from the sin-offering in the fol- 
lowing manner: it arises from the right of a 
neighbor, and rests upon a violation of this 
right." But Jehovah too claims satisfaction, 
" since He has iixed the rights of those pertain- 
ing to Him." Or also the right simply claims 
satisfaction: a particular instance is the case 
of a guilty person who has gone astray, through 
oversight or heedlessness, in a way that is 
known to no one but himself; who afterwards 
has an uneasy conscience, and then feels him- 
self burdened by his misdeed, and becomes con- 
scious of his guilt (v. 17, 18). Otherwise in- 
deed, he would be unable to atone, for instance, 
for his false oath. With the former division 
one could with propriety reverse the designa- 
tions, and term the sin-offering the trespass- 
offering, and the trespass-offering for the most 
part the sin-offering, the offering for real and 
ideal transgressions of right. In this confusion 
of ideas the manifold differences are not too 
prominent as tliey are cited in Knobel, p. 396, 
Keil, p. (53) 310, Winer (Schuld und Siindop- 
fer) and others. If we go back briefly to the 
ideal distinctions: sin, as sin, is indeed guilt, 
Kar' e^ox'/v, the particular evil deed ; guilt, as 
such, on the contrary, is the entire effect of sin 
in its cosmic sphere from the bad conscience 
even to death, to Sheol, to Hell. Guilt, as such, 
falls within the circle of evil, although the axiom 
" guilt is the greatest of evils" refers to sin. 
The sinfulness in guilt is the temptation to fur- 
ther sinfulness: it has, however, also a natural 
influence, aoi ording to which it reacts upon sin. 
See the article ''Schuld" in Herzog's JSeal- 
enrydopadie. Guilt rests in the legal effect, there 
must be siiti?fiiction for it ; in the ethical effect, 
evil eonscienc', false position towards God, 
temptation to new ein ; in the social effect, it lies 
as a burden upon the sphere of life that sur- 
rounds the sinner, whether he be high or low ; 
in the gewric effect, it is visited upon the chil- 
dren of the father.?, and becomes a universal 
might, a cosmic evil. Sin is solitary, guilt is 
common ("forgive us our trespasses"). It is 
obvious that ain in all cases is originally guilt; 
but guilt in distinction from ein is, in many 
cases, only participation in sin — aecessnriness. 
Hveu in the section of the great trespass-offer- 
ing, the force of participation in guilt may not 
be entirely wanting, for the severity of the Le- 
vitical relations, the temptations which adhered 
to the church goods and lands, to property, 
come into consideration. Under the law the 
ignorant man is touched on all sides, and is thus 
constituted in some measure a sinner, an acces- 
sory through greater sinners who made the law 
necessary. Sm is like a stone cast into a lake ; 
guilt like the wave-circles which go out from it, 
the circumference of that evil cen're. Sin, in 



its consequences, is ideally an infinitum, enmity 
against God; guilt, in itself considered, is a 
self-consuming ^rettem, so far as it is not changeil 
into a curse by its constant reciprocity with sin. 
Sin can only be done away through the reconci- 
liation of person to person ; it requires repent- 
ance. Guilt is to be done away by means of 
atonement (voluntary penance, not expiation), 
personal or vicarious restitution ; for, on the 
one hand, this of course is preliminary to the 
completed reconciliation, and, on the other 
hand, that breaks the way for expiation. See 
the history of Jacob : the vision of the heavenly 
ladder preceded the wrestling at the Jabbok. 
Keil says somewhat differently: "As in the 
sin-offering the idea of expiation or atonement 
for sin, indicated in the sprinkling of blood, 
comes forward, bo in the trespass-offering we 
find the idea of satisfaction for the parpoue of 
restoring the violated rightful order." 

In what follows, the views previously pre- 
sented will be followed, since the rendering of 
DE'X by trespass rather than by trespass-offering 
in V. 6 renders it unnecessary to enter upon 
much of the nice distinctions here drawn by 
Lange, and enables us clearly to separate the 
sections of the sin and the trespass-offering. 

Lange continues: "Ch. iv. 1. Sin, nNBri, 
as missing, is in Leviticus more particularly 
missing in regard to the holy fellowship with 
the holy God through transgression of His com- 
mand or violation of the reverence due Him. 
It must, as debt, be paid for by punishment. 
It makes the sinner unclean, so that he cannot 
appear in God's fellowship, and hence unclean- 
ness is a symbolic representation of sin, and the 
unclean needs, when cleansed, a sin-offering for 
a token and sign of his cleanness. It is under- 
stood that the sin offering that was introduced 
into the law by Moses preceded the given law; 
and so it is easily to be supposed that voluntary 
sin-offerings from compulsion of conscience 
most probably must be as old as the saoriSce 
in general, as certainly in the Passover the 
force of the sin offering may be plainly recog- 
nized." — [Lange must mean that the more gene- 
ral sacrifices of old often included within them 
ihe idea of the sin offering, as they did of every 
other sacrifice ; but the specialized sin offering 
itself, as already pointed out, is not menlioncd 
before Ex. xxix. 14, nor is there any evidence 
that it was used or known at an earlier date.]— 
" On the extra-theocratic sin offering see Kuo- 
hel, p. 386. But it is not correct to see with 
Knobel in the death of the sacrificial animal an 
actual satisfactio vicaria of the sinner, or to find 
in the death of the animal the expression that 
Ihe offerer had already deserved death. In 
regard to the first point, the sacrificial animal 
furnishes orily in the symbolical sense what the 
offerer ought to furnish personally, but cannot. 
And as to the second point, the death-punish- 
ment, in the peace-offering, it is self-evident, 
that the reference could not be to the punish- 
ment of death, and also in the sin-offering the 
difference between the Cherem" [Din— a curse, 
a thing devoted to destruction] " and' the propi- 
tiation through the sacrifice must be considered. 
That the divine Justice should have punisheii 



CHAP. IV. 1-35— V. 1-12. 



43 



an inadvertence, njJK'3, with death is an ovur- 

TT : * 

straining of the confession (with which the sao- 
' rifioer appeared before God), that by this over- 
sight or going astray he had entered the paths 
of death,* as this idea indeed belongs to par- 
donable sin. Otherwise an arbitrary distinction 
would have to be drawn between sin with up- 
lifted hand, and sin from inadvertence, under 
which head must be understood not only sins of 
ignorance and precipitation, but also natural 
weakness and heedlessness. The turning point 
of these sins lay in contrition. But the sacri- 
ficer could in reality hardly satisfy the theocratic 
order by his sacrifice; on the religious side his 
sacrifice was thus a confession of his inability 
to satisfy, an appeal for mercy ; and hence the 
sacrifice became a typical prophetic movement 
towards the future satisfaction " 

The sins for which sin offerings were to be 
presented were offences against the Divine law 
much more in its moral than in its ceremonial 
aspect. Great offences against civil society, such 
as involuntary manslaughter (Num. xxxv. 10-15; 
Deut. xix. 1-10), did not come within the scope 
of these sacrifices ; and minor breaches of the 
ceremonial law, such as uncleanness from contact 
with the dead bodies of animals (Lev. xi. 24, 28) 
or men (Num. xix. 11,19,20), were otherwise pro- 
vided for. The sin offering had relation much 
more to the individual conscience tlian to the 
theocratic state or the peculiar Hebrew polity. 
In Num. XV. 29 its privileges are expressly ex- 
tended to the *' stranger." liut it was not allowed 
to be offered in cases where no true penitence 
could be supposed to exist, and it was therefore 
not permitted in the case of presumptuous or 
defiant sins (Num. xv. 30, 31). 

The idea of vicarious satisfaction necessarily 
appears more clearly in this specialized offering 
for sin than in other sacrifices which were either 
more general in their character, or specialized 
for other purposes. (The word i^Xt3^ occurs 
several times in Genesis in the sense of sin, but 
never in the sense of ain offering, before Ex. xxix. 
14). Hence, in view of the intrinsic insuificiency 
of animal victims to atone for moral offences, this 
sacrifice was emphatically typical of the true 
Sacrifice for sin to come. The object of all the 
divine dealings with man has been his restora- 
tion to communion with God by the restoration 
of his holiness; and the first step to this end 
was necessarily the putting away of his sin. 
Under the old dispensation, therefore, the typi- 
cal sin offering was the culmination of its whole 
syiitem, presented in the most emphatic form on 
the great day of atonement (chap, xvi.) ; just as 
under the new dispensation the culmination of 
Christ's worlj for the redemption of His people 
was His atoning sacrifice of Himself upon the 
Cross of Calvary. 

Unlike the preceding sacrifices, the victim in 
the sin offering varied according to the offender's 
rank in the theocracy. The ground of this is to 
be sought in the conspicuousness of the offence, 
not at all in its grossness. Here, as elsewhere, 

„ .* " -^^ ^^ *^o a strainiag of the text to render the words : 
in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou ehalt surely die," 
as meaning "thou shalt actually die the death." Religio- 
naoral defith realizes itself gradually. Indeed, the principle 
or death is the germ of death itself." 



there was no correlation between the value of 
the victim and the magnitude of the sin. Every 
sin, great or small, of the same class of persons 
was expiated by the same means; a victim of 
higher value was only required in consequence 
of official responsibility and position, and tbe 
consequently greater strain which offences 
brought upon the theocracy. There was no 
such gradation in the Trespass offering, which 
was related more to the harm done than to the 
sin committed. Four grades are prescribed: 
for the sin— (1) of the high-priest (3-12) ; (2) 
of the whole congregation (13-21); (3) of a 
prince (22-26) ; (4) of any of the people of the 
land (27-35). After this follows an enumeration 
of special sins for which confession should be 
made and sin offerings offered (v. 1-6), with the 
allowance of inferior offerings in case of poverty 
(7-13). 

Vers. 1, 2. The general condition of the sin 
offering. 

Ver. 2. Speak unto the children of Israel. 
— It is always to be remembered that these laws 
are given to a people already in covenant rela- 
tion to God, and the essential point of that cove- 
nant was the promise of the final victory over 
sin in the person of "the seed of the woman." 
The laws given until He should come are therefore 
necessarily based upon His coming, and look 
forward to Him. 

Any of the commandments. — S^D in a 

partitive sense. At the close of this verse must 
be understood some such clause as he shall bring 
nn offering for his sin. The actual apodosis of the 
verse is the whole following chapter, and not 
ver. 3, which relates only to the high-priest. 

Vers. 3-12. The sin offering of the high-priest. 
Lange here says: "It must be noticed that thi 
high-priest could become the most guilty of all, 
which the haughtiness of the hierarchy never 
thought of enough ; that the whole congregation 
was rated as one personality equal in rank to 
him ; that the prince was only considered siightly 
greater than the common man (the difference is 
he goats, she goats, or an ewe) ; and that for the 
poor, in the section v. 1-13, there were two more 
peculiar modifications." 

Ver. 3. The priest that is anointed. — 
LXX.: apxi^psvc, ii2')_m\}3= high-priest, Tar- 
gums. The high-priest is so called by reason 
of the peculiar authority by which he alone was 
consecrated to his office (Ex. xxix. 7; chap. viii. 
12). The anointing of all the priests was indeed 
expressly commanded (Ex. xxviii. 41; xl. 15), 
and is recognized as having taken place vii. 36; 
i. 7 ; Num. iii. 3 : yet in the account of the con- 
secration, chap, viii., no other anointing of the 
common priests is mentioned than that Moses 
sprinkled both them and Aaron with " the an- 
ointing oil" and the blood from the altar. Ac- 
cording to the best Jewish authorities, however, 
the pricits were anointed with the finger upon 
the forehead. Ontram places the distinction in 
the fact that each successive high-priest was per- 
sonally anointed, while the others were only an- 
ointed once for all in the persons of Aaron's im- 
mediate sons. Whatever may be the truth in re- 
gard to these things, the high-priest is evidently 
regarded in a peculiar sense as anointed, and is 



44 



LEVITICUS. 



generally designated in Lev. (iv. 5, 16; vi. 22; 
XTi. 32) as the anointed priest. He is also 

called the VnJH [rl3n=^rOT( priest (ixi. 10; 
Num. XXXV. 25/28 bin; Josh. xx. 6), and in later 
times the head or chief priest (2 Kings xxv. 18 ; 
2 Chr. xix. 11), or simply the priest, /car' i^oxv" 
(1 Kings ii. 35, etc.). 

Do sin. — Origen (Horn. II. in Lev. §1) ob- 
serves that inadvertence is not specified in the 
case of the high-priest. It must, of course, be 
supposed in view of the general principles on 
which sacrifices were allowed at all; but it pro- 
bably was not written in the law that the in- 
firmity of the high-priest might not be made too 
prominent. , 

To the guilt of the people, Di'ri nDEJiji^— 

i. «., to bring upon the people the guilt of his own 
transgression. It is an undue restriction of the 
sense of these words to limit them to the sins 
committed by the high-priest in his official capa- 
city. Such sins, of course, did brin' guilt upon 
the people (Lev. x. 17; Mai. ii. 7, 8) ; but over 
and above this, nothing can be clearer in his- 
tory, both under the old covenant and in the 
world at large, than that God bad so constituted 
men with a federal as well as individual relation, 
that the sins of the head, whether of the nation, 
the community, or the family, en'ail suffering 
upon its members. The high-priest as the head 
of the theocracy could not sin, but ihit the whole 
body of Israel should feel its effects. The dis- 
tinction may indeed be made between natural 
and moral consequences, between earthly and 
future punishments; still the two things are so 
intimately connected, a debasing of the moral 
sense of the community is so much the effect of 
the unfaithfulness of its head that the spiritual 
condition of the Israelites, following the general 
law, was largely affected by that of their high- 
priest, so that his sins did indeed "bring guilt 
upon the people." 

A young bullock -without blemish. — 
The high-priest's sin offering was the same as 
that of the whole congregation (ver. 14), not 
merely because of the conspicuousness of his po- 
sition and of the gravity of sin in one who should 
be the leader to all holiness; but especially (see 
ver. 3) because of his representative character 
and his federal headship mentioned above. Ac- 
cording to Jewish tradition, if the bullock of the 
high-priest and the bullock of the congregation 
stood together ready for sin offerings, the former 
had the preference in every way. There was a 
careful gradation of the victims for the sin offer- 
ing : the high priest and the whole congregation 
offered a male — a young bullock; the prince of- 
fered also a male, but of the goats (ver. 23) ; 
the people offered a female of either the goats 
(ver. 28) or the sheep (ver. 32). There was also 
a corresponding gradation, but with fewer 
steps, in the ritual in regard to the blood, and 
also in the disposition of the flesh. See below. 

Ver. 4. The presentation, laying on of hands, 
and slaughtering, were the same (vers. 4. 14. 
15. 23, 24), as in the case of other sacrifices 
(i. 3-5). 

Vers. 5-7. And the priest that is anointed 
shall take . — At the point of the treatment of the 
blood the difference between the ritual of the sin 



c Jerings and the other sacrifices begins, and thij 
treatment differs somewhat in tlie several sin of- 
ferings themselves. In this case, the high, 
priest, who was himself the offerer, brought 
some of the blood to the tabernacle of the con- 
gregation; afterwards the person officiating is 
designated simply the priest. From this it has 
been argued that, as the high-priest was the one 
whose sin was to be atoned for, the service was 
here taken up on his behalf by another priest; 
but there is precisely the same change at the 
same point in the following offering for the 
whole congregation (vers. IG, 17), and the high- 
priest certainly officiated througboui on the great 
day of atonement (chap, xvi.); moreover, the 
fact of his offering the sin offering for himself as 
well as for the people is established by Heb 
V. 3. 

Ver. 6. Sprinkle of the blood. — The wor'l 
nin is different from pll used for sprinkle in 
chaps, i, and iii. in view of the much smaller 
quantity of blood used here. It is difficult to 
express this in English translation, though fh'! 
difference is observed in the LXX. and Vulg. 

Seven times. — -The seven-fold sprinkling of 
blood is frequently commanied (ver. 17: xvi. 17, 
19; Num. xix. 4) always in connection with sin 
offering, or (xiv. 7, 27) with ihe purification of 
leprosy. In consecrations, too, there was a 
seven-fold sprinkling of oil (viii. 11; xiv.l6),anJ 
frequently the number seven is designated for 
tho victims in sacrifice (xxiii. 18; Num. xxiii. 
1,4,14.29; xxviii. II, 19, 27; xxix. 2, 8, 13, 
3')). The same number also appears in many 
other particulars connected with the divine ser- 
vice, and has always been considered as symbo- 
lical of completeness and perfection. The num- 
ber is so frequent in the divine word, as well a< 
in the ordering of nature, that it must be thought 
to have its foundation in some unfathomable 
heavenly relations. Its use in connection with 
the sin offering is plainly to give emphasis to the 
typical completeness of the propitiation. 

Before the veil of the sanctuary.— There 
is a variety of opinion as to precisely where the 
blood was sprinkled. The LXX : /card rd mra- 
Treraafia, and the Vulg.: contra velum, seem to 
have supposed it was upon the veil itself. It 
is more probable that the high-priest, dipping 
his finger in the blood at the entrance of the 
sanctuary, sprinkled it before him towards the 
veil as he advanced to the altar of incense. The 
object was plainly the presenting of the blood 
before Jehovah, the manifestation of whose pre- 
sence was on the ark just within the veil. "The 
objective point was not the veil, but the ark 01 
the covenant." Lange. 

Ver. 7. Upon the horns of the altar of 
sweet incense — the golden altar which stood 
immediately before the veil. It was only in the 
case of the sin-offerings for the high-priest and 
for the whole people (ver. 18) that the blood was 
brought to this altar — doubtless on account of 
the especial gravity of the sins to be atoned for; 
in case of the other sin offerings the blood wafl 
put on the horns of the altar of burnt-offi'rin?i 
(vers. 25, .30, 34) which stood in the court witn- 
out. It was to be put in either case upon * 
horns of the altar because in these the sigmn- 
cauce of the altar culminated, and in the 8H 



CHAP. IV. 1-35— V. 1-13. 



45 



offering, as has already appeared, and will still 
more fully appear, the utmost emphasis was to 
be given to every part of the ritual of propitia- 
tion. 

Shall pour all the blood. — But very little 
of the blood had thus far been used ; the re- 
mainder — all the blood — was to be poured out at 
the foot of the altar of burnt-offering, the place 
to which all blood of the sacrifices not otherwise 
required was to be brought; it bad no sacrificial 
significance. During the life in the wilderness 
the blood of the comparatively smnll number of 
sacrifices was here absorbed by the earth ; later, 
in the temple conduits were arranged by whicii 
it was carried off into the valley of the Kedron. 

Vers. 8-10. The fat of the sin offering was 
to be treated in the same way as that of the 
peace offering, only that it is not said that it 
siiall be burned " upon the burnt offering " since 
when both were offered the sin offering came 
first (xvi. 11, 15, 24) ; neither is the burning 
of the fat described as " an offering made by 
fire, of a sweet savor unto the Lord." 

Vers. 11, 12. The disposition of the rest of 
the victim, i. e., of the whole animal except 
the blood and the fat, was the same in the 
sin offering of the high-priest and of the whole 
congregation (vers. 20, 21). The difference in 
the treatment of the flesh of these from that of 
other sin offerings is determined by the treat- 
ment of the blood (vi. 30). When the blood had 
been brought within the sanctuary, the flesh 
must be wholly burned ; yet not burned as a sa- 
crifice, the word 'l^tS' being never used in that 
sense. 

Without the camp. — No flesh of a sin-offer- 
ing might be burned upon the altar, because the 
nature of the offering was purely propitiatory, 
and it did not admit of being so used as to be 
called " the food of the offering made by fire 
unto the Lord" (see on iii. 11). It is described 
as " most holy" (vi. 25), and unlike the flesh of 
any other sacrifice, affected everything with 
which it came in contact (vi. '26-2S) ; whatever 
it touched must either be destroyed or specially 
purified. This was the law for all sin-offering-i, 
and a further law comes into play in regard to 
those sacrifices (that of the high-priest and that 
of the whole congregation) whose blood was 
brought within the sanctuary (vi. 30). Their 
flesh was strictly forbidden to be eaten ; and it 
remained that it must be destroyed in some other 
way. Hence the command that it should be 
"burned without the camp." Yet this was not 
a mere convenience, resorted to because there 
was nothing else to be done with it. The burn- 
ing without the camp had a deep symbolical 
teaching of sufiScient prominence to be referred 
to in Heb. xiii. 11, 12, and applied to Christ. 
The ground of the law seems to be that the flesh 
of all sin offerings was in a peculiar sense " holy" 
— devoted, under the ban — because they were 
for the propitiation for sin; yet a gradation was 
to be observed between them in this as in other 
respects. Their blood had been offered before 
the Lord, but when the blood had been offered 
in a more peculiar and emphatic way by bring- 
ing it within the sanctuary itself; a correspond- 
ing emphasis must mark the treatment of the 



flesh by carrying it forth to burn without the 
camp. The red heifer, whose ashes were to be 
used for purification, (Num. xix.) was to be 
burned in the same way. The sinfulness of sin 
and the importance and saereduess of everything 
connected with its propitiation were thus set be- 
fore the people in the strongest light. 

Unto a clean place — not carelessly any- 
where, lest it might happen to be to an "un- 
clean place" (xiv. 40); but -where the ashes 
are poured out, which was not merely "clean," 
but being used only in conneetiou with sacred 
things, had itself acquired a certain sacred as- 
sociation. The word *)"]!?, as already noted, in- 
dicates that the burning itself was not sacrificial. 
The same word is used for the burning of the 
red heifer. Num. xix. 5. No especial sin offer- 
ing is provided for the ordinary priest. It was 
the spirit of the law to have as little as possible 
of the caste relation about the priests, and in all 
matters in which they were not necessarily se- 
parated by their official functions, to treat them 
as ordinary citizens. Their sin-offering was 
doubtless the same with that of " any one of the 
people of the land." 

Vers. 13-21, The sin-offering of the whole 
congregation. 

If the -TO-hole congregation of Israel sin. 
— Prominent among the ways in which a whole 
congregation might sin are these : The civil 
ruler might do that which involved the nation in 
sin, and brought down punishment upon if, as 
in Saul's slaughttr of the Gibeonites, or David's 
numbering of the people ; a single individual by 
an act which caused a breach of the divine com- 
mands given to the whole people, might bring 
sin upon them all, as in the case of Achan, Josh, 
vii. 1 ; or the people generally might commit 
some special sin, as in 1 Sam. xiv. 32, or f.all 
into some habitual neglect of the divine com- 
mands, as in regard to the Sabbatical year (2 
Chr. xxxvi. 21), and the neglect of tithes and 
offerings for which they are so frequently re- 
proved hy the later prophets. 

Through inadvertence. — There were two 
kinds of such sin : first, inadvertence of conduct, 
where the sinfulness of the act would be ac- 
knowledged when attention was called to it ; and 
secondly, inadvertence of the law, when the act 
would not be known to be sinful until the law 
had been explained. In either case there would 
be no consciousness or intention of sin, and the 
thing would be hid from the eyes of the 
assembly. 

And are guilty. — Every transgression of the 
divine law brought guilt, whether through a 
faulty heedlessness of conduct, or a criminal 
ignorance of the law which had been given. 
This principle is abundantly recognized in the 
New Testament. 

Vers. 14-21. The ritual of the sin offering for 
the whole congregation is the same as that for 
the high-priest. The victim prescribed here is 
a bullock ; in Num. xv. 24 a kid in addition is 
required for sins of inadvertence of the congre- 
gation. Either the law was modified, which 
seems unlikely, or else the two requirements 
have reference to some distinction in the occa- 
sion or character of the sin, such as in one case 



46 



LEVITICUS. 



sins of omission, in the otlier of commission. 
Tliere was also another and very peculiar sin- 
offering for the congregation prescribed on the 
especial occasion of the great day of atonement 
(xvi. 5). The high-priest's sin offering isthere 
unchanged; but that for the people is highly 
altered in view of the especial purpose of the 
day. 

Vor. 1.5. The elders — since the congregation 
could only perform the acts required of thd of- 
ferer by means of their representative". 

Ver. 20. And the priest shall make an 
atonement for them, and it shall be for- 
given them. — This naturally was not said in 
regard to the high-priest's own sin offering, hut 
is repeated in connection with those that, follow 
(vers. 26, 31, 35; y. 6, 10, 13), and elsewhere in 
the same connection (Num. xv. 2-3, 28); also in 
connection with the trespass offering (v. 16, 18; 
vi. 7; xix. 22). It is also used in connection 
with the purificatory offerings, the change being 
lu I'le from forgiveness to cleansing ns the result of 
the atonement (xii. 7, 8; xiv. 20, 53; Num. viii. 
21). The use of the simpler form " make atone- 
ment for him" in connection with the burnt- 
offering has already been noticed. The priest 
in these oases unquestionably acted, and was un- 
derstood by the people to act, in a mediatorial 
capacity. "^33. as noticed under i. 4, means 
literally, to cover, io put mil of sight, to hide. Wh,at 
is promised here is of course not that God will 
cause to he undone the wrong that has been 
done ; but that He will so put it out of His sight 
that the sinner may stand without fault in His 
presence. See the various expressions to this 
effect in the prophets, e. ff., Ps. Ixxxv. 2; ciii. 
12; xxxviii. 17; xliii. 25; xliv. 22; Jer. xxxi. 
34; Ezel£. xviii. 22; xxxiii. 16: Mio. vii. 18,19, 
etc. This atonement was thus effectual in re- 
moving the guilt of all transgression (other tlian 
wilful) against the divine law. Hence the efB- 
caey of the sin-offering could only have been de- 
rived from its typical relation to Him who was 
the Propitiation for the sins of the whole world. 
(1 Jno. ii. 2). 

Vers. 22-26. The sin offering for a Prince. 

The ritual in this case differs from that in the 
previous cases, first in the selection of the vic- 
tim, which must now be a he-goat instead of a 
bullock ; and secondly, in that the blood was not 
presented within the sanctuary, which involved 
consequently a difference in the disposition of 
the flesh. 

Ver. 24. In the place Twhere they kill the 
burnt offering — i. e., the burnt offering "of 
the flock." on the north side of the altar, i. 11. 

Ver. 25. The horns of the altar of burnt 
offering — In this and the following cases, as 
the sin was less extensive in its effects, so the 
ritual was far more simple. There was no 
sprinkling of blood before the veil, and the great 
altar in the court was substituted for the allar 
of incense within the sanctuary. The fiit was 
burned as before; on the disposition of the flesh, 
see vi. 26-29. 

Vers. 27-35. The sin offering for one of the 
people. 

In this case the victim is changed to a female, 
but the ritual remains the same in all respects 



as in the sin offering of the prince An option 
was allowed as to the victim whether it should 
be of the goats, which seems to have been pre- 
ferred (vers. 28-31), or of the sheep (vs. 32-3.5). 

Chap. V. 1-13 Certain specified sins and the 
sin-offering for them. 

There is a difference of opinion among com- 
mentators as to whether this section should be 
connected with the ein-offerings which preiieile, 
or with the trespass offerings which follow. See 
Lange's discussion under iv. 1. The chief ar- 
gument for the latter is from the use of the 
word 'IDE'S, ver. 6 (see below), which, however, 
rightly understood, does not bear out the infer- 
ence. On the other hand, these verses are dis- 
tinctly a part of the same divine communication 
begun iv. 1, while another begins at v. 14 ; tbe 
word sin-offering is expressly used throughout 
(vers. 6, 7, 9, 11) ; and the idea of compensation 
for the harm done, prominent in the trespass 
offering (especially ver. 16), only slightly ap- 
pears (ver. 6) in these offerings. They are 
reckoned with the sin offerings by Knobel and 
Keil. They may perhaps be considered as some- 
what intermediate between the ordinary sin 
offering and the trespass offering, yet belonging 
in the category of the former. The sins for 
which they were to be offered were of a less 
flagrant character than those of ch. iv. 

Four partiouLir cases of inadvertent sins are 
first mentioned, vers. 1-4 (for vers. 2 and 3 are 
clearly to be distinguished); and then confession 
(ver. 5) and an offering (vers. 6-13) is required 
for each. The normal offering is prescribed in 
ver. 6, a substitute allowed in case of poverty, 
vers. 7-10, and a further substitute in case of 
extreme poverty, vers. 11-18. Only in regard to 
these substitutes is the ritual given, that for ihe 
normal sin offering having been already de- 
scribed in ch. iv. 

Ver. 1. The case here specified is that of a 
witness put upon oath who withholds testimony 
as to that which is within his own certain know- 
ledge — lj;_ Xini. It is the omissioh, according 
to our phraseology, " to tell the whole truth." 
It may cover also the case of neglect to testify 
when a public demand for information has been 
madu with an adjuration; St. Augustine (Quest. 
in Lev. I.) aud Theodoret extend it also to the 
case of hearing testimony, known to be false, 
given under oath. The case of giving positive 
false witness is quite a different one, and is 
treated in Dent. xix. 16-19. 

Adjuration. — In the forms of Jewish trial, 
the witness did not himself utter the oath, or 
express his assent to it, but was adjured by the 
magistrate. Comp. Matt. xxvi. 63 ; 2 Chron. 
xviii. 15. 

Whether he hath seen or known.— This 
covers both the cases of eye-witness and of 
knowledge derived from any other source. 

Bear his iniquity. — Until purged in the 
way herein provided. The expression is a very 
common one in the law (vii. 18; xvii. 16; xii. 
8; XX. 17; xxiv. 15; Num. v. 31; ix- 13; 
xiv. 33, 34, etc.), and means that he shall endure 
tlie punishment of the sin, whether in its natural 
consequences or in positive inflictions. It " 
used both vvith reference to capital sins and also 



CHAP. IV. 1-35— V. 1-13. 



47 



to those which might be expiated hy sacrifioc. 
If the sacrifice were not offered, the sinner must 
bear the consequences of his sin. In this case 
confession (ver. 5) was a necessary condition of 
the sin-offering ; therefore if he do not utter 
it, for without this there could be no desire to 
be again at one with God, and hence no place 
for the offering of sacrifice. 

Ver. 2. The second case is that of unoleanness 
from touching the carcase of any unclean ani- 
mal, and was a sin of a ceremonial character. 

It be bidden from him. — For the unolean- 
ness of this and the following verse simple and 
speedy forms of purification were provided in 
ease immediate action were taken (xi. 24, 25. 28, 
89,40; XV. 5, 8, 21; Num. xix. 22); but if it 
were neglected or unobserved, the defilement 
still actually existed, and as the offender was in 
danger of communicating his own uncleanness 
to others, and also of constant violation of the 
precepts of the law, it must be expiated by sac- 
rifice. On the'oonnection between uncleannet'S 
and sin, see preliminary note to ch. xi. 

Ver. 3. Orifhe touch the uncleanness of 
man. — A special case is made of this in order, 
as everywhere in the law, to emphasize the dis- 
tinction between man and the lower animals. 
Thus while observed impurity from contact with 
the carcase of an unclean animal was removed 
at even after washing the clothes (xi. 24, etc.), 
and neglected might be expiated by the sin- 
offering, the impurity from contact with the 
human dead body continued seven days, and 
rpquired repeated purifications (Num. xix. 11- 
16) ; and neglected, the offender defiled the 
tabernacle, and must "be cut off from Israel." 
The various kinds of uncleanness in man are 
detailed in chs. xi.-xv. 

When he knovreth of it. — This expression 
is. to be taken in conneoiion with the " it be hid- 
den from him" of ver. 2. Of course while the 
defilement was "hidden" there could be no 
consciousness of guilt, nor of moral sin ; yet the 
transgression of the law was an existing fact, 
and entailed its consequences. When it was 
brought to the offender's knowledge, then he 
was guilty in the further sense that he was 
bound to remove the already existing guilt by 
confession and sacrifice. 

Ver. 4. The fourth and last case specified is 
that of careless or forgotten oaths, not embra- 
cing the breach of the third commandment ; but 
the neglect or forgetfulness to perform an oath 
(such as might be uttered in recklessness or 
passion).— To do evil, or to do good. — That 
is to do anything whatever. Comp. Num. xxiv. 
13 ; Isa. xli. 23. 

Ver. 5. And it shall be, when.— A form 
to introduce the apodosis to each of the previous 
verses. 

He shall confess. — This applies to the par- 
ticular sins mentioned in the foregoing verses, 
not to the sin-offering in general. It is also 
required in the case of the trespass offering. 
Num. v. 6, 7. According to Jewish tradition a 
prayer and confession accompanied the laying 
on of the hand in all offerings. This is a dis- 
tinct acknowledgment of the particular fault, 
apparently before presenting the victim. 

Ver. 6. Bring for his trespass. — The He- 



brew being exactly the same as in the following 
verse, it seems better to give the same transla- 
tion. The A. V. has also the same translation in 
vers. 15 and 25 (vi. 6). The phrase is thus parallel 
to, and in apposition with, for his sin which 
he hath sinned. The sacrifice for this is 
expressly called a sin offering in this verse and 
vers. 7, 11, 12. By this rendering the sin an I 
the trespass offerings are kept distinct as they 
were certainly intended to be. 

A female from the flocis. — The victim and 
the ritual are precisely the same as in the sin 
offering for " one of the people of the land," 
and probably vers. 1-4 are intended to apply 
only to sins committed by them. 

Vers. 7-10. The alternative offering of the 
poor. 

As in the case of the voluntary burnt offering 
(i. 14-17), so in this of the required sin offering, 
the poor are allowed to bring pigeons or turtle- 
doves. 

One for a sin offering, and the other for 
a burnt offering. — The two together evidently 
constitute the full sin-offering; but they are 
called by these names because the treatment of 
the two birds was different, and each after the 
analogy of the offering from which it is named. 
The bird being too small to admit of its parts 
being disposed of as a sin offering, two were 
required, oneof which was undoubtedly (although 
this is not expressed) to be eaten by tiie priest, 
as is stated in the Mishna, after the fashion of 
the flesh of the sin offering (vi. 26, 29 ; vii. 7) ; 
4he other was to be burned on the altar like the 
fat of that sacrifice. 

Ver. 8. Finch off the head. — See under i. 
15. In this case the head was not to be entirely 
separated, but pinched off enough to allow the 
blood to flow and to kill the bird. 

Ver. 9. Sprinkle of the blood. — This was 
not done in the case of the bird for the burnt- 
cffering. It could easily be accomplished by 
swinging the bleeding bird against the side of 
the altar. 

Pressed out at the bottom. — Where the 
blood of the other sin offerings was poured. In 
the burnt offering this blood (i. 15) was pressed 
out against the side of the altar. 

Ver. 10. The ritual of the second bird was to 
be the same as when birds were offered for a 
burnt offering (i. 15-17). The two birds toge- 
ther constituted a complete sin offering. From 
the fact, however, that two were required, it is 
plain that the part of the offering not required 
to be consumed upon the altar was still essential 
to the sacrifice. 

Vers. 11-13. The second alternative for the 
extremely poor. 

This was allowed, on account of the absolute 
necessity of the sin offering, in order to put it 
within the reach of all. Lange notes that the 
sins specified in this section are, for the most 
part, sins arising from the lowness and rudeness 
of the inferior people : the law seeks to refine 
them. Still it is to be remembered that this 
alternative offering was not only for the sins 
mentioned v. 1-13, but for all sins reached by 
the sin offering. The fact that it was unbloody 
is not opposed to the general significance of the 
shedding of blood in connection with the remis- 



48 



LEVITICUS. 



Bion of sin (Heb. ix. 22), since this alternative 
■was altogether of an exceptional character and 
allowed only in case of necessity- It was also 
supplemented by the general sin offering on the 
great day of atonement. 

The tenth part of an Ephah. — The Ephah 
according to Josephus was about 1 1-9 bushels ; 
according to the Eabbins, rather less than half 
that amount. The tenth of an Eph.ah (called an 
Omer, Ex. xvi. 36) was therefore, according to 
the lower and more probable estimate, Tery 
nearly three pints and a half. 

He shall put no oil upon it. — The tin- 
ofFering of flour wns sharply distinguished from 
the oblation of the sam'^ (ii. 5) by the absence 
of the oil and frankincense, just as the other 
sin offerings were marked by the absence of the 
oblations. In both cases, the difference indi- 
cates that the offerer stood in a different rela- 
tion toward God, not that of one in communion 
with Ilim, but of one seeking atonement for the 
sin which separated from Him. 

Ver. 12. On the "handful" and "memorial" 
see on ii. 2. 

Ver. 13. In one of these. — As in ver. 5, 
one of the sins specified, vers. 1-4. 

As an oblation, i. e. as most holy. Comp. 
under ii. 3. The character of the sin offering 
in its two parts is still preserved in this its 
humblest form. 

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL. 

I. One of the plainest teachings of the sin 
offering is that everything opposed to the re- 
vealed will of God is Bin, whether done with the 
purpose of transgre.-ssing it or not. Butler has 
shown that this is in perfect accordance with 
the divine law in nature. St Paul considered 
himself the chief of sinners, because he "perse- 
cuted the Church of God;" yet as he obtained 
mercy because he did it ignorantly in unbelief 
(1 Tim. i. 13-16), so the sin-offering was pro- 
vided for those who put themselves io opposition 
to the divine will without intending to do so. 
It was on this principle that Jesus could pray 
for those who nailed Him to the cro»s : " Father, 
forgive them for they know not what they do" 
(Luke xxiii. 34) The great mass of human sin 
is incurred not for the sake of sinning, but in 
heedlessness, or through wrong judgment, or 
under the impulse of passion. It comes under 
the head of sins of inadvertence; but, as of old, 
needs the intervention of the blood of the atone- 
ment before the sinner can be restored to com- 
munion with God. 

II. In the law of the sin offering it appears 
clearly that under the old dispensation as well 
as the new the character of the sin was deter- 
mined by the animus of the sinner. For high- 
handed and defiant sin no sacrifice was allow- 
able ; he who committed this put himself out of 
the pale of reconciliation. But he who commit- 
ted sins — which might in themselves be far worse 
— " through inadvertence" might bring his of- 
fering and have " an .ilonement made for him." 
An excellent historical illustration may be found 
in oomparing ihe stories of th'i lives of Saul and 
of David; and the distinction between the two 
kinds of sin is expressed in the psalm of David 
(XIX. 12). 



III. In the sin offering the offerer must have 
already been in a state of mind which led him to 
desire the forgiveness of his sin, as is shown by 
his very act of bringing his victim to the priest; 
he was also ready to confess his sin ; yet still 
the offering was required. By this was taught 
in outward symbol to the people of the old dis- 
pensation what is BO clearly proclaimed in the 
Gospel, that for the forgiveness of sin there must 
be some propitiation outside and beyond the sin- 
ner himself; mere penitence, though an essen- 
tial prerequisite, cannot alone avail to restore 
the disturbed relations to God of one who has 
transgressed His law. 

IV. The inherent ineflicacy of these sacrifices 
to atone for sin has been already repeatedly no- 
ticed ; moreover, this inefficacy was constantly 
brought to the mind of the worshipper by the 
repetition of the sin offerings, as is especially 
noted in regard to the sacrifices of the day of 
atonement in the Ep. to the Heb. (ix. 6-8); 
still the sin offering is insisted upon in the law 
with an emphasis greater than belongs to any 
other sacrifice. Most clearly, therefore, does it 
point to the " Lamb of God that taketh away the 
sin of the world." 

V. In the extension of the privileges of tho 
sin-offering in Num. xv. 29 to "the stranger" 
one of those many intimations is given, scattered 
everywhere throughout the Old Test., which the 
Israelites were so slow to understand, that tbe 
blessings of forgiveness and of approach to God 
were intended for all people, and that tbe nar- 
rowness of restriction to the children of Abia- 
ham after the flesh was on'y a temporary provi- 
sion "because of transgressions" until the 
promised Seed should come. But even while the 
restriction continued the stranger in Is-rael might 
present his sin offering, and Israel's priests must 
make atonement for him. 

VI. The sacramental va'ue of the sin offering 
is happily expressed by Calvin in Lev. iv. 22. 
"In truth they hold not the first rudiments of 
the faith who do not reci'gnize that the legal ce- 
remonies were sacraments. But in all sacra- 
ments, at least those which are regular in the 
church, there is a spiritual promise annextd. It 
follows therefore that forgiveness was tru'y pro- 
mised to the Fathers who reconciled themselves 
to God by the victims offered ; not that the 
slaughter of sheep could expiate sins, but be- 
cause this was a symbol, certain and impossible 
to deceive, in which pious souls might rest so 
that they could dare to appear before God in 
lalm confidence. In fine, as sins are now sacra- 
mentally washed away by baptism, so under the 
law also sacrifices were expiations, although in 
a different fashion ; since baptism sets before us 
Christ immediately, who was only obscurely sha- 
dowed forth under the law. Improperly indeed 
is that transferred to the signs which belongs to 
Christ alone, in whom is set forth to us the truth 
of all spiritual good and who finally did away 
sin by His single and perpetual sacrifice. But 
since the question is not what the sacrifices 
availed in themselves, let it suffice that they testi- 
fied of the grace of God of which they were 
figures." 

VII. The ritual of the sin offering was the 
most solema of all the sacrifices, and the blood 



CHAP. V. 14— VI. 7. 



49 



of this (except in case of tlie alternative doves) 
was always to be placed at least ou the bonis of 
the altar, while that of the greaest burnt or 
peaoe-otfering was only sprinkled ou its sides; 
thus the forgiveness of sin is shown to be the 
most fundamental and necessary part of the 
whole approach to God. 

VIII. No sin offerings, although some of them 
were "burned without the camp," were ever 
wholly burned upon the altar, and the common 
expression in regard to other sacrifices, " the 
food of the Loi'd " is never applied to these. 
Frankincense and oil were not allowed with the 
vegetable, nor an oblation with the animal sin 
ottering The whole ritual was stern and severe, 
until by the sacrifice itself propitiation had been 
made. By this symbolisTi is set forth the atti- 
tude of the Infinite in holiness towai-ds sin ; and 
thus is seen what must have been the conse- 
quences to the sinner, except for the Propitiation 
that is in Christ Jesus. 

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL. 

The " exceeding sinfulness of sin " is shown 
in every possible symbolical way by this offering 
It has in it nothing of the oil of gladness, or the 
fragrance of frankincense ; it has nothing of 
festive joy, or of communion between the wor- 
shipper and God. Yet dark as the shadow of 
sin is hereby shown to be, it appears on all oc- 
casions when man comes into the presence of 
God. The sin offering was presented for "the peo- 
ple, on all the great festivals and days of solemn 
ooDVOcatiou, ou Passover, the Feast of Weeks, 
and the Feast of Tabernacles, on the Day of 5Ie- 
morial, on the first day of the seventh mouth, 



and on the Day of Atonement " (Kalisoh) and on 
many other public occasions. Besides all these, 
it was offered continually by individuals as the 
sins of their own lives were brought to their con- 
sciousness. So must man's approach to God ever 
be with the plea, "Have mercy upon me, a sin- 
ner." Coming in this temper, propitiation is 
provided for all. There was none so poor but 
that a sin offering was within his reach. And 
so the word of the great Propitiation is, "Him 
that Cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out." 
" Ho is able to save unto the uttermost them that 
come unto God by Him." 

Yet for high-handed and defiant sin, for sin that 
sets itself in opposition to the Divine way of salva- 
tion, there is no other way of forgiveness, " there 
remains no more sacrifice." Comp. Heb. x. 26. 

For the sin of the high-priest a higher victim 
was commanded, and with a higher ritual, be- 
cause he " sinned to the guilt of the people." 
Only for the sin of the whole people collectively 
the same offering was required. So it must ever 
be with those in positions of influence and au- 
thority ; when they sin, they drag others with 
them into guiltiness. There is ever a federal, 
as well as an individual relation between man 
and God, and though the latter may delerm ne 
his final condition, yet his individual rtlation 
itself is largely affected by his federal. 

Sins of omission are regarded as sins equally 
with those of commission. 

No one is so humble that the means of propi- 
tiation is not provided for him. Under the law 
this could only be symbolized by alternative of- 
ferings of different degrees, showing forth the 
freeness under the Gospel of the offer of the 
waters of life to all that are athirst. 



E.— TRESPASS OFFERINGS. 
Chaps. V. 14— VI. 7. 



Note.— In the division of chapters in the Hebrew Bible this section is rightly all included in Chap. V. 

14, 15 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, If a soul commit a trespass [do a 
wrong'], and sin through ignorance [inadvertence^] in [takinff from^] the holy things 
of the Lord ; then he shall bring for his trespass unto the Lord a ram without 
blemish out of the flocks, with [according to*] thy estimation by shekels of silver, 



TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL. 
> Ter. 15. b;7rD hj/OPi- The wor i be.ng ditferent from the OWH bo frequently recurring in this chapt r in a tech- 
nical Beuse, it is better to chango the translation. Otherwise cnmwit a trespass is a sufficiently good translation, as no Eng- 
lish word embodies the idea of secrecy or stealth conveyed by the original. 

^ Ver. 15. njJE'3 *= through inadvertence. See Note i on iv. 2. 

' Ver. 16. «"" 'ttflpD a oonalructio pra^ffnans — takine, or diminishing from the holy things. 

* Ver. 15. n31_J?3.' 'ihe preposition often hai the sense given in the A. V. with but according to (as in the next word 
bnt one) seems here the better rendering. The evlden' sense is that the ram was tf> be of a certain value, an 1 this was to 
he determined by an estimation. The restitution for the harm done, with its added fifth, is prescribed in tbn following ver., 
and doesnot come into view here. The Sara, text preserves the exact form of the Hebrew, bnt all the ancient versions, 
while changing the form of expression, give the sense according to ; they also neglect to translate the T| = thy. 



50 



LEVITICUS. 



16 after the shekel of the sanctuary, f jr a trespass offering ; and he shall make amends 
for the harm that he hath done [sin that he hath committed*] in the holy thing, 
and shall add the fifth part thereto, and give it unto the priest : and the priest shall 
make an atonement for him with the ram of the trespass offering, and it shall be 
forgiven him. 

17 Aud if a soul sin, and commit any of these things which are forbidden to be done 
by the commandments of the Lokd ; though he wist it not, yet is he guilty, and 

18 shall bear his iniquity. And he shall bring a ram without blemish out of the 
flock, with [according to*] thy estimation, fjr a trespass offering, unto the priest: 
and the priest shall make an atonement for him concerning his ignorance [inadver- 

19 tence'"] wherein he erred and wist it not, aud it shall be forgiven him. It is a tres- 
pass offering : he hath certainly trespassed against the Lokd. 

Chap. VI. 1, 2. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, If a soul sin, and commit 
a trespass [do a wrong'] against the Lord, and lie unto his neighbour, in that [and 
deny to his neighbor that"] which was delivered him to keep, or in fellowship [or a 
pledge'] or in [omit in] a thing taken away by violence, or hath deceived [op- 

3 pressed"] his neighbour ; or have found that which was lost, and lieth concerning 
it [denieth it^] and sweareth falsely ; in any of all these that a man doeth, sinning 

4 therein : then it shall be, because he hath sinned, and is guilty, that he shall re- 
store that which he took violently away, or the thing which he hath deceitfully 
[oppressively'] gotten, or that which was delivered him to keep, or the lost thing 

5 which he found, or all that about which he hath sworn falsely ; he shall even re- 
store it in the principal, and shall add the fifth part more thereto, and give it unio 

6 him to whom it appertaineth, in the day of his trespass offering.' And he shall 
bring his trespass offering unto the Lord, a ram without blemish out of the flock, 

7 with [according to*] thy estimation, for a trespass offering, unto the priest : and the 
priest shall make an atonement for him before the Lord : and it shall be forgiven 
him for anything of all that he hath done in trespassing therein. 



s Ver. 16. This is the only place in Lev. in which KDH is rendered by any other word thau sin in theA. V. Tliifl 
Bhonld be conformed to the usage. 

fl Chap. VI. Ver. 2. ^n3 construed with a double 3 of the person and of the thing, = to deny a thing to a person. 
The word means to lie (xix H, etc.), but the other rendering expresses more exactly the sense here, and is the more usual 

^ Ver. 2. n^ nOl^r^j'lK = o. thing given in pled^e^ apaum^ different from the trust just before. The coustraction ia 
T ..■ : . 
with the same verb, and is sufficiently expressed without the special translation of ^, so that the in of the A, V. may be 
t niittvd tbroughout. 

8 Ver. 2. pU^J^ lit. to ^rfs.s, to squeeze, hence to oppress. A new verb being here introduced the construction with the 

series of 3 enJs. The derived noun piy^, ver. 4, bears the same sense => that which has been oppressively obtained. 

8 Vor. 5. The Heb. word meaning either trespass or trespass offering, the marg. of the A. V. is hardly accurate in writing 
*' Heb. m the ilsiy of his trespass." 



EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL. 

The general distinction of the trespass from 
the sin offering lias already been pointed out: in 
the trespass offering the idea of the harm done 
was more prominent, in the sin offering that of 
the sin commUt''d. Accordingly the trespass of- 
fering was usually accompanied by *' amends for 
the harm" — a fifth (a double tithe) being added 
as penalty. In case the person against whom 
the wrong was done was already dead without a 
kinsman to receive the compensation, the amends 
and penalty were to be paid to the priest (Num. 
y. 8). The ritual differed in several respects 
from that of the sin offering: the blood was 
treated as in the burnt and peace offerings; the 
only victim here allowed was a ram; there was 
no gradation either in the victim or the ritual 
according to the rank of the offender; nor were 



any alternative offerings allowed in case of po- 
verty. The reason for the last provision results 
necessarily from the nature of the offering. 
Elsewhere we find the same trespass offering 
prescribed for unchastity with a slave (xix. 2ft- 
;22), and in later times offered by those who, on 
the return from the captivity, had taken strange 
wives (Ezra X. 19); the same also (not «, "he- 
lamb," as in the A. V. ) is commanded with a 
Bomewhatdifferent ritual on occasion of declaring 
the cleansing of a leper (xiv. 12, 21), and also 
with a ram of a year old for the victim in case 
of unintentional defilement by a dead body during 
a Nazarite vow (Num. vi. 9-12). 

Three cases are specified which demand a 
trespass offering — the first two having reference 
more directly to wrong done towards God (v. 
15-19), aud the third, including several varieties 
of offence, having reference to wrong done to men 
(vi. 2-7). 



CHAP. V. 14— VI. 7. 



51 



Ver. 14. And the LORD spake. — This for- 
mula marks a fresh communication and distinctly 
separates tlie trespass-offering from the sin offer- 
ing which has occupied the whole of the previous 
communication from iv. 1. The whole law of the 
trespass offering is not, however, contained in 
this communication, but only that part of it re- 
lating to wrongs done toward God. Wrongs 
done toward man are the subject of a separate 
communication (vi. 1-7). 

Vers. 16-17. The first ease of the trespass 
offering. 

Ver. IS. Through inadvertence, as in iv. 
2, 13, 22. 

In taking from the holy things. — See 
Textual note 3. The holy things were the first- 
fruits, tithes, or gifts of any kind connected with 
the service of the sanctuary or the support of its 
priests, by the withholding of which the Lord is 
said to suffer loss. The restitution and penalty 
are mentioned xxii. 14 without mention of this 
offering, vsUich is presupposed. 

A ram. — The invariable trespass offering 
(except in the special cases xiv. 12 ; Num. vi. i2) 
which does not at all appear in the list of victims 
for the sin offering in iv. 1 — v. 13. 

According to thy estimation. — See Text- 
ual note 4. — The pronoun thy must be considered 
as used impersonally ; or if it be taken person- 
ally, then it is addressed to Moses, and of course 
to any one to whom this duty should afterwards 
belong in bis place. 

Shekels. — The Vulg. and many commentators 
understand the plural to stand for two, as the 
A. V. has explained the plurnl in Ezek. xlvii. 13 ; 
others, as Aben-Ezra, Abarbanel, etc., understand 
it less definitely as meaning at least two shekels. 
The notion of Oehler (p. 478) and Keil (in loc.) 
that the value of the ram was purposely left in- 
definite, that there might be room to vary it ac- 
cording to the gravity of the trespass, although 
advocated by Michaelis (Art. 244), is clearly 
wrong It is opposed to the fundamental idea 
of all sacrifice, which excludes such correlation ; 
and is entirely unnecessary, since the compensa- 
tion and forfeit (ver. 16) were separately re- 
quired. Moreover, the variation in the value of 
the ram would be very small in comparison with 
the variation in trespasses. The text »as in- 
tended to fix the lowest limit of the value of .1 
ram that could be allowed, and the estimutiou 
was for the purpose of determining whether he 
came up to the standard. " The plural is plainly 
to be uuderstood as meaning two shekels, or at 
least two shekels." Knobel. 

Shekel of the Sanctuary. — See Ex. xxx. 
13 ; xxxviii. 24, etc. 

Ver, 16. And he shall make amends. — He 
shall give the first-fruits or tithes, or whatever 
he had withheld or taken from sacred dues, or its 
value. And shall add the fifth part thereto 
as a penalty or forfeit. — Theodoret here refers to 
the example of Zaccheus. The justice of such ad- 
ditional payment is everywhere recognized in the 
Hebrew and all other laws. It is in this, and not 
iu the ram, that the penalty is proportioned to the 
offence. This having been done, and reparation 
made, then, with the ram, the priest shall 
make an atonement. 

On the ritual of this sacrifice see vii. 1-6. 



Vers. 17-19. The second case of the trespass 
offering. 

This second ease probably differed from the 
first as sins of commission differ from those of 
omission. The formula by which the trespass is 
expressed is substantially the same as in iv. 22 
and 27 in regard to the sin to be expiated by the 
sin offering. From its connection, and from its 
being expiated by the trespass offering, it is sup- 
posed to include all those transgressions against 
the theocratic law which could be compensated 
by money or other payment ; yet in this case 
alone no mention is made of compensation, partly 
because it was evident from the foregoing that 
it was required when it could be given, and 
partly because it included also eases in which 
pecuniary compensation could not be given, but 
punishment must be inflicted in some other way. 
(See xix. 20.) Lange, however, urges that this 
omission is a serious difficulty against the view 
of the trespass offering which has here been 
given. He considers that the trespass offering 
relates to participation in guilt in contradistinc- 
tion to an original offence, and thinks this is in. 
dicated by the description of these sins as "sins 
of ignorance." He says "these sins of ignorance 
belong specifically to the category of participation 
in guilt." It must be remembered, however, that 
all sins for which any offering was allowed were 
"sins of ignorance," or rather of inadvertence. 

VI. 1-7. The third case of the trespass 
offering. 

From the formula of ver. 1 this appears as a 
separate divine communication, on account of 
the different character of the sins enumerated. 
All sin is indeed against God, yet those which 
follow belong to that class of offences against Him 
which also work harm to men. 

The first three verses contain an enumeration 
of specific wrongs; vers. 4 and 6 provide for 
amends for the harm done with the added pe- 
nalty; and vers. 6 and 7 for atonement by means 
of the trespass offering. This communication 
bears the same relation to the foregoing which 
V. 1-13 bears to chap. iv. 

Ver. 2. If a man deny to his neighbor 
that -which viras delivered him. — "]np3 
is a deposit, a thing entrusted to be kept. The 
sin in this case would consis.t either iu denying 
the receiving it at all, or denying that it was re- 
ceived in trust, or refusing to restore it. 

A pledge. — This differs from the former iu 
not being simply a trust, bnt a security, a pawn. 
It is not separately mentioned in ver. 4. 

Ver. 8. Svreareth falsely. — When he denies 
that he has found a lost thing, and is put upon 

his oath, he swears to his lie, IPBi-bj;. This 
false swearing refers also to all the wrongs men- 
tioned before, and the guilt of the false oath, 
added to the wrong done, brings the offence into 
the category of sins against the Lord. 

Ver. 6. In the day of his trespass o&ering. 

The amends for the wrong done was to be 

made to the person wronged at the same time 
that the offender sought the divine forgiveness. 
The penalty for the wrong and the ritual of the 
offering are the same as in chap. v. 

In Ex. xxii. 1-9 a series of wrongs is enume- 
rated much like those here mentioned with the 



62 



LEVITiuuHT 



general law that the restitution should be dou- 
ble (vers. 4, 9), while in particalar cases it rose 
to four and five-fold. The distinction between 
the penalty as given there and here appears to 
lie in the fact that there the offender was only 
brought to any restitution by a conviction "be- 
fore the judges" (ver. 9): while here, although 
it is not distinctly so declared yet. every thing 
implies that the acknowledgment of the wrong 
is voluntary. There is no mention of conviction, 
and the whole connection is with sins of inad- 
vertence or impulse which were afterwards ac- 
knowledged, and for which forgiveness was 
sought by the offender. 

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL. 

I. From the law of the trespass offering it is 
clear that guilt was not removed by the mere act 
of compensation (with penalty added) for the 
harm done; nor, on the other band, could an 
atonement be offered for that cuilt until such 
compensation had been made. Here are brought 
out the two principles whioli everywhere, under 
the oM and the new dispensation abke, are con- 
cerned in the forgiveness of transgression. 
There must be both the desire, as far as possible, 
to make amends for the harm done; and tlieie 
must be also the sacrifice divinely appointed for 
"the covering" of the sin. Neither of these can 
avail alone, because both are essential to that 
stale of holiness, that conquest over the evil, by 
which alone man can be at one with God. The 
sacrifice of Christ is all-sufficient for the forgive- 
ness of sin; but the sinner can only avail him- 
self of its benefits when, Christ-like, he himself 
seeks to conquer the evil. 

II. Wrong done to man is itself sin against 
God. It is impossible to separate the command 
to love God from that of loving our neighbor also. 
1 J no. iii. 20, 21. 

III. In tho'e sins against others for which 
atonement was provided in the trespass offering, 
there was the additional sin of a false oath. This 
was certainly a moral offence — a sin in the full 
sense of the word. In view of this, it is impos- 
sible to look upon the offences for which sacri- 
fices were appointed as mere ceremonial or theo- 
cratic offences. They everywhere appear as 
true sins, moral transgressions, and this is most 
cliarly shown by including the false oath among 
them. 



HOMILETrCAL AND PRACTICAL. 

There is no true repentance for wrong done to 
man which is not accompanied by restitution— 
and none for having taken from the things of the 
Lord, or for having failed to give all that should 
have been given to Him, except in restoring it in 
overflowing measure; yet while this may make 
amends fir the harm done, forgiveness of the *m 
must still be sought through propitiation. 

In the trespass offering the ritual of the blood 
was like that of the hurnt or the peace offering — 
inferior to that of the sin offering. This s"hows 
that while wrong must of necessity involve sin, 
yet it does not, in itself considered, stand on tlie 
same footing as sin; the moral element in trans- 
gression is always the more important. One 
cannot indeed really offend against man without 
also offending against God ; yet the offence whicli 
has God directly for its ohjective point must ne- 
cessarily be more serious, since it involves a 
deeper lort than that which is directed only 
against man. 

The tin offering was lessened by successive 
stages for the poor, and the very poor, that it 
might be brought within the reach of all; for all 
must have propitiation for sin; but the trespass 
offering is unvaried, the same for all; because 
it one cannot make amends for the wrong he has 
done, it mus; be let alone, — an inferior gift can- 
not set things right. 

Wrong, like sin, may be committed through 
inadvertence. Still it must be atoned for. Good 
intentions will not repair the wrong. 

For sin done " with a high hand," presump- 
tuously, nu sacrifice was provided, because the 
offender deliberately set himself in opposition to 
God ; but for offences against man, such as those 
here enumer.itcd, some of which must have been 
done deliberately, a sacrifice is allowed, because 
even such intentional wrongs do not constitute 
the same attitude of opposition to God. They 
may be done, through passion or covetousuess, 
without reflection upon their moral bearings. 
Therefore, on repentance, restitution, and propi. 
tiation, they may be forgiven. 

Origen applies the law of trespass in abstract- 
ing from sacred things to the faithfulness re- 
quired of the Christian minister in regard to 
gifts for holy uses committed to his trust; and 
then further to the hearing of God's word as a 
sacred gift, for the use of which men are re- 
sponsible, and for the misuse of which they be- 
come guilty. 



CHAP. VI. 8— VII. 38. 53 



SECOND SECTION. 

Special Instructions chiefly for the Priests. 

Chap. VI. 8— VII. 38. 

"Standing Sacrificial Rites and Duties — especially of the Priests'' — Lange. 

A.— FOR BURNT OFFERINGS. 

Chap. VI. 8-13. 

8, 9 And the Loed spake unto Moses, saying. Command' Aaron and his sons, say- 
ing, This is the law of the burnt offering: It^ is the burnt offering, because of the 
burning upon the altar [This, the burnt offering, shall be upon the hearth upon the 
altar'] all night unto the morning, and the fire of the altar shall be burning in it. 

10 And the priest shall put on his* linen garment, and his linen breeches shall he put* 
upon his flesh, and take up the ashes which the fire hath consumed with the burnt 
offering [ashes to which the fire hath consumed the burnt- offering'] on the altar, 

11 and he shall put them beside the altar. And he shall put off his garments, and 
put on other garments, and carry forth the ashes without the camp unto a clean 

12 place.' And the fire upon the altar shall be burning in [on] it; it shall not be 
put out : and the priest shall burn wood on it every morning, and lay the burnt 
offering in order upon it : and he shall burn thereon the fat of the peace offerings. 

13 The fire shall ever be burning upon the altar ; it shall never go out. 

B.— FOR OBLATIONS (MEAT OFFERINGS). VI. 14-23. 

14 And this is the 1 iw of the meat offering [oblation*] ; the sons of Aaron shall 

15 offer" it before the Lord, before the altar. And he shall take of it his handful, of 
the flour of the meat offering [oblation*], and of the oil thereof, and all the frank- 
incense which is upon the meat offering [oblation*], and shall burn it upon the 

16 altar /or a sweet savour, even the memorial of it, unto the Lord. And the remain- 
der thereof shall Aaron and his sons eat : with [om. with] unleavened bread [om. 
bread] shall it be eaten in the [a] holy place ; in the court of the tabernacle of the 

17 [om. the] congregation they shall eat it. It'' shall not be baken with leaven. I 
have given it unto them for their portion of my offerings made by fire ; it is most 

TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL. 
' Ter. 9. li". ThsiSam. has 'IS, a form which occurs in MSS. with the pointing 'IV. 

' Ver". 9, 17, 18, 22. XIH. The S.im, and many MSS. haye the later form NTI indicated by the Masoretic punctua- 
tion. This frequent variation will not hi-reatter bo noticed. The conjectural emendation of Houbigani:, 'in iQ the impe- 
rative, although expresBing the sense, is unnecessary. • 

3 Ver. 9. The suggested translation is that given hy most critics ; of its general correctness there can be no doubt ; but 
the sense of mplD (which occurs only hero) may be either that of liearth, or of bwming. The masculine form, TpJD 

(which is found only Ps. cii. 4 (3), and Isa. xxxiii. 14), is translated in both ways in the A. V., but should have only the 
later sense. The weight of autliority as well as the context make hmrlh, the prof'erable translation hero. Knohel woulj 
make XIH the vtrb io«6e in tite impL-rative; but this is not sufficienfly supported. 

* Ver. 10. no- Tor the suffix on a noun in the constr. Knobel refers to xxvi. 42; Ex. xxvi. 25; Jer. ix. 2 (viii. 23); 

2Sam. xxii. 33, however, reads 'IJO. 

^ Ver. 10. The Sam. for ^3*?' has Vn' as in xvi. 4, which scarcely affects the s«iae. 

' Ver. 10. The proprietv of this correction is obvions. Bp. Horsley's emendation : take up the ashea of the firs which hath 
consiimed— does violi-nce to the Heb. 

' Ver, 11. The Vulg. has this curious addition: uaque adfaviWim consumi faciRt. 

' Ver. li, etc. nrUD— oblation. See ch. ii. 1, Text, and Gram. Note (2). The Sam. has here "the law of the oblation 
of the drink offerings," whence the Vulg. : lex sacrificii et libamentorum, 

» Ver. 14. aipn, Infln. Abs. as in ii. 6j Ex. xiii. 3. 



64 LEVITiuuis. 



18 holy, as is the sin offering, and as the trespass offering. All the males among the 
children of Aaron shall eat of it. It shall be a statute forever in your generations 
concerning the offerings of the Loed made by fire : every one that [whatsoever*'] 
toucheth them shall be holy. 

19, 20 And the Lord spake unro Moses, saying, This is the offering of Aaron and 
of his sons, which they shall offer unto the Lord in the day when he" is anointed; 
the tenth part of an ephah of fine flour for" a meat offering [an oblation*] perpetual, 

21 half of it in the morning, and half thereof at night.'' In a pan it shall be made 
with oil ; and when it is baken [fried'*], thou shalt bring it in : and the baken'' 
pieces'^ of the meat offering [oblation*] shalt thou offer for a sweet savour unto the 

22 Lord. And the pritst of his sons that is anointed in his stead shall offer it : it w 

23 a statute forever unto the Lord ; it shall be wholly burnt. For every meat-offer- 
ing [oblation*] for the priest shall be wholly burnt : it shall not be eaten. 

C— FOR SIN OFFERINGS. VI. 24-30. 

24, 25 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto Aaron and to his sons, 
saying, This is the law of ihe sin offering : In the place where the burnt offering is 

26 killed shall the sin offering be killed before the Lord : it is most holy. The priest 
that offereth it for sin shall eat it : in the [a] holy place shall it be eaten, in the 

27 courtof the tabernacle of the [om. the] congregation. Whatsoever shall touch the flesh 
thereof shall be holy: and when there is sprinkled of the blood thereof upon any 
garment, thou'* shalt wash that whereon it was sprinkled in the [a] holy place. 

28 But the earthen vessel wherein it is sodden shall be broken : and if it be sodden in 

29 a brazen pot, it shall be both scoured, and rinsed in water. All the males among 

30 the priests shall eat thereof: it is most holy. And [But] no sin offering, whe'eof 
any of the blood is brought into the tabernacle of the [om. the] congregation to 
reconcile [make atonement"] withal in the holy place, shall be eaten : it shall be 
burnt in the fire. 

D.— FOR TRESPASS OFFERINGS. Chap. VII. 1-6. 

Chap. VII. 1 Likewise [And] this is the law of* the trespass-offering : it is most 

2 holy. In the place where they kill the burnt offering shall they kill the trespass 
offering : and the blood thereof shall he" sprinkle round about upon the altar. 

3 And he shall ofier of it all the fat thereof; the rump [the fat tail'"], and the fat that 

4 covereth the inwards, and the two kidneys, and the fat that is on them, which is 
by the flanks, and the caul that is above the liver, with [on^'] the kidneys, it shall 

5 he take away: and the priest shall burn them upon the altar for an offering made 

6 by fire unto the Lord ; it is a trespass offering;. Every male among the priesti 
shall eat thereof: it shall be eaten in the [a] holy place: it is most holy. 

10 Ver. 18. HE^'X 73 might be undeiBtood either as every one that, as in the A. V., or as ei'ery thing that; but ss tUo 

latter is the necessary translation of the exactly parallel clause in ver. 27 fas in the A. T.), it is better to keep it here also, 
u Ver. 20. The Syr. here has the plural. 

^ Yer. 20. The prep. 7, not in the Heb., is supplied by the Sam. and many MSS. 

18 Ver. 20. The paraphrase of the Sam. D'^'lJ^n V2==between the evfnings, expresses the connection of this oblat'on 

with the evening sacrifice. 

1-1 Ver. 2l. ri33lp, a word of very doubtful meaning, but should certainly have the same translation as in Tii. 12, 

where sf^e note. 

16 Ver. 21. ''yBn, a word an-. Ae'y. to Which different significations are attached according to its supposed derivation. 

FUrst, deriving it from ni;^, gives the sense of the A. V. Gesenius also, deriving from ni3X, gives the sense of cooked. 

Othera derive it from an Arabic root, and give the meaning hroheti. So Targ. Onk. (which points '' Jl3^i^) and the Sam. 

i» Ver. 27. D3DlT T^^lV■ The sudden change of f erson, and the feminine sufBx in reference to a mascnline noun, 
— : T V T , 

are both avoided by the Sam. reading D33^ V7 V. 

" Ver. 30. ^£307. There may be but little difference in the sense of the two renderings ; but it is better to retain 
the same form always. Other instances of variation in the A. V. in Lev. are vi ii. 15 and xvi. 20 only. 

18 YII. Ver. 1. The LXX. here has 6 vo/ios rov Kpiov, the ram being the only victim admissible for the trespass oifering. 

" Ver. 2. The Sam. here uses the plural. It cannot mean that the offerer sprinkled the blood, but rather aflsimilatM 
this verb to those going before on the supposition (as in i. 6, 12, etc.) that the priests also killed the victim. 

» Ver. 3. rriXri. See Textual Note * on iii. 9. 

21 Ver. 4. S^^on. See Textual Note ' on ili. i. 



CHAP. VI. 8— VII. 38. 55 



E.— FOR THE PRIESTS' PORTION OF THE ABOVE OFFERINGS. VII. 7-10. 

7 As the sin-offering is, so is the trespass offering : there is one law for them : the 

8 priest that maketh atonement therewith shall have it. And the priest that offer- 
eth any man's birnt off ring, even the priest shall have to himself the skin of the 

9 burnt-offering which he hath offered. And all the meat-offering [oblation*] that is 
baken in the oven, an'l all that is dress d in the frying-pan [pot'^], and in the pan, 

10 shall be the priest's th^t offereth it. And [But] every meat offering [oblation*] 
mingled with oil, and dry, shall all the sons of Aaron have, one as nvuch as another. 

F.— FOR PEACE OFFERINGS IN THEIR VARIETY. VII. 11-21. 

11 And this is the law of the sacrifice of peace offerings, which Tib'' shall offer unto 

12 the Lord. If he offer it for a thanksgiving, then he shall offer with the sacrifice 
of thanksgiving unleavened cakes mingled with oil, and unleavened wafers anointed 

13 with oil, and cakes mingled with oil, of fine flour, fried.^* Besides the cakes, he 
shall offt-r for his offering leavened bread with the sacrifice of thanksgiving of his 

14 peace offerings. And of it he shall offer one out of the whole oblation [out of ea' h 
offering®] for an heave offering unto the Loed, and it shall be the priest's that 

15 sprinkleth the blood of th^i p^ ace offerings. And the flesh of the sacrifice of his 
peape offerings for thanksgiving shall be eaten the same day that it is offered ; he 

16 shdl not leave any of it until the morning. But if the sacrifice of his offering be 
a vow, or a voluntary offering, it shall be eaten the same day that he offere h his 

17 sacrifice: and on the morrow also the remainder of it shall be eaten: but the re- 
mainder of the flesh of the sacrifice on the third day shall be burnt with fire. 

18 And if any of the flesh of the sacrifice of his peace offerings be eaten at all on the 
third day, it shall not be accepted, neither shall it be imputed unto him that offer- 
eth it: it shall be an abomination,^* and the soul that eateth of it shall bear his 

19 iniquity. And the flesh that toucheth any unclean thing shall not be eaten ; it 
shall be burnt with fire: and as for the flesh, all that be clean shall eat thereof. 

20 But the soul that eateth of the flesh of the sacrifice of peace offerings that pertain 
unto the Lord, having his uncleanness upon him, even that poul shall be cut off 

21 from his people. Moreover the soul that shall touch any unclean thing, as the 
uncleanness of man, or any unclean beast, or any abominable unclean ihing," and 
eat of the flesh of the sacrifice of ppace offerings, which pertain unto the Lord, even 
that soul shall be cut off from his people. 

G.— FOR THE FAT AND THE BLOOD. VII. 22-27. 
22, 23 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying. Speak unto the children of Israel, 

24 saying, Ye shall eat no manner of fat, of ox, or of sheep, or of goat. And the fat 
of the beast [carcase'*] that dieth of itself, and the fat of that whicii is torn with 

25 beasts, may be used in any other use : but ye shall in no wise eat of it. For who- 
soever eateth the fat of the beast, of which men offer an offering made by fire unto 

•* Ver. 9. See Textual Note ' on H. 7. 

" Ver. 11. The Sam., LXX. and Vulg. with two MSS. have the plural. 

'* Ver. 12. n33^a. There is so much difference of opinion as to the meaning that it seems unsafe to attempt any 
changB in the A. V. '' rbrst says : " smelMng dipped in, mingled (hy moisteninK) ;" Lanije denies that it ronveys the some 
Of cooked; Keil trannlatps •'and roasted fine, flam- (see Ti. 14) mixed ax cakes with ml, i. e., cakes made of fine fluur roaste.l 
with oil, and thoroughly kneaded with oil." Others give varying interpretations. 

ffi Ver. 14. p-ip is to be uniformly translated ofertna. See ii. 1. The word ra&oie in the A. V. does not exp-ess the 
idea that one must be taken out of each of the offerings mentioned in the two preceding verses. 

» Ver. 18. Sua OCCUK only here and in xix. 7 ; Isa. Ixv. i ; Bzek. iv. 14, and is always applied to the sacrificial flesh. 
It is from the root 7j3, and signifies something unclean and fetid, LXX. fiCacriia. 

» Ver. 21. For Vntj(=are cibmmmhh animal fxi. 10, 12, 13, 20, 23, 41), the Sam., six MSS. of Kennicott and of de Bossi, 
larg. of Onkelos (JSTC)) and the Syr. read ^lE^-repfifes, marms (v. xi. 20, 29, 41). This would make a more systematic 
*flumeration of the sources of uncleanness, and is adopted by many. 

i8 Ver. 24. rh^i- The margin of the A. V. is better than the text. The HS^B of ^e next claufle-tora k. of 

T '* ! ^ ' 

Jiea-tB, is of course a wholly different word. 



56 



LEVITICUS. 



26 the Lord, even the soul that eateth it shall be cut off from his people. Moreover 
ye shall eat no manner of blood, whether it be of fowl or of beast, in any of your 

27 dwellings. Whatsoever soul it he that eateth any manner of blood, even that soul 
shall be cut off from his people. 

H.— FOR THE PRIESTS' PORTION OF THE PEACE OFFERINGS. VII. 28-36. 

28, 29 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, 
saying. He that offereth the sacrifice of his peace offerings unto the Lord shall 
bring his oblation [offering^] unto the Lord of the sacrifice of his peace offerings. 

30 His own hands shall bring the offerings of the Lord made by fire, the fat with the 
breast, it shall he bring, that the breast may be waved for a wave offering before 

31 the Lord. And the priest shall burn the fat upon the altar: but the breast shall 

32 be Aaron's and his sons'. And the right shoulder [leg^] shall ye give unto the priest 

33 for an heave offermg of the sacrifices of your peace offerings. He among the sons of 
Aari n, that offereth the blood of the peace offerings, and the fat, shall have the right 

34 shoulder [leg™] for his part. For the wave-breast and the heave shoulder [leg"] hav3 
I taken of the children of Israel from off the sacrifices of their peace offerings, and 
have given them unto Aaron the priest and unto his sons by a statute for ever from 

35 among the children of Israel. Tnis is the portion of the anointing of Aaron, and 
of the anointing of his sons [This is the portion" of Aaron and the portion" of his 
sons], out of the offerings of the Lord made by fire, in the daj when he^ presented 

36 them to minister unto the Lord in the priest's ofBce ; which the Lord commanded 
to be given theaa of the children of Israel, in the day that he anointed them, by a 
statute forever throughout their generations. 

CONCLUS'ON OF THIS SECTION. VII. 37-38. 

37 This is the law of the burnt offering, of the meat offering [oblation], and of the 
sin offering, and of the trespass offering, and of the consecrations, and of the sacri- 

38 fice of the peace offerings; which t'le Lord commanded Moses in Mount Sinai, in 
the day that he commanded the children of Israel to offer their oblations [offerings"] 
unto the Lord, in the wilderness of Sinai. 



28 Yer. 29. The uniform translation of |3Tp must be retained here also, although giving an appearance of tautology 

which is not in xhe ori'^ina], his peace offerings bting expresayd simply by VD7ty. The translation of the A. V. may hare 

TT : 
been influoncpd by the rondi^ring in the Vu'g. : ojferat simvX et sacrijicium, id est, libamenta ejus ; bnt for this there ia no 
warrant, nor is it su itaiued by any other of the ancient vel3ioud. 

30 Ver. 32. p\^ is uniformly rendered shftulder in the A. Y. wherever it is applied to sacrificial animals; in all other 

places it ia uaeii of men (Deut. xxviii. 35; ProT. xxvi. 7 ; Cant. v. 15; Isa. xlvii. 2; also Dan. ii. 33, Chald.; Ps. cxlTii, W), 
and is translated teg, or hip, r.r thigh. The A. V hiia hero followed the equally uniform practice of the LXX. and tlio VulK- 
It would seem that the word should have the same sense in both eases; there is no place in which teg is inapplicable;, bvit 
tlnj-e are several in whicli shmtlder is inadmiss ble. The testimony of Josephus (III. 9, § 2, ici^^^ij) is explicit in favor of 
Ipg ; so also Jewish tradition and the lexicons. Whether the fort^ or the hind leg is meant is a matter of difference of- opi- 
nion ; but the Heb. has a distinct word ^^')1'=arm for the shoulder or fore-leg (Num. vi. 19 ; Deut. xviii. 3), and that, too, 
o[ the sacrificial animal:^. 

SI Ver. 35. T]r\U^D- The word undoubtedly means anointing; but there is also good authority for the meaning jjordon 
T ; • . . 

which Kosenrailller considers undoubtedly the right tr,Tn8lation here, and which is so neceaeary to the sense that it is sop- 
plied in the A. V., which has followed the translation of the LXX. and Vulg. 

82 Ver. 35. The Vulg. haa die g«a obtulU eoa Moyses vi sactrdotio fungwentar. 



EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL. 

The remainder of ch. vi., with the whole of 
oh. vii., form a distinct section occupied mainly 
with the duties and privileges of the priests in 
conneetioa with their sacrificial service. Al- 
though there is unavoidably a little repetition in 
thus speaking again of the same sacrifices from 
a different point of view and for a different ob- 
ject ; yet the gain in clearness and distinctness 
in thus separating the priestly duties from those 
of the laymen is obvious, both for the priests and 
for the people. The section consists of five di- 



vine oomraunications addressed through Moses 
to Aaron and his sons, as the former commu- 
nication had been to the children of Israel. 

It has already been noticed that in the Hebrew 
Bibles the chapter rightly begins with the begin- 
ning of this section. Here also begins a new 
Parashah, or Proper Lesson of the law, whiok 
extends to viii. 36. The corresponding Lesson 
from the prophets begins with Jer. vii. 21, in 
which " God declares the vanity of saorifioe 
without obedience." 

A. Vera. 8-13. Instructions for the priests m 
regard to the burnt-offeriiigs. This has refe- 
rence to the daily burnt-offerings of a lamb »' 



CHAP. VI. 8— VII. 88. 



57 



evening and al morning. There was no occa- 
eion for directions in regard to the voluntary 
burnt offerings as they involved no other priestly 
duties than those already expressed in chap. i. ; 
in that chapter nothing has been said of the re- 
quired burnt sacrifice, provided at the public 
ooBt, which is here treated of. 

Ver. 9. All night unto the morning. — The 
slow fire of the evening sacrifice was to be so 
arranged as to last until the morning; that of 
the morning sacrifice was ordinarily added to 
by other offerings, or if not, could easily be made 
to last through the much shorter interval until 
the evening. The evening sacrifice is natu- 
rally mentioned first because, in the Hebrew di- 
vision of time, this was the beginning of the 
day. It was offered "between the evenings," 
i. «., between three o'clock and the going down 
of the sun. The general direction for the daily 
burnt offerings has already been given in Ex. 
xxix. 38, and is again repeated in Num. xxviii. 
3. As this offering was theoretically the com- 
prehensive type from which all other offerings 
were specialized, so practically it was always 
burning upon the altar, and all other sacrifices 
were offered " upon it." 

Ver. 10. His linen garment. — This was 
" the long tight-robe of fine white linen, or bys- 
SU8, without folds, covering the whole body, and 
reaching down to the feet, with sleeves, woven 
as one entire piece, and with forms of squares 
intermixed, and hence called tesalated" (Ka- 
lisoh). It is scarcely necessary to point out that 
linen, from its cleanliness, and from the readi- 
ness with which it could be washed, was selected 
as the priestly dress not only among the Israel- 
ites, but among many other nations also, espe- 
cially the Egyptians, whose priests are therefore 
often described by Roman poets as Unigeri. There 
were four parts of the priestly linen dress, of 
which two only are mentioned here, because all 
had been prescribed in Ex. xxviii. 40-43, and the 
girdle and the turban were of course to be un- 
derstood. The priests might not minister, at the 
altar in any other garments, nor might they wear 
these outside the sacred precincts. 

And take up the ashes. — As the priest must 
be in his ofiScial dress at the altar, it was of ne- 
cessity that he should temporarily deposit the 
ashes near by, until he had finished the ordering 
of the altar. 

Ver. 11. And he shall put off bis gar- 
ments. — The sacred dress was now to be laid 
aside as the priest must pass out of the taber- 
nacle and out of the camp. It has been ques- 
tioned whether the carrying forth of the ashes 
must necessarily be performed by the officiating 
priest himself. According to Jewish tradition it 
might be done by any of the priestly family who 
were excluded from officiating at the altar by 
reason of some bodily defect. The same tradi- 
tion also tells us that it was onlyrequired each day 
to carry forth a small quantity of the ashes — a 
shovel-full— allowing the rest to remain until the 
hollow of the altar below the grating was filled 
up, when all must be emptied and carried away. 

ITnto a clean place. — There was a fitness 

loo evident to require further reason, that the 

remains of what had been used for the holiest 

purposes should be deposited in a clean place. 

19 



— Without the camp, is a phrase belonging 
to the life of the wilderness, but easily modified 
to the requirements of the settled life in Pales- 
tine. 

Ver. 12. Shall barn wood on it. — The fire 
was to be maintained always whether the pre- 
vious sacrifice remained burning sufficiently or 
not, so that fresh supplies of wood were to be 
added. Great care was taken in the selection 
and preparation of this wood, and any sticks 
worm-eaten were rejected. And lay the burnt- 
oSering. — AU was to be arranged and the fire 
brightly burning before the time of offering the 
morning sacrifice. When this was laid upon the 
wood, the sacrificial day was begun, and the fat 
of the peace-oSerings and any other sacriSces 
that might he presented were placed upon it. 

Ver. 13. The fire shall be ever burning 
upon the altar. — The fire upon the altar was 
not. as is sometimes supposed, originally kindled 
by the "fire from before the Lokd" (ix. 24), 
since it had been burning several days before 
that fire came forth; yet that fire so marked the 
Divine approbation of the priestly order as they 
entered upon their office, that a continual fire in 
which that was always in a sense perpetuated, 
was a constant symbol and pledge of the Divine 
acceptance of the sacrifices offered upon it. So 
also, in later times, with the fire from heaven at 
the dedication of the temple (2 Chr. vii. 1). But 
besides this, " It is evident that the fire burning 
continually, which was kept up by the daily 
burnt offering (Ex. xxix. 38), had a symbolical 
meaning. As the daily burnt; sacrifice betokened 
the daily renewed gift of God, in like manner 
did this continually burning fire denote the un- 
ceasing, uninterrupted character of the same. 
Similar customs with the heathen had a different 
signification. Among the Persians (and among 
the Parsees in India at this day), fire was and is 
the visible representative of the Godhead ; the 
continual burning of it, the emblem of eternity. 
The perpetual fire of Vesta (the " oldest god- 
dess ") among the Greeks and Romans, was the 
emblem of the inmost, purest warmth of life, 
which unites family and people — the hearth, as 
it were, the heart of a house or of a State. In 
both is shown the essential difference which ex- 
isted between these and the Divine covenant re- 
ligion." Von Gerlach. Perpetual sacrificial fires 
were common among many ancient nations. 

It is obvious that during the marches of the 
life in the wilderness some special means must 
have been used for the preservation of this fire. 
On such occasions the altar was to be carefully 
cleaned and covered with a purple cloth and then 
with "badgers' skins." (Num. iv. 18, 14). Pro- 
bably the fire was carried on the march in a ves- 
sel prepared for the purpose. 

B. Instructions for the priests concerning ob- 
lations. This division consists of two portions, 
the former of which (vers. 14-18) is a part of the 
same divine communication as the preceding di- 
vision, and relates to the priestly duties con- 
nected with the oblations of the people, whether 
voluntary or required ; while the latter, (vers. 
19-23), forms a separate divine communication, 
and relates to the special oblation of the high- 
priests themselves in connection with their con- 
secration. 



58 



LEVITICUS. 



The law of the oblation ia a repetition in part 
of that in ch. ii., because it was there applied 
only to voluntary oblations, while here it in- 
cludes all ; but there are also (in vers. 16-18) 
additional particulars not given before. 

Ver. 14. The sons of Aaron shall offer it. 

This presentation of the whole oblation by the 

priests, which seems to have been an essenti.al 
part of the sacrifice, has been already mentioned 
in oh. ii. 8, while ver. 15 merely repeats and ap- 
plies to all oblations the directions in ii. 2 for 
the private and voluntary oblation. 

Ver. 16. The following directions, which con- 
cern the duties of the priests, have not before 
been given. By their consuming the remainder 
of the oblation it became, like the sin-offering, a 
sacrifice wholly devoted to the Lord. See note 
on ii. 3. Only those of Aaron's sons might eat 
of it who were ceremonially clean. This is ex- 
pressed emphatically in regard to the peace 
offerings in vii. 21. The addition of the words 
with and bread in the A. V. singularly obscures 
the sense ; it should be read unleavened shall 
it be eaten in a holy place. 

Ver. 17. I have given it.— Not merely by 
appointment, as God is the giver of all that man 
enjoys ; but of my offerings, as of that which 
peculiarly belonged to God. — Most holy. See 
on ii. 3. 

Ver. 18. All the males. — Because they, and 
they only, were in the priestly succession. It 
includes both those who were actual priests, and 
their sons yet too young to officiate, but who at 
the proper age would become priests; and still 
further, those who were of priestly family, but 
were hindered by bodily defect or infirmity from 
ministering at the altar. Whatsoever touch- 
eth them shall be holy. — Two senses are pos- 
sible: (a) nothing shall be allowed to touch 
them which is not holy ; (b) whatever does 
touch them shall thereby become holy. The 
latter must be considered the true sense in ac- 
cordance with the analogy of vers. 27, 28, and 
Ex. xxix. 37, (comp. Hag. ii. 12, 13), and with 
this sense the command, understood of inanimate 
objects, as Calmet suggests, presents no diffi- 
culty. The LXX. and Vulg., however, (not the 
Semitic versions which of course present the 
same ambiguity as the Heb.), like the A. V., un- 
derstood it of persons, and so understood, it has 
occasioned much difficulty to commentators. 
Lange, following Theodoret, says " Whoever 
should touch this most holy flesh offering (and 
more especially the meat offering) should be 
holy, should henceforward be considered to be- 
long to the Sanctuary." He then gives various 
differing interpretations. It is belter to avoid 
the difficulty altogether as above. 

Ver. 20. In the day when he Is anointed. 
— The new communication in relation to the high- 
priest's oblation begins with ver. 19. Most com- 
mentators understand the time when this obla- 
tion was to be offered as at the end of the seven 
days of consecration, as the high-pripst was only 
then qualified to officiate. The word da;/ would 
then be understood as in Gen. ii. 4. Langp, how- 
ever, says "on each of the seven days, not only 
on the eighth day, when the consecration was 
ftnished (oh. viii. 34) this was to be offered." 
An oblation perpetual. — A few interpreters 



(as Kalish and Knobel) understand this of an 
observance to be always repeated at the conse- 
cration of each successive high-priest, and then 
only. More generally it is interpreted as refer- 
ring to a daily oblation always to be offered 
luorning and evening by the high-priest. Such 
is the uniform Jewish interpretation. It is pro- 
hably this offering that is referred to in Ecclu!>. 
xlv. 14; see also Philo, de Vict. Jos. Ant. iii. oh. 
10 J 7. Several eminent Jewish authorities, as 
.Maimonides and Abarbanel, have supposed that 
the same offering was also required of every 
priest at his entrance upon his office; but this 
opinion, as it has not been widely adopted, so it 
seems to have no foundation in the law. The 
high-priest alone is distinctly designated in 
ver. 22. 

The tenth part of an Ephah. — The same 
n mount which was required for the sin offering 
of the poorest of the people in v. 11. This 
amount was to be presented by the high-priest - 
as a single offering which was to be afterwards 
divided and offered half in the morning and half 
at night. 

Ver. 23. It shall not be eaten. — In other ob- 
lations all was given to God, but in part through " 
the priest ; in the priestly oblation, he could not 
offer it to God through himself, and therefore it 
must of necessity be vyholly burnt. 

C. Instructions for the priests concerning sin 
offerings. 

Lange adheres to the view he has given in ch. 
iv., and makes this division include both the sin 
and the trespass offerings. For his reasons see 
oh. iv. He, however, calls the next division 
" The ritual of the trespass offering." 

We have here the third of the five divine com- 
munications contained in this section. The first 
includes the burnt offerings and oblations, wbile 
Ibe second, as an appendix to this, is occupieil 
with the special oblations of the high-priest; the 
present communication extends to vii. 21, anil 
embraces the directions to the priests concerning 
the various other kinds of sacrifice. In the or- 
der in which they are mentioned in chs. iii. — v. 
the peace offerings came before the sin and tres- 
pass offerings, while here they are placed after 
them ; the reason for this change is well ex- 
plained by Murphy, as resulting from the differ- 
ent principle of arrangement appropriate in llie 
two oases. In the instructions for the people 
the order of the sacrifices is that of their com- 
parative frequency, the burnt offering and obla- 
tion being constant (although not so as voluntary 
offerings), the peace offerings habitual, the ain 
and trespass offerings, from their nature, occa- 
sional ; here the principle of arrangement is in 
the treatment of the flesh, — the burnt offering, 
(with which the oblation is associated) was 
wholly consumed on the altar, the sin and tres- 
pass offerings were partly eaten by the priests, 
the peace-offerings both by the priests and the 
people. 

Ver. 25. In the place where the burnt 
offering. — It is evident from ver. 30 that thi» 
whole direction refers to the sin offerings of the 
people, not of the high-priest or of the whole 
congregation. These were to be killed in tbe 
usual place of killing the smaller sacrificial W' 
mals, on the north side of the altar. See not* 



CHAP. VI. 8— VII. 38. 



59 



on i. 11. The sin offering for the high-priest 
and for the congregation, consisting of a buUook, 
was to be killed (i. 8) where the bullock for 
burnt offering was killed " before the door of 
the tabernacle." See note on i. 8. 

It is most h'oly. — See on ii. 3. 

Ver. 25. The priest that oSereth it. — For 
the exceptions see ver. 80. The flesh of the or- 
dinary sin-offering belonged, not to the priests 
as a body, but to the particular priest that of- 
fired it. It was, however, much more than he 
could consume alone, and therefore in ver. 29 
all miles of the priestly family were allowed to 
eat of it, doubtless on the invitation of the offi- 
ciating priest, or by some established arrange- 
ment. 

Ver. 27. Shall be holy.— As in ver. 18. In 
regard to the peculiarly sacred character of the 
sin offering Lange says, " the complete surren- 
der to Jehovah is expressed in three ways : 1 ) 
Forbidding the flesh to the unclean ;" [But this, 
although to be supposed, ia not mentioned here, 
whereas it is very emphatically commanded in 
connection with the peace offerings, vii. 20, 21]. 
" 2) Washing the garments sprinkled with blood 
in a holy place, or in the court. Here the re- 
gard ia not for the cleansing of the garment, but 
for the blood, — it must not be carried on the 
garment out of the sanctuary ; 3) If the vessel in 
which the flesh was cooked was earthen, it had 
to be broken, if of copper, it had to be scoured 
and rinsed, so that nothing of the substance of 
the flesh should remain sticking to it." On the 
reason for the peculiar sacredness with which 
the flesh of the sin offering was regarded vari- 
ous opinions have been held. It seems unnecea- 
aary, however, to look for this reason in the sup- 
position that the victim was regarded as bearing 
either the sins of the offerer, or the punishment 
due to those sins. The simple fact that God had 
appointed the sin-offering as a means whereby 
ainfulness might "be covered," and sinful man 
might approach Him in His perfect holiness, is 
enough to invest that means, like the altar upon 
which it was offered, with a sacredness which 
needs no aualyaia for its explanation. The very 
important paaaage, ch. x. 17, usually referred to 
in ttiis connection, will be treated of in its place. 
Thou Shalt ^rash. — The second person is 
used beoauae the command is addressed to the 
priest. The garment referred to is probably 
that of the offerer ; it might easily happen that 
this would sometimes be stained by the spurting 
of the blood of the victim, but he was not to wash 
it himself ; no particle of the blood might be car- 
ried out of the sanctuary, and none might med- 
dle with it but the divinely appointed priest. 

Ver. 28. Bat the earthen vessel. — Vn- 
glazed earthenware would absorb the juices of 
tlie flesh so that they could not be removed ; 
hence such vessels must be broken that the flesh 
of the sin offering might not be profaned. The 
brazen pot probably stands for any metallic 
vessel, and these being less porous, might be 
perfectly freed from the fleah by scouring and 
rinsing. For the same reason the earthen vessel 
into which any of the small unclean animals 
when dead had fallen (xi. 33, 35), must be 
broken ; from its absorptive qualities it took the 
character of that which had been within it, and 



was unfit for other use. No direction is given 
for the disposition of the broken fragments. It 
is more likely that they were disposed of with 
the ashes from the altar, than that, as Jewish 
tradition affirms, the earth opened to swallow 
them up. No mention is made of any other me- 
thod of cooking the flesh of the sacrifice than by 
boiling. From 1 Sam. ii. 13-15, and from the 
allusion in Zeoh. xiv. 21, it would appear that 
the same meihod was observed also in later ages. 

Ver. 29. All the males. — Comp. Note on 
ver. 18. 

Ver. 30. But no sin offering whereof any 
of the blood is brought in the tabernacle. 
—Comp. iv. 5-7, 11, 12. 16-18, 21 ; xvi.27. This 
shows that from the foregoing directions the 
sin offerings for the high-priest and for the whole 
congregation are to be excepted ; for these no 
directions are here given, since the priest had 
nothing more to do with them than has already 
been provided for in ch. iv. 

D. Instructions for the -priests concerning 
trespass offerings, vii. 1-6^,. 

In the LXX. this and the next division (vii. 7- 
10) form a part of ch. vi. This is certainly the 
better division ; but the A. V. has here followed 
the Hebrew, as in the division between ohapa. 
V. and vi., it followed the LXX. — in both cases 
for the worse. 

In the former directions for the trespass offer- 
ing (v. 14 — vi. 7) designed for the people, no- 
thing is said of what parts are to be burned on 
the altar, nor of the disposal of the remainder. 
The directions on these points are now given to 
the priests. The ritual is precisely the same as 
for the ordinary ain-offering except in the treat- 
ment of the blood. This was to be treated as 
that of the burnt and of the peace offerings, viz. 
to be sprinkled on the aides of the altar, instead 
of being placed on its horns as in the sin 
offering. See iii. 2, 8, 13 ; iv. 6, 30, 34. 
The Codex Middoth (iii. 1) is quoted for the 
tradition of the Jews that there was a scarlet 
thread or line around the altar just at the middle 
of its height; an^l that the blood of the burnt 
offering was sprinkled above, and that of the 
trespass offering below this line. No mention 
is made of laying on of hands in the trespass 
offering, either here or in v. 14 — vi. 7 (where it 
would more naturally occur). Knobelargues from 
this omission that it waa omitted in this offering ; 
it is more likely that there is no mention of it 
because it was a universal law in the case of all 
viftims and therefore did not require to be spe- 
cified. 

Ver. 3. The fat tail is specified because the 
victim in the trespass offering must always be a 
ram. For other pointa aee ch. iii. 

E. Instructions concerning the priests' por- 
tion of the above, vii. 7-10. 

Before proceeding to those sacrifices, of which 
a part was returned to be consumed by the of- 
ferer, summary directions are now given in re- 
gard to all the preceding offerings, which were 
wholly devoted to the Lord, whether by being 
wholly conaumed upon the altar, or partly eaten 
by the priests. 

Ver. 7. One lavT- for them — i. e., in respect 
to the matter here treated of, the disposil of their 
flesh. The priest that maketh atonement. 



60 



LEVITICUa. 



— The flesh of these victims did not become the 
common property of the priestly body, but was 
the peculiar perquisite of the officiating priest. 
He might, of course, ask others, and especially 
those who were hindered by bodily infirmity 
from officiating, to share it with him. 

Ver. 8. Shall have to himself the skin. — 
Since this was unsuitable for burning upon the 
altar, and yet the victim was wholly devoted. 
No directions are any where given in regard to 
the skins of the other offerings, except those 
which were to be burned with the flesh without 
the camp. The Mishna (Sebaoh 12, 3) says that 
the skins of all victims designated as "most holy ' ' 
were given to the priests, while those of other 
victims (i. c, the peace offerings in their variety) 
belonged to the offerer. This distinction, being 
in accordance with the character of the sacrifice, 
is probably true. Among the heathen, the skin 
of the sacrificial animals usually belonged to the 
priest, and was by them often perverted to super- 
stitious uses. See Patrick, Kalisch, and others. 
Some commentators trace the origin of the cus- 
tom in regard to the burnt offering back to 
Adam; it rather lies still further back in the 
nature of the sacrifice. 

Ver. 9. And all the oblation. — Except, of 
course, the "memorial," which was burned 
upon the altar, and which having been carefully 
provided for in chap, ii., did not require to be 
specified in this brief summary. In this verse 
all cooked oblations are assigned to the officiating 
priest; while in the next all that are uncooked 
are given to the priestly body equally. The 
former included all the oblations of ii. 4-10, and 
it is generally supposed that even these required 
to be consumed without delay ; the latter include 
the oblations of ii. 1, and probably that of ii. 15; 
also the alternative sin offering of v. 11, and the 
jealousy offering of Num. v. 15. Only the two 
latter come under the class of dry, the others 
being mingled ■with oil. Thus all oblations, 
except that of the thank offering (vii. 14) and 
the "memorial" in all cases, was in one way or 
the other consumed by the priests. A secondary 
object in the assignment of these sacrifices was 
the support of the priests. See Ezek. xliv. 29. 

F. Instructions for the priests in regard to 
the peace offerings in their variety, vii. 11-21. 

For the reason why the peace offerings are 
here placed last, see note on vi. 24. 

We here enter upon an entirely different kind 
of sacrifice from those which have gone before, 
and therefore there is a different ritual. The 
former had reference to the means of approach 
to God through the forgiveness of sin ; these are 
more closely connected with the idea of con- 
tinued communion with God, and hence, so far 
as their object is concerned, seem to belong more 
properly to the second part of the book. Never- 
theless, for the purpose of law, the stronger con- 
nefction is, as sacrifices, with the general laws 
of sacrifice, and hence they must necessarily be 
placed here. Moreover, they are not to be con- 
sidered altogether by themselves, but, as Outram 
has noted, as generally following piacular sacri- 
fices, and therefore as together with them form- 
ing the complete act of worship. 

The peace offerings might be of any animal 
allowed for sacrifice (except birds which were 



too small for the accompanying feast) as is pro- 
vided in chap. iii. They might be of either tlie 
herd or the flock, and either male or female. No 
limitation of age is given in the law, although 
Jewish tradition limits the age of those offered 
from the herd to from one to three years, and 
of those from the flock to from one to two years 
complete. On the place for the killing of the 
victims, see note on i. 11. Historical examples 
of these offerings are very frequent in the later 
books, e.g., 1 Sam. i. 4; ix. 13, 24; xi. 15; xvi. 
3, 6 ; 1 Kings viii. 65 ; 1 CKron. xvi. 3, etc. Si- 
milar sacrificial feasts among the heathen are fa- 
miliar to all readers of Homer. 

Three varieties of the peace offering are dis- 
tinguished, or rather two principal kinds, the 
second of which is again subdivided — (a) Tlio 
thank offering, vers. 12-15, which included all 
the public and prescribed peace offerings; (b) 
the (1) vow, or (2) voluntary offering, vers. IB- 
IS, both of which were sacrifices of individuals. 
The two kinds were broadly separated from one 
another by the length of time during which it 
was lawful to eat the flesh, while the sub-varie- 
ties of the second kind are only distinguished in 
the purpose of the offerer. " There are three 
possible forms in which man can offer with re- 
ference to his prosperity or safety : praise and 
thanksgiving for experiences in the past; promi- 
sing in regard to a desire in the fut ure ; expressioa 
of thankful prosperity in the present." Lange. 

Vers. 12-15. The thank offering. 

Ver. 12. The thank offering was aocompanieil 
by an oblation of three kinds, to which a fourth 
was added (ver. 13) of leavened bread, which 
last is perhaps to be considered as an accompani- 
ment rather than a part of the offering, as it is 
doubtful whether it is included in the "heave 
offering" of ver. 14. Still, as none of this ob- 
lation was placed upon the altar, the leavened 
bread would not come under the prohibition of 
ii. 11 and of Ex. xxiii. 18; xxxiv. 25. The 
drink offerings prescribed with this and other 
sacrifices in Num. xv. (and alluded to in 
Lev. xxiii. 18, 37) ns to be offered "when ye 
be come into the land of your habitation," are 
not mentioned here, probably because they were 
not easily obtained during the life in the wilder- 
ness. The abundance of bread of various kinds 
here required was in view of the sacrificial meal 
to follow. Jewish tradition affirms that with 
certain peace offerings of festivals [Bagigah and 
Sheincah) no bread was offered. 

Ver. 14. One out of each offering — i-f-, 
one cake out of the number of each kind pre- 
sented, and perhaps one from the loaves of 
leavened bread. An heave offering. — Herein 
this oblation is strongly distinguished from tbe 
oblations accompanying the burnt offering. No 
part of them was placed upon the altar. Comp. 
the heave offerings of the Levites, Num. xviii. 
26-30. It must be inadvertently that Lange says 
"one of the unleavened cakes was offered to Je- 
hovah on His altar as a heave offering ; all tbe 
rest of the meal offering fell to the share of the 
priest who sacrificed ;" for it is plain from the 
text that the one offered as a heave offering was 
not consumed, but belonged to the officiating 
priest, while the rest were returned to the of- 
ferer. The heave offering was waved in the 



CHAP. VI. 8— Vir. 38. 



Gl 



hands up and down before the altar, but not 
placed upon it. 

Ver. 16. Shall be eaten the same day. — 
Gomp. the similar provisioa in regard to the 
Paschal lamb, Ex. xii. 10, and also in regard to 
the manna, £x. svi. 19. The same command is 
repeated in regard to the thank offering in xxU. 
29, 30; while the greater liberty allowed in the 
yow and voluntary offerings (ver. 16) is also re- 
peated xix. 6-8. In both cases Jewish traditiou 
affirms that the rule applied also to the accom- 
panying oblations. The difference of time al- 
lowed in which the flesh of these two kinds of 
peace offerings might be eaten evidently marks 
the one as of a superior sacredness to the other. 
Yet it is not easy to say wherein precisely the 
difference consisted. The general observation is 
that the thank offerings were purely unselfish, 
offered in gratitude for blessings already re- 
ceived; while the vow and voluntary offerings 
had respect to something yet hoped for, and 
therefore involved a selfish element. But it is 
not altogether clear that this was the case with 
the voluntary offering. Outram (p. 131 , Eng. 
tr.), on the authority of Maimonides and Abar- 
banel, makes the distinction to consist in the vow 
offering being general — a promise to present a 
certain kind of victim or its value, and this re 
mained in all cases binding ; while the voluntary 
offering was particular — a promise to present a 
particular animal, which became void in case of 
the animal's death. Under this interpretation 
both have respect to the future. If there were 
any accidental remainder of the thank offering 
after the first day, it was doubtless consumed 
(but not on the altar), as in the case of the Pas- 
chal lamb (Ex. xii. 10) and of the other peace 
offerings (ver. 17), and the consecration offerings 
(Ex. zxix. 34). Several reasons have been as- 
signed for the limitation of the time for eating. 
Outram says, "The short space of time within 
which the victims might be eaten, seems to have 
been designed to prevent any corruption of the 
sacrifices, and to guard against covetousness, " 
and he quotes Philo at length in support of this 
double reason. The incentive hereby added to 
the command to share these feasts with the 
poor, and especially the poor Levites, though en- 
tirely rejected by Keil, is made more or less pro- 
minent by Theodoret (who gives this reason 
only), Corn. 4 Lapide, Ealisch, Kosenmiiller, and 
others. "The recollection tliat in warm lands 
meat soon spoils, may give us the idea that the 
feaster was compelled in consequence to invite 
in the poor." Lange. It must be remembered also 
that the feast would rapidly lose its sacrificial as- 
sociations as the interval was prolonged between 
it and the offering of the sacrifice. 

Vers. 16-18. The vow and voluntary offerings. 
The distinction between these has already been 
pointed out. Both were clearly inferior to the 
thank offering. It is to be remembered that 
these did not belong to the class of expiatory of- 
ferings, and hence the vow offering of St. Paul 
(Acts xviii. 18 ; xxi. 23-26) had in it nothing in- 
consistent with his faith in the one Sacrifice for 
sins offered on Calvary. These offerings might 
be eaten on the two days following the sacrifice, 
but the remainder on the third day shall be 
burnt with fire. 



Ver. 18. The penalty for the transgression of 
this command was not only that the offering 
went for nothing — it shall not be accepted ; 
but further, it shall be an abomination, and 
the soul that eateth of it shall bear his ini- 
quity. The sense is not, as many suppose, that 
the offering being made void, the offerer re- 
mained with his former iniquity unoleansecj; for 
these offerings were not at all appointed for the 
purpose of atonement, or the forgiveness of sin; 
but that the offerer, having transgressed a plain 
and very positive command, must bear the conse- 
quences of such transgression. 

The distinctions in regard to these offerings 
(as in the case of those which have gone before) 
embrace only the common sacrifices of their 
kind. There were other special peace-offerings 
(xxiii. 19, 20) which were otherwise dealt with. 

In later times, the place where the peace- 
offerings might be eaten was restricted to the 
holy city (Dent. xii. 6, 7, 11, 12) ; at present, 
there was no occasion for such a command, 
while all were together in the camp in the wil- 
derness. But all sacrificial animals slain for food 
must be offered as sacrifice to the Lord (xvii. 3, 4). 

Kalisch (p. 144 ss.) says: "The character of 
these feasts cannot be mistaken. It was that of 
joyfuluess tempered by solemnity, of solemnity 
tempered by joyfulness: the worshipper had 
submitted to God an offering from his property; 
he now received back from Him a, part of the 
dedicated gift, and thus experienced anew the 
same gracious beneficence which had enabled 
him to appear with his wealth before the altar; 
he therefore consumed that portion with feelings 
of humility and thankfulness ; but he was bid- 
den at once to manifest those blissful sentiments 
by sharing the meat not only with his house- 
hold, which thereby was reminded of the divine 
protection and mercy, but also with his needy 
fellow-beings, whether laymen or servants of 
the temple. Thus these beautiful repasts were 
stamped both with religious emotion and human 
virtue. The relation of friendship between God 
and the offerer which the sacrifice exhibited 
was expressed and sealed by the feast which 
intensified that relation into one of an actual 
covenant; the momentary harmony was extended 
to a permanent union ; and these notions could 
not be expressed more intelligibly, at least to 
an Eastern people, than by a common meal, 
which to them is the familiar image of friend- 
ship and communion, of cheerfulness and joy. 
.... Some critics have expressed an opposite 
view, contending that the offerer was not consi- 
dered as the guest of God, but, on the contrary, 
God as the guest of the offerer ; but this is 
against the clear expressions of the law ; the 
sacrificer surrendered the whole victim to the 
Deity (iii. 1, 6, 7, 12), and confirmed his inten- 
tion by burning on the altar the fat parts, which 
represented the entire animal. . . . The Apos- 
tle Paul says distinctly : 'Are not they who eat 
of the sacrifices partakers of the altar' or 'of 
the Lord's table?' " 

Vers. 19-21. The sanctity of even this inferior 
sacrifice is strongly guarded. Peace-offerings 
being representative especially of communion 
with the Most Holy, all uncleanness or contact 
with uncleanness is rigorously forbidden. 



62 



LEVITICUS. 



Yer. 19. And as for tbe flesh, all that be 
clean shall eat thereof, — meaning, of course, 
the flesh in general — that which has not touched 
any unclean thing. The sense might easily be 
made more clear ; but there is no ground for 
altering the translation. 

Yer. 20. Shall be cut oB from his people, 
i. e. be excommunicated, cast out from the com- 
monwealth of Israel. This might sometimes, as 
in Ex. xxxi. 14, involve also the punishment of 
death, but only when the offence was also a 
civil one. Capital punishment is not intended 
by the expression itself. — That pertain unto 
the Lord. — This shows plainly enough that the 
Tictim, once offered, was considered as belong- 
ing to God, and hence that they who feasted 
upon it were the guests of the Lord. 

Yer. 21. Unclean beast, etc. This is to be 
understood of the dead bodies of these animals. 
Unoleanness was not communicated by their 
touch while living; but, on the other hand, it 
was communicated by the touch of the body, 
even of clean animals which had died a natural 
death, or as we should say, of carrion. 

Nothing is here said of the portion of the 
priests, that being the subject of a distinct di- 
vine communication (vera. 28-36). 

G. Instructions in regard to the Fat and the 
Blood. Yers. 22-27. From its importance, this 
group of commands forms the exclusive subject 
of another communication, and is addressed to 
ihei people^ because, while these portions were in 
the especial charge of the priests, it was neces- 
sary to warn the people very carefully against 
making use of them themselves. It comes ap- 
propriately in connection with the peace offer- 
ings, because it was only of these that tbe peo- 
ple eat at all, and hence here there was especial 
liability to transgress this command. 

Yer. 22. No manner of fat, of 03t, or of 
sheep, or of goat.— The prohibition of the 
eating of fat extends only to the sacrificial ani- 
mals, and is to be so understood in ch. iii. 17. 
The reason of this prohibition appears in ver. 
25 : this fat was appropriated to burning upon 
the altar, and hence any other use of it was a 
profanation. While the Israelites were in the 
wilderness, all animals slain for food, which 
were allowed in sacrifice, were presented as 
victims, and their fat was burned on the altar. 
Afterwards, in view of the settlement in the 
promised land, this restriction was removed, 
Deut. lii. 15, 21. With that permission the 
prohibition of blood is emphatically repeated ; 
but nothing is said of the fat. Hence Keil ar- 
gues that in such case the eating of the fat was 
allowable, and this opinion is strongly confirmed 
by Deut. xxxii. 14, enumerating among the good 
things to be enjoyed the "fat of lambs, and 
rams of the breed of Bashan." Nevertheless, 
the language of universal prohibition is distinct 
in ch. iii. 17, unless that is to be understood 
only of animals offered in sacrifice. The gene- 
rality of commentators understand, in accord- 
ance with Jewish tradition, that the fat of the 
sacrificial animals was perpetually forbidden. 
In any case the prohibited fat was of course 
that which was burned on the altar, the separa- 
ble fat, not that which was intermingled with 
the flesh. 



Yer. 24. That which died of itself, its hlooj 
not having been poured out, and that which wag 
torn of beasts, was prohibited as food (xxii. 8), 
and if any partook of it, he must undergo puri- 
fication, and "be unclean until the even" (xfii 
15). The fat of such animals therefore could 
no more be eaten than their flesh ; but since it 
was also unfit for the altar, it might be us«d 
in any other use. Nothing is said of the fai 
of fowls as no special use was made of this ou 
the altar. 

Yers. 26, 27. The prohibition of blood is ab- 
solute and perpetual, and this for the reasons 
given in xvii. 11. It has been urged that as 
nothing is anywhere said of the blood of fish, 
that id not included in the prohibition. More 
probably this was of too little importance to ob- 
tain particular mention, and the general princi- 
ple on which blood is absolutely forbidden must 
be considered as applying here also, notwitli- 
standing any tradition to the contrary. 

H. Instructions for the priests' portion of the 
peace offerings. Yers. 28-36. 

This, the final communication of this part of 
the book, is also addressed to the people, be- 
cause the priests' pordon was taken from that 
which would otherwise have been returned to 
them, and it therefore concerned them to under- 
stand the law. It stands here quite in its right 
place : " When the priest's rights in all the 
other sacrifices were enumerated, this was omit- 
ted, because the people here took the place of 
the priest in respect of the flesh. When tbe 
special nature of this offering in this respect 
has been made prominent, a new communicatioQ 
is made, addressed to the sons of Israel, and 
directing them, among other things, to assign 
certain portions of the victim to the priest." 
Murphy. 

Yer. 29. Shall bring his offering unto 
the Iiord. — Tbe object of this provision seems 
10 be to secure an actual, instead of a merely 
constructive offering. As moat of the flesh Vfas 
to be consumed by the offerer, it might possibly 
have been supposed sufiScient merely to send 
in the consecrated parts ; but the law regards 
the whole as offered to the Lord, and therefore 
requires that it shall be distinctly presented 
before Him. 

Yer. 30. His own hands shall bring.— 
Still further to guard the sacrificial character 
of this offering, which was more in danger of 
being secularized than any other, it is required 
that the parts especially destined for the Lords 
use might not be sent in by any servant or other ■ 
messenger, but must be presented by the offer- 
er's own hands. Comp. viii. 27; Ex. xxix. 
24-26; Num. vi. 19, 20.— The fat with the 
breast. — The construction of iy_ is as in Ex. 
xii. 8, 9. Breast ia that part between the shoul- 
ders in front which we call the brisket, and which 
included the cartilaginous breast-bone. 

A wave-offering. — The breast is to be a 
wave-offering, the right leg (ver. 31) a heave- 
offering.- These two kinds of offering are 
clearly distinguished in the law. Both are 
mentioned together in ver. 34. and frequently 
(X. 14, 15; Ex. xxix. 24-27 ; Num. vi. 20; xviii. 
11, 18, 19, etc.) as distinct offerings; the heave- 



CHAP. VI. 8— VII. 38. 



63 



offering is mentioned alone (xxii. 12 ; Ex. xxv. 
2, 3; XXX. 13-16; xxxv. 6; xxxvi. 3, 6; Nuu). 
XV. 19-21; xviii. 24; xxxi.29, 41, 52, etc.), and so 
is the wave offering (xiv. 12, 21, 24; xxiii. 15, 
17, 20; Ex. xxxviii. 24, 29; Num. yiii. 11. 13, 
etc.); although both apparently are sometimes 
used simply in the sense of offering and coupled 
together without distinction of meaning (Ex. 
xxxv. 21-24); both are here applied to the offer- 
ings of metal for the tabernacle, though the 
other offerings are only spoken of as heave 
offerings. The distinction is much obscured in 
the A. V. by the frequent translalion of both by 
the simple word offering, and sometimes without 
any note of this in the margin. In regard to 
the parts of the sacrifices designated by the two 
terms, the distinction is clearly marked ; the 
heave-leg belonged exclusively to the officiating 
priest, while the wave-breast was the common 
property of the priestly order. The distinotiou 
in the ceremonial between them it is less easy to 
make. That of the wave offering appears to 
have been the more solemn and emphatic, con- 
sisting in the priest placing his hands under 
those of the offerer (which held the offering to 
be waved), and moving them to and fro — some 
of the Rabbins say, towards each of the four 
quarters, and also up and down. The heaving, 
on the other hand, appears to have been a sim- 
ple lifting up of the offering, (dee authorities 
in Outram I. 15, J V.) In all cases of the wave 
offering of parts of animals, only the fat was 
burned, except in the peculiar cuse of the con- 
secration of the priests commanded in Ex. xxix. 
22-26, and fulfilled in viii. 25-29, when the leg 
was also burned. In the case of the " waving " 
of the Levites (Num. viii. 11-19), they were 
wholly given up to God as the ministrants of the 
priests. Lange says : " The breast may repre- 
sent the bold readiness, the leg the energetic 
progress, which in the priest are always desi- 
rable." 

During the sojourn in the wilderness, where 
all sacrificial animals that were to be eaten were 
offered in saorifioe, the priests' portion was only 
the breast and the right leg ; afterwards, when 
permission was given to kill these animals for 
food in the scattered habitations of the people, 
and thereby the perquisites of the priests were 
greatly reduced, there was added (Deut. xviii. 
8) "the shoulder (J?'1t) and the two cheeks and 
the maw.'' 

Ver. 34. A statute forever. — As long as the 
sacrificial system and the Aaronic priesthood 
should endure. 

Ver. 35. In the day when he presented 
them. — At the time when God, by the hand of 
Moses, brought them near to minister. The verb 
is without an expressed nominative in the He- 
brew as in the English. 

The conclusion of this part of the book. Vers. 
37, 38. 

Ver. 37. The enumeration in this verse is to 
be understood not merely of the immediately pre- 
ceding section ; but of the whole law of sacrifice 
as given in all the preceding chapters. 

Of the consecrations. — Lit., "of the fill- 
ings" sc. of the hands. Comp. Ex. xxix. 19-28. 
The ordinance for the consecration of the priests 



has been given in full there; but still something 
of it has been directed here (vi. 19-23) so that ii 
must necessarily appear in this recapitulation. 

Ver. 38. In Mount Sinai. — That this ex- 
■pression is used broadly for the region of Mt. 
Sinai, not distinctively for the mountain itself, 
is apparent from the concluding clause of the 
verse. 

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL. 

I. In the stress laid upon the necessity of 
maintaining perpetually the fire divinely kindled 
on the altar, is taught the necessity of the divine 
approval of the means by which man seeks to 
approach God. The only Mediator under the 
old Covenant as under the new, is Christ ; but 
as the divine appointment was of old necessary 
to constitute the types which prefigured Him, 
and by means of which the worshipper availed 
himself of His sacritice, — so now, man may claim 
the benefits of Christ's work for his redemption 
only in those ways which God has approved. 

IL The priests, and the high-priest, like the 
people, must offer oblations and sacrifices. They 
were separated from the people only in so far as 
the functions of their olfioe required ; in the in- 
dividual relation of their souls to God, they 
formed no caste, and stood before Him on no dif- 
ferent footing from others. This is a funda- 
mental principle in all the divine dealings with 
man ; " there is no respect of persona with God," 
(Rom. ii. II, etc.). 

III. In the assimilation of the trespass to the 
sin offering is shown how wmng done to man is 
also sin against God ; while in the peculiar or- 
dinances belonging to the sin offering alone, we 
see the peculiar sinfulness of that sin which is 
committed directly against God. 

IV. The provision for a portion for the priests 
from the various offerings, and from the oblation 
accompanying the whole burnt offering sets forth 
in act the general principle declared in wordi in 
the New Testament, " that they which minister 
about holy things live of the things of the tem- 
ple." (1 Cor. ix. 13). 

V. The peace offerings are called in the LXX. 
frequently "sacrifices of praise" (ffvaiai rijg al- 
veaeuf) ; by the use of the same phraseology in 
the Ep. to the Heb. (xiii. 15) applied to Christ, 
He is pointed out as the Antitype of this sacri- 
fice : " By Him, therefore, let us offer the sacri- 
fice of praise [Svalav alviaeoic) to God continu- 
ally;" and again (ver. 10) " We have an altar 
whereof they have no right to eat which serve 
the tabernacle." 

VI. In the oblation accompanying the peace 
offering leavened bread was required. This 
could not be admitted for burning upon the altar 
for reasons already given ; nevertheless it must 
be presented to the Lord for a heave offering. 
Many things in man's daily life cannot, from 
thefr nature, be directly appropriated to the ser- 
vice of God ; yet all must be sanctified by being 
presented before Him. 

VII. In the strict prohibition to the people of 
the fat which was appropriated as the Lord's 
portion was taught, in a w .y suited to the ap- 
prehension of the Israelites, the general princi- 
ple that whatever has been appropriated to God 
may not rightly be diverted to any other use. 



64 



LEVITICDS. 



VIII. The various kinds of sacrifice here re- 
cognized as means of approach to God, and the 
provisions for their constant repetition, alike 
indicate their intrinsic insufEcienoy and tempo- 
rary character. Otherwise " would they not 
have ceased to be offered, because that the wor- 
shippers once purged should have had no more 
conscience of sins ?" (Heb. x. 2). 

IX. The same temporary and insufficient cha- 
racter attached to the peace offerings, which ex- 
pressed communion with God. As Keil has 
pointed out, they still left the people in the outer 
court, while God was enthroned behind the vail 
in the holy of holies, and this vail could only be 
removed by the sacrifice on Calvary. And in 
general, as the office of the old Covenant was to 
give the knowledge of sin rather than, by any- 
thing within itself, completely to do it away ; so 
was it designed to awaken rather than to satisfy 
the desire for reconciliation and communion 
with Qod. In so far as it actually accomplished 
cither purpose, it was by its helping the faith 
of the worshippers to lean, through its types, 
upon the one true Sacrifice in the future. 

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL. 

VI. Vers. 9-13. The ever-burning fire ; kin- 
dled by God, but kept alive by man ; the accept- 
ance of our efforts to approach God is from Him, 
but He gives or withholds it according to our 
desire and exertion. " Quench not the Spirit." 
(1 Thess. V. 19). The Spirit ^aoKom, but it is 
for us nva^anvpelv (2 Tim. i. 6) Wordsworth. Put 
on his linen garment ; the inward purity re- 
quired in those who are serving immediately at 
the altar is fitly symbolized by outward signs. 
Even that which is becoming in service of other 
kinds, as the carrying forth of the ashes, may 
well be replaced in duties which are more nearly 
related to the divine Presence. 

Vers. 14-18. The oblation. That is truly of- 
fered to God which is consumed in His service, 
though but the '■ memorial " of it and the frank- 
incense, typifying prayer and praise, can be ac- 
tually given directly to Him. Whatsoever 
toucheth them shall be holy. — As there is 
a contaminating effect in contact with evil, so 
is thero a sanctifying effect from close contact 
with that which is holy. The woman in the 
Gospel by faith touched the holy One, and virtue 
went forth to heal her from her uncleanness. 
Origen (Horn. 4 in Lev.). 

Vers. 19-23. The high-priest must offer an ob- 
lation for himself as well as for the people. Man 
never reaches on earth a stage of holiness so 
high that he needs not means of approach to 
God; He alone who " was without sin" offered 
Himself for us. 

Vers. 24-80. Everything connected with the 
sin-offering is to be scrupulously guarded from 
defilement, and everything which it touches, re- 
ceives from it somewhat of its own character ; a 
fit emblem and type of the true Sacrifice for sins, 



Himself without sin. Whoever seeks the benefit 
of this Sacrifice, must " die unto sin," and who- 
ever is sprinkled by His all-availing blood be- 
comes thereby " purged from sin." Yet even 
so, the virtue of that blood may not be carried 
out of the sanctuary of God's presence ; they 
who, having been touched by the blood shed on 
Calvary, would depart from communion with God, 
must leave behind them all the efficacy of that 
atonement. 

VII. Vers. 1-6. Though the sin whose promi- 
nent feature is harm done, be less than that in 
which the offence is more directly against Qod, 
yet for the forgiveness of one there is essentially 
the same law as for the other. Both are viola- 
tions of the law of love, and love toward God and 
man are so bound together that neither can truly 
exist without the other (1 Jno. iv. 20), and there 
can be no breach of the one without the other. 

Vers. 11-21. The peace offering was at once 
communion of the offerer with God and also the 
opportunity for extending his bounty to his fel- 
low-men. So always there is the same connec- 
tion. It was said to Cornelius, " Thy prayers 
and thine alms are come up for a, memorial." 
"To do good and to communicate forget not; 
for with such sacrifices God is well pleased" 
(Heb. xiii. 16). The thank offering has a higher, 
place than the vow or the voluntary offering: 
that is a nearer communion with God in which 
the grateful heart simply pours out its thanks- 
givings, than that in which, with some touch of 
selfishness, it still seeks some further blessing. 
Yet both are holy. But uncleanness allowed to 
continue, debarred from such communion; and 
sin. unrepented, in its very nature now forbids it. 

Vers. 37, 38. A summary of the law of sacri- 
fice in its variety. All these sacrifices were (as 
elsewhere shown) types of Christ; for it was 
impossible that the fulness of His gracious offices, 
could be set forth by any single type. He is at 
once the whole burnt offering of complete conse- 
cration of Himself, through whom also we "pre- 
sent our bodies a living sacrifice, holy, accept- 
able unto God ;" and He is, too, the oblation, as 
that which man must present to God with his 
other sacrifices, as it is in and through Christ 
alone that our sacrifices can be acceptable; He 
is the sin offering, as it is through Him alone 
that our sins can be "covered" and effectual 
atonement be made for us ; as trespass offering 
also, it is through His love shed abroad from 
Calvary, that we learn that love towards ourfel- 
low-men in the exercise of which only can our 
transgressions against Him be forgiven ; and so 
too is He the peace offering, for His very name 
is " Peace." His coming was " peace on earth," 
and by Him have we peace and communion with 
God. No one of these alone can fully typify 
Christ ; beforehand each of His great offices in 
our behalf must be set forth by a separate sym- 
bolical teaching ; but when He has come, all 
these separate threads are gathered into 0IW| 
and He is become our "all in all." 



PRELIMINART NOTE ON THE LEVITICAL PRIESTHOOD. 



66 



PART SECOND. HISTORICAL. 



Chapters VIII.— X. 



"7%e Sacrificing^ Priesthood: Its Consecration and its Typical Discipline shown by the Death of 

Nadab and Abihu,^^ — Lange. 

The law of sacrifices having now been given, and the duties of the priests in regard to them appointed, all necessary 
preparation has been made for carrjing out the consecration of the priests aa commanded in Ex. xxix. This histcrical sec- 
tion follows, therefore, in its natural order, and takes up the thread of events at the close of the book of Exodus, where it 
was broken off that the necessary laws might be announced. There is, first, the consecration of the priests (chap, viii.), oc- 
cupying seven days; then the record of the actual entrance of Aaron and his sons upon the discharge of their functions 
(chap, ix.); closing with the account of the transgression of two of those sons in their first official act, and their consequent 
punishment, together with certain instructions for the priests occasioned by this event (chap. x,). To euter understandingly 
upon the consideration of these chapters, it is necessary to have in mind the origin, nature, and functions of the priest- 
hood. These will be briefly discussed in the following 



PKELIMINAKY NOTE ON THE LEVITICAL PRIESTHOOD. 



In the early days of the human race such 
priestly functions as were exercised at all were 
naturally undertaken by the head of the family, 
and hence arose what is called the patriarchal 
priesthood, of which the Scripture patriarchs are 
standing illustrations. When, however, families 
were multiplied and formed into communities or 
nations, the former provision was manifestly in- 
sufficient, and we meet with instances of priests 
for a larger number, as Jethro, " the priest of 
Midian" {for pruat seems here to be the proper 

rendering of [Hi). The chief priestly office was 

sometimes, and perhaps generally, associated 
with the chief civil authority, as In the case of 

"Melchisedec, king of Salem the priest 

of the Most High God" (Gen. xiv. 18), and 
among the heathen, Balak, who offered his sacri- 
fices himself (Num. xxiii.); a trace of this custom 
may perhaps be preserved in the occasional use 

of ins for prince (Job xii. 19 ; 2 Sam. viii. 18 ; 
xz. 26?), But in large nations the actual func- 
tions of the priestly office must necessarily have 
devolved chiefly upon inferior priests. In Egypt 
the Israelites had been accustomed to a numerous, 
wealthy, and powerful body of priests, at the 
head of which stood the monarch. It is unneces- 
sary to speak of these further than to note a few 
points in which they were strongly contrasted 
with the priests of Israel. In the first place, al- 
though the monarch was at the head of the whole 
priestly caste, yet as the popular religion of 
Egypt was polytheistic, each principal Divinity 
had his especial body of priests with a high- 
priest at their head. In contrast with this, mo- 
notheism was distinctly set forth in the Levitioal 
legislation, by the one body of priests, with its 
single high-priest at its head. The Egyptian 
priests maintained an esoteric theology, not com- 
municated to the people, in which it would ap- 



pear that the unity of the Self-existent God and 
many other important truths were taught; in 
Israel the priests were indeed the keepers and 
guardians of the law (Deut. xxxi. 9, He.'), but 
they were diligently to teach it all to the people 
(Lev. X. 11), to read the whole of it every seventh 
year to all the assembled people (Deut. xxxi. 
10-13), to supply the king with a copy for him- 
self to write out in full (Deut. xvii. 18, 19), and 
in general to teach God's judgments to Jacob and 
His law to Israel (Deut. xxxiii. 10). While, 
therefore, from the nature of their occupation, 
they might be expected to have a more perfect 
knowledge of the law than the generality of the 
people, this knowledge was only more perfect as 
the result of more continued study, and might be 
equalled by any one who chose, and was actually 
shared by every one as far as he chose. The 
Egyptian priests were, moreover, great landed 
proprietors (besides being fed from the royal 
revenues. Gen. xlvii. 22), and actually possessed 
one-third of the whole territory of Egypt; the 
priests of Israel, on the contrary, were expressly 
excluded from the common inheritance of the 
tribes, and had assigned to them only the cities 
with their immediate suburbs actually required 
for their residence. The priesthood of Egypt 
culminated in the absolute monarch who was at 
their head, and in whose authority they in some 
degree shared ; in Israel, on the other hand, the 
line between the civil and the priestly authority 
and functions was most sharply drawn, primarily 
in the case of Moses and Aaron, Joshua and 
Eleazar, generally in the time of the judges (al- 
though in that troubled period this, like all other 
parts of the Mosaic system, was sometimes eon- 
fused), and finally under the monarchy. It is 
indeed sometimes asserted that the kings, by 
virtue of their prerogative, were entitled to exer 
cise priestly functions; but for this there is no 
real ground. The instances relied on are either 



C6 



LEVITICUS. 



manifest oaaea of sacrifice offered at the command 
of the monarch (1 Kings iii. 15; viii. 62-64.) ; or 
of the simple wearing of an ephod (2 Sam. vi. 
14), which by no means carried with it the 
priestly ofiBoe; or else are misinterpretations of 
a particular word (1 Kings iv. 2, 5 — see the 
Textual notes there; 2 Sam. viii. 18— the only 
case of real difficulty— comp. 1 Chr. xviii. 17). 
There are but two definite instances of the as- 
sumption of priestly functions by kings, and 
both of them were most sternly punished (1 
Sam. xiii. 10-14; 2 Chron. xxvi. 16-21). There 
was also the intrusion of Korah and his compa- 
nions on the priestly office and their exemplary 
punishment (Num. xvi.). In the later abnormal 
state under the Maccabees, it was not the kings 
who assumed priestly functions, but the priests 
who absorbed the royal prerogative. With these 
contrasts, it is plain that there was little in com- 
mon between the Egyptian and Levitical priest- 
hood, except what is necessarily implied in the 
idea of a priesthood at all, and is found in that 
of the nations of antiquity generally. They 
were, however, both hereditary (as was also the 
Brahminical priesthood) ; both were under a law 
of the strictest personal cleanliness, and there 
was a resemblance between them in several mat- 
ters of detail, as linen dress, and other non-es- 
sential matters. 

When the Israelites came out of Egypt, they 
were a people chosen — on condition of faithful- 
ness and obedience— »to be " a kingdom of priests 
and an holy nation" (Ex. xix. 6), and in accord- 
ance with this the paschal lamb was sacrificed 
by each head of a household, and eaten by him- 
self and his family (Ex. xii. 6), and the same 
idea was retained in this sacrifice always. Never- 
theless, the people were unprepared for so high a 
vocation, and soon after we find the existence of 
certain persons among the people recognized as 
priests "which oome near to the Lord" (Ex. 
xix. 22, 24), although they did not receive the 
Divine sancliou necessary to the continuance of 
their oflice. We have no knowledge of the na- 
ture of their functions, nor of their appointment. 
However this may have been, the people cer- 
tainly shrank from that nearness of approach to 
God implied in the office of priest (Ex. xx. 19, 
21; Deut. v. 23—27), and sacrifices were offered 
by "young men" appointed by Moses, he re- 
serving to himself the strictly priestly function 
of sprinkling the blood (Ex. xxiv. 5—8). Such 
was the state of things at the time of the ap- 
pointment of the Aaronic order; there was no 
divinely authorized priesthood, and the need of 
one was felt. 

Meantime, in the solitude of Sinai, God di- 
rected Moses to take Aaron and his sons for an 
hereditary priesthood (Ex. xxviii. 1), and gave 
minute directions for their official dress, for 
their consecration and their duties (Ex. xxviii., 
xxix.). Emphasis is everywhere placed upon 
the fact that they were appointed of God (comp. 
Heb. V. 4). They were in no sense appointed by 
the people ; had they been so, they could not 
have been mediators. It has been seen that the 
Levitical system makes prominent the fact that 
the sacrifices had no efficacy in themselves, but 
derived their whole value from the Divine ap- 
pointment ; so also in regard to the priesthood. 



The priests appear as themselves needing atone- 
ment, and obliged to offer for their own sins; 
yet by the commanded unction and dress they 
are constituted acceptable intercessors and me- 
diators for the people. All was from God ; and 
while this gave assurance to the people in their 
daily worship, at the same time the priests' own 
imperfection showed that the true reconciliation 
with God by the restoration of holiness to man 
had not yet been manifested. The Levitical 
priest could be but a type of that Seed of the 
woman who should bruise the serpent's head. 

Before the directions concerning the priests 
hood, given to Moses alone in the Mount, could 
be announced, occurred the terrible apostasy of 
the golden calf, when, at the summons of Moses 
" who is on the Lord's side?" the whole tribe 
of Levi consecrated themselves by their zeal on 
God's behalf (Ex. xxxii. 25-29). Subsequently 
(Num. iii. 5-10, 40-51), the Levites were taken 
as a substitute for all the first-born Israelites 
(who, under the patriarchal system, would have 
been their priests, and who had been spared in 
the slaughter of the Egyptian first-born) to mi- 
nister to the chosen priestly family. Of these 
nothing is said in this book, except the modifica- 
tion in their favor of the law concerning the sale 
of houses in xxv. 32-34) (see Com.). They may 
therefore be here wholly passed by with the 
simple mention that they never had sacerdotal 
functions, and were not therefore a part of the 
sacerdotal class. It is, perhaps, for the purpose 
of making this distinction emphatically that no 
mention is made of them in this book where it 
might otherwise have been expected. As, how- 
ever, they constituted the tribe from which the 
priests were taken, the latter are often called by 
their name, and thus we frequently meet with 
the expression in the later books, "the priests, 
the Levites," or even with "Levites" alone, 
meaning Levites, /car' i^oxv", or priests. 

But while there was an evident necessity thai 
a much smaller body than the whole tribe of Levi 
should be taken for priests; and while Aaron, 
the elder brother, and appointed as the "pro- 
phet" of Moses (Ex. iv. 14-17), and associated 
with him in the whole deliverance of the people 
from Egypt, was evidently a most suitable per- 
son for the office, the law that (he office should 
be hereditary must rest on other grounds. If 
we seek for these in any thing beyond the sim- 
ple Divine good-pleasure, we should readily find 
them in the general fact of the whole Mosaic 
system being founded upon the principle of heir- 
ship leading on to the fulfilment of the Messianic 
promise : and in the more special one that it was 
by this means the priesthood was in the main 
kept true to God during long periods of Israel's 
apostasy and sin. 

It is to be carefully observed that this heredi- 
tary office did not make of the priests a caste; in 
all things not immediately connected with the 
discharge of their functions, they were fellow- 
citizens with the other Israelites, subject to the 
same laws, bound by the same duties, and ame- 
nable to the same penalties. When not engaged 
in official duty, they wore the same dress, and 
might follow the same vocations as their fellow- 
citizens. They were only exempt from the pay- 
ment of tithes because themselves supported bj 



PEEHMINARY NOTE ON THE LEVITICAL PRIESTHOOD. 



C7 



them. In all this is manifest a striking con- 
tvast, not only with heathen priesthoods of an- 
tiquity, but also with the hierarchy of the Me- 
dieeval Christian Church. 

The especial function of the priesthood was 
to come near to Ood (vii. 3-5 ; x. 3 ; xxi. 17 ; 
Num. xvi. 6, etc.). They were to stand in the 
vast gap between a sinful people and a holy 
God, themselves of the former, yet especially 
sanctified to approach the latter. " Hence their 
chief characteristic must be holiness, since they 
were elected to be perpetually near the Holy 
One and to serve Him (Num. xvi. 6) ; they were 
singled out from the rest of their brethren ' to 
be sanctified ad most holy.' To hallow and to 
install as priests are used as correlative terms 
(Ex. xxix. 33; co np. vers. 1, 44; xxviii. 41; 
xl. 13). By neglecting what cuntributes to their 
sanctity they pr )f'an'? the holiness of God (Lev. 
xxi. 6-8) ; and the high-priest is himself the 
'Holy One of the Lord' (Ps. cvi. 16)." Kalisoh. 
They sustained a distinct mediatorial character 
between God and His people. This appears in 
every part of the law concerning them. The 
golden plate inscribed "holiness to the Lord," 
which the high-priest wore upon his brow, ex- 
pressly meant that he should " bear the iniquity 
of the holy things which the children of Israel 
shall hallow" (Ex. xxviii. 38) ; and the flesh of 
the sin offerings was given to the priests "to 
bear the iniquity of the congregation, to make 
atonement for them before the Lord" (Lev. x. 
17). Of course this could be done by human 
priests only symbolically, as they were types of 
the great High Priest to come ; and His all- 
sufficient sacrifice having once been offered, 
there could be thereafter no other priesthood in 
this relation to the people, or discharging this 
mediatorial function. The Christian ministry 
finds its analogy, not in the priests, but in the 
prophets of the old dispensation, although even 
here the likeness is very imperfect. Still, while 
the priests were required to preserve and teach 
the written law, it was left to the prophets to 
unfold its spiritual meaning, and to urge regard 
to it by argument and exhortation. It is a 
striking fact that the Greek word for priest, 
Upeiig, and its derivatives in the New Testament, 
while frequently applied to the priests of the 
old covenant and to Christ Himself, their Anti- 
type, are never used for any office in the Chris- 
tian Church, except for the general priesthood 
of the whole body of believers ; jrpo0;^r»)f=r/>ro- 
phet, however, and its cognates are thus used 
with great frequency. It is to be borne in mind 
that priest, in the Levitical sense of the word, 
and sacrifice are correlative terms; sacrifice 
pre-supposes a priest to offer it, and a priest 
must needs have "somewhat also to offer" 
(Keb. viii. 3). From these points flow all the 
duties of the priests, and in view of these their 
qualifications, and the other laws concerning 
them are fixed. 

The first and chiefest of all their duties was 
the offering of sacrifice, as this was the especial 
instrumentality by which men sought to draw 
near; to God. No sacrifice could be offered with- 
out the intervention of the appointed priest ; 
for the sacrifices having no virtue in themselves, 
and deriving their value from the Divine ap- 



pointment, must necessarily be presented in the 
way and by the persons whom God had author- 
ized. Hence it is that in the ritual of the sacri- 
fices an emphasis is always placed upon the 
declaration that the priests "shall make atone- 
ment." The apparent exceptions to this, in the 
case of Samuel and Elijah, are really but illus- 
trations of the principle, they being prophets 
directly charged from on high to do this very 
thing. In this, including the burning of in- 
cense, the priests were undoubtedly typical of 
the one true High Priest and Mediator. They 
stood, as far as was possible for man, between 
God and the people, and by their acts were the 
people made — at least symbolically — holy, and 
brought near to God. The acts of sacrifice 
which were essential and which therefore could 
only be performed by the priests, were the 
sprinkling or other treatment of the blood, and 
the burning of such parts as were to be con- 
sumed upon the altar. In the sin and trespass 
offerings, as well as in the oblations, which must 
be wholly consecrated to God. they were to con- 
sume the parts which were not burned. 

From this essential duty naturally were de- 
rived a variety of others. To the priests be- 
longed the care of the sanctuary and its sacred 
utensils, the preservation of the fire on the 
brazen altar, the burning of incense on the 
golden altar, the dressing and lighting of the 
lamps of the golden candlestick, the charge of 
the shew-bread, and other like duties. They 
were necessarily concerned in all those multitu- 
dinous acts of the Israelites which were con- 
nected with sacrifices, such as the accomplish- 
ment of the Nazarite vow, the ordeal of jealousy, 
the expiation of an unknown murder, the deter- 
mination of the unclean and of the cleansed lep- 
rous persons, garments and houses ; the regula- 
tion of the calendar; the valuation of devoted 
property which was lio be redeemed ; these and 
a multitude of other duties followed naturally 
from their priestly office. They were also to 
blow the silver trumpets on the various occa- 
sions of their use, and in connection with this 
to exhort the soldiers about to engage in battle 
to boldness, because they went to fight under 
the Lord. They were also, from their own 
familiarity with the law, appropriately appointed 
as the religious teachers of the people. From 
their priestly office they were charged to bless 
the people in the name of God; and from their 
privilege of consulting God especially through 
the Drim and Thummim, they were made arbi- 
ters in disputes of importance : " by their word 
shall every controversy and every violence be 
tried " (Deut. xxi. 5). All these secondary du- 
ties flowed from their primary one in connection 
with the sacrifices. Hence the influence and 
importance of the priests in the Hebrew com- 
monwealth varied greatly with the religions 
earnestness and activity of the nation. Nega- 
tively, it is important, to note that the priests 
did not, in any considerable degree, discharge 
towards the people the office of the Christian 
pastor, the spiritual guide, comforter and assist- 
ant of his flock. It is possible that if the people 
and the priests themselves had been prepared 
for it, something more of this relation might 
have resulted from the provisions of the law* 



68 



LEVITICUS. 



Still, they were not individually the priests of 
particular communities ; but rather, aa a body, 
the priests of the whole nation. From this it 
resulted that their connection with the people 
was little more than simply official and ministe- 
rial. In so far as the need of the pastor was 
met at all under the old dispensation, as already 
said, it was by the prophet rather than by the 
priests. 

The same thing is also true of their revenue. 
This was chiefly derived from the "second 
tithe," or the tenth paid to them by the Levites 
from the tithes received by them from the peo- 
ple. Tithes were stringently commanded ; but 
no power was lodged with any one for their 
compulsory collection. Their payment was left 
absolutely to the conscientious obedience of the 
people. The priests' support was supplemented 
by their share of the sacrifices, first-fruits, and 
other offerings of the people. Very ample pro- 
vision appears to be made for them in the law ; 
the Levites, who were much less than a tenth of 
the people, were to receive the tenth of all their 
increase ; and the priests, who appear to have 
numbered still much less than the tenth of the 
Levites, were to receive the tenth of the income 
paid to them. Practically, during the far greater 
part of the Hebrew history, their support ap- 
pears to have been precarious and insufficient, 
and we know that large numbers of them de- 
clined to return from the captivity of Babylon, 
and many of the descendants of those who did 
return did not exercise their priestly office or 
claim their priestly privileges. 

The qualifications for the priesthood were 
first, Aaronio descent ; to spoure this genealogi- 
cal registers were kept with great care (2 Chron. 
zxxi. 16, 17, etc.), and any one who could not 
find his descent upon, them was not allowed to 
minister in the priest's office or to receive its 
emoluments (Ezra ii. 62 ; Neh. vii. 64). Secondly, 
they must be perfect physically, free from any 
bodily defect or injury; otherwise, they might 
eat of the priests' portion, and receive his tithe, 
but they were forbidden to approach the altar, 
or enter the sanctuary (Lev. xxi. 17-23). Fur- 
ther, during the time of their ministrations, 
they must be entirely fre-i from any form of 
legal uncleanness (xxii. 1-7), and must practice 
frequent ablutions, espeeinlly on entering the 
sacred precincts (viii. 6; Ex. xl. 30-32), and 
they must carefully abstain from wine and strong 
drink (ch. x. 8-10); at all times they must 
maintain an especial symbolic purity, and particu- 
larly must never be defiled by the contact of a 
dead body, except in the case of the very near- 
est relatives (xxi. 2-4), even this exception 
being denied to the high-priest {ib. 10-12). No 
limit of age either for the beginning or the end 
of their service is fixed in the law ; but in the 
absence of such limitation, the age appointed 
for the Levites would probably have been gene- 
rally regarded as fitting. In later times there 
was great laxity in this respect, and Aristohulus 
was appointed high-priest by Herod the Great 
when only seventeen. In addition to these out- 
ward qualifications, exemplary holiness of life 
is everywhere required of the priests, and even 
in their families, violations of virtue were visited 
with more severity than among others (xxi. 9). 



In marriage the priests generally were only 
restricted in their choice to virgins or widows 
of any of the tribes of their nation (xxi. 7); 
later, marriage within the Aaronio family seems 
to have been preferred, and by the prophet 
Ezekiel (xliv. 22) the marriage with widovfs 
(except of priesis) was forbidden them. 

They were originally inducted into their office 
by a solemn consecration, and were sprinkled 
with the sacrificial blood and the holy anointing 
oil (ch. ix.); but, except for the high.priest, 
this one consecration sufficed for all their de- 
scendants, and was not repeated. 

While on duty in the sanctuary they were 
arrayed in robes of linen which might never 
pass beyond the sacred precincts ; and they 
must minister at the altar unshod. 

In the small number of priests at first, it was 
probably necessary that all of them should be 
constantly on duty; but when in later times 
they had greatly multiplied, they were divided 
by David luto twenty-four courses, each with a 
chief at its head, who should minister in turn 
(1 Chron. xxiv. 3, 4). This arrangement was 
maintained ever after, although on the return 
from the captivity, some of the courses were 
wanting from the returning exiles (Neh. xii. 1- 
7; 12-21). 

The whole order of the priests was concen- 
trated, so to speak, in the high-priest. His office 
was also hereditary, but not with the same 
strictness. We find in the time of Eli that the 
high priesthood had passed to the house of 
Ithamar (Aaron's younger son), and from his 
descendants it was again by divine direction 
transferred back to the elder branch. The du- 
ties and responsibilities of the high-priest were 
far more solemn than that of the ordinary priests. 
" Pity and sympathy also, according to the Ep. 
to the Hebr., enter into the idea of the high- 
priest." Lange. There could be only one high- 
priest at a time, although a second, in some de- 
gree at least, seems to have been permitted 
during that abnormal period during the reign 
of David when the ark and the tabernacle were 
separated. The high-priest was restricted in 
marriage to a Hebrew virgin; bis official robes 
were of the utmost splendor, and on his breast 
he wore the precious stones on which were en- 
graved the names of the twelve tribes of Israel, 
while on the golden plate on his forehead was 
inscribed "holiness unto the Lord;" he was 
originally consecrated hy a more ample anoint- 
ing than his brethren, and this was repeated for 
each of his successors, so that he is described 
as having " the crown of the anointing oil of his 
God upon him" (xxi. 12), and, as we have seen, 
is often designated simply as " the anointed 
priest;" he must have succeeded to his office at 
whatever age his predecessor died or became 
incapacitated, and continued in it to the end of 
his own life, which formed a civil epoch (Num. 
XXXV, 28, 32) ; no especial provision is made in 
the law for his support, and history shows tbat 
it was unnecessary to do so, as he was always 
amply provided for; the high-priest was forbid- 
den the contact with the dead and the customary 
marks of sorrow even in those few cases which 
were permitted to other priests (xxi. 10-12), anii 
that on the express ground of the peculiar oom- 



CHAP. VIII. 1-36. 



GO 



pleteness of his coasecration. But his chief 
diBtiaotion lay in his being the embodiment, as 
it were, of the whole theocracy, and the media- 
tor between God and the whole people. This 
was signified by manifold symbols on his robes ; 
' it was shown by his duty of offering the sin 
offering for himself and for the whole people 
(the same victim being required for each) ; and 
especially by his most solemn duties on the 
great day of Atonement (oh. xvi.). From his 
position and religious duties necessarily flowed 
many others, as in the case of the ordinary 
priests, only that in the one case as in the other 



those of the high-priest were far higher and 
more important. In the Epistle to the Hebrews 
he is singled out not only as the representative 
of the whole priestly system, but as peculiarly 
the type of Christ, the one great High-Priest, 
Who alone could make effectual atonement, once 
for all, for the sins of all people. A " second 
priest," or vice high-priest, is mentioned Jer. 
lii. 24, and such an office is recognized by the 
later Jews. Literature : Kaiisoh, Preliminaiy 
Essay on Lev. VIII., and many of the worka 
already mentioned under Sacrifices. Kuepeb, 
Das Priesterthum des Alien Bundes, Berlin, 1865. 



FIRST SECTION. 

The Consecration of the Priests. 

Chap. VIII. 1-36. 



1,2 And the Lord spake uuto Moses, saying. Take Aaron and his sons with him, 
and the garments, and the anointing oil, and a [the^] bullock for the sin-offering, 

3 and [the'] two rams, and a [the'] basket of unleavened bread : and gather thou all 
the congregation together unto the door of the tabernacle of the [pmit the] congre- 

4 gatlon. And Moses did as the Loed commanded him ; and the assembly [con- 
gregation''] was gathered together unto the door of the tabernacle of the [pmit the] 

5 congregation. And Moses said unto the congregation, This is the thing which the 
Lord commanded to be done. 

6 And Moses brought Aaron and his sons, and washed [bathed'] them with water. 

7 And he put upon him the coat, and girded him with the girdle, and clothed him 
with the robe, and put the ephod upon him, and he girded him with the curious 

8 [ewnoiM*] girdle of the ephod, and bound it unto him therewith. And he put the 
breastplate upon him : also he put in the breastplate the Urim and the Thummim. 

9 And he put the mitre upon his head ; also upon the mitre, even upon his forefront, 
did he put [and upon the mitre upon his forehead did he put"] the golden plate, 

10 the holy crown ; as the Lord commanded Moses. And Moses took the anointing 
oil, and anointed the tabernacle [dwelling-place'] and all that was therein, and 

11 sanctified them.' And he sprinkled thereof upon the altar seven times, and an- 
ointed the altar and all his vessels, both the laver and his foot, to sanctify them. 

12 And he poured of the anointing oil upon Aaron's head, and anointed him, tosanc- 

13 tify him. And Moses brought Aaron's sons, and put coats upon them, and girded 



TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL. 

1 Ver. 2. The Heb. has the article in all these cases, and it shonld be retained as referring to the commands given in 
Ex. xxix. 

« Ver. 4. muri- The word being precisely the same as in ver. 3, should certainly have the same translation. The 

Vulg. and Syr. prefix da, as in ver. 3. 

' Ver. 6. ym»l. See Textual Note » on xiv. 8. 

* Ver. 7. 3E?n means simply girdle, and there is nothing in the Heb. answering to curtoiM, yet as this word is used 

only of the girdle of the Ephod, while there are several other words for the ordinary girdle, and as the A. V. has uniformly 
rendered it mirimt girdle, it may be well to retain the aAJeotive as the readiest way of marking in English the pecnlian.y 
of the girdle. It should, however, be iu italics. 

' Ver. 9. The A. V. is unnecessarily complicated. For the second Dtfl, the Sam. reads jTI'V 

' Ver. 10. \3m. See Textual Note » on xv. 31. 

' Ver. 10. Throe MSS., followed by the LXX., read it in the singular. 

• Ver. 12. One MS., followed by the Vul?., omits the partitive Q. 



LEVITICUS. 



them with girdles [a girdle'], and put [bound] bonnets upon them ; as the Lord 
commanded Moses. 

14 And he brought the bullock for the sin offering : and Aaron and his sons laid" 

15 their hands upon the head of the bullock for the sin offering. And he slew U; 
and Moses took the blood, and put it upon the horns of the altar round about with 
his finger, and purified the altar, and poured the blood at the bottom of the altar, 

16 and sanctified it, to make reconciliation upon it [to atone for it"]. And he took 
all the fat that was upon the inwards, and the caul above the liver, and the two 

17 kidneys, and their fat, and Moses burnt it^' upon the altar. But the bullock, and 
his hide, his flesh, and his dung, he burnt with fire without the camp ; as the Lord 

18 commanded Moses. And he brought" the ram for the burnt offering : and Aaron 

19 and his sons laid their hands upon the head of the ram. And he killed it; and 

20 Moses sprinkled the blood upon the altar round about. And he cut the ram into 

21 pieces ; and Moses burnt the head, and the pieces, and the fat. And he washed 
the inwards and the legs ia water ; and Moses burnt the whole ram upon the altar: 
it" was a burnt sacrifice for a sweet savour, and [omit atid] an offering made by fire 

22 unto the Loed ; as the Loed commanded Moses. And he brought the other ram, 
the ram of consecration : and Aaron and his sons laid their hands upon the head 

23 of the ram. And he slew it; and Moses took of the blood of it, and put U upon 
the tip of Aaron's right ear, and upon the thumb of his right hand, and upon the 

24 great toe of his right foot. And he" brought Aaron's sons, and Moses put of the 
blood upon the tip of their right ear, and upon the thumbs [thumb^*] of their right 
hands, and upon the great toes [toe"] of their right feet : and Moses sprinkled the 

25 blood upon the altar round about. And he took the fat, and the rump [the fit 
tail"] and all the fat that was upon the inwards, and the caul above the liver, and 

26 the two kidneys, and their fat, and the right shoulder [leg"] : and out of the basket 
of unleavened bread," that was before the Loed, he took one unleavened cake, and 
a cake of oiled bread, and one wafer, and put them on the fat, and upon the right 

27 shoulder [leg"] : and he put all upon Aaron's hands, and upon his sons' hands, 

28 and waved them for a wave offering before the Loed. And Moses took them fi:om 
off their hands, and burnt them^ on the altar upon the burnt offering : they were 
consecrations for a sweet savour : it^' is an offering made by fire unto the Loed. 

29 And Moses took the breast, and waved it for a wave offering before the Lord: far 
of the ram of consecration it was Moses' part ; as the Loed commanded Moses. 

30 And Moses took of the anointing oil, and of the blood which was upon the altar, 
and sprinkled it upon Aaron, and upon his garments, and upon his sons, and upon 
his sons' garments with him ; and sanctified Aaron, and his garments, and his sons, 
and his sons' garments with him. 

31 And Moses said unto Aaron and to his sons. Boil the flesh at the door of the 
tabernacle of the [omit the] congregation^' : and there eat with the bread that is in 
the basket of consecrations, as I [am^'] commanded, saying, Aaron and his sons 

32 shall eat it. And that which remaineth of the flesh and of the bread shall ye bum 

<* Ver. 13. I0J3X In the sing. (The ancient versions, howeTer, have the plnral). An entirely different word from 
3t!/n of ver. 7. 

10 Ver. 14. The Heb. verb ^OD^I is in the sing. In the corresponding clause in ver. 18 it is plural, and ao it is mada 
here als ) by the Sam. and Syr. 

11 Ver. 15. vSy ISoS It is better here, as in vi. 30 (23), and xvi. 20, to retain the almost universal renderiDg of 
"133 in the A. V. These three places are the only exceptions in Ex., Lpv., or Num. The sense is clearly ^ Ui rataW 

than upon it, and it is so rendered in the corresponding passage. Ex. xxix. 36, comp. 37. 

12 Ver. 16. The missing pronoun is supplied in one MS. and the Arab. 

18 Yer. 18. For ^Ip^l the Sam. reads Wi')- '< 

1* Ver. 21. Five MSS., the Svr. and Vulg., omit the pronotm. 

16 Ver. 24. TheLXX, says, Illoses brought. 

M Ver. 24, The singular, which is the Heb. form, is quite as accurate and expressive. 

1' Ver. 25. See Text. Note ' on iii. 9. 

1» Ver. 25. See Text. Note »> on vii. .S2. 

1* Ver. 26. The LXX. here reads dwo toO Kavov t^s reXetbttrftoi. 

K> Ver. 28. The pronoun is supplied by one MS., the LXX., and the Syr. 

>i Ver. 28. This pronoun is wanting in two MSS., the Vulg. and Arab. 

M Ver. 31. The Sam. and LXX. add Iv riiiru oyitu. 

» Ver. 31. The A. V. follows the Mosoretio punotnation Ti'lS; but the LXX., Vulg. and Syr., that of ver. 35 'H'^lf- 



CHAP. VIII. 1-36. 



33 with fire. And ye shall not go out of the door of the tabernacle of the [omif the] 
congregation in seven days, until the days of your con-secration be at an end : for 

34 seven days shall he consecrate you. As he hath done this day, so the Loed hath 

35 commanded to do, to make an atonement for you. Therefore shall ye abide at the 
door of the tabernacle of the lomit the] congregation day and night seven days, 

36 and keep the charge of the Lord, that ye die not : for so I am commanded. So 
Aaron and his sons did all things which the Lord commanded by the hand of 



day of atonement (ch. xvi. 4). This washing 
was obyiously Bymbolioal of the purity required 
in those wU,o draw near to God, and ia applied 
spiritually to the whole body of Christians, 
" made priests unto God " in Heb. x. 22. With 
this comp. Christ's receiving of baptism (Malt. 
iii. 13-16) before entering upon His public min- 
istry. 

Vers. 7-9. The robing of Aaron comes first, 
then the sanctiiication of the tabernacle and all 
it contained, especially of the altar, then the 
anointing of Aaron, and finally the robing of his 
sons. Neither here nor in Ex. xxix. 5 is there 
any mention of the " linen breeches " of Ex. 
xxviii. 42; xxxix. 28 probably because these were 
simply " to c iver their nakedness," and were 
not considered a part of the o£&cial costume. 
As Kalisch suggests, Aaron and his sons proba- 
bly put them on themselves immediately after 
their ablution. On the remaining articles of 
apparel see Ex. xxviii. Briefly, the coat was 
the long tunic of fine linen worn next the skin. 
According to Josephus {Ant. III. 7, ^ 2), it 
reached to the feet, and was fastened closely to 
the arms. It was to be " embroidered " (Ex. 
xxviii. 39), i. e., woven, all of the same material 
and color, in diaper work. From Ex. xxviii. 40, 
41 ; xxxix. 27, this garment appears to have 
been the same for the high-priest and the com- 
mon priests. The girdle next mentioned is not 
the "CMnoMs girdle" of the Ephod (3Kfn), but 
the !333X described by Josephus {loe. cit.) as a 
long sash of very loosely woven linen, embroi- 
dered with flowfrs of scarlet, and purple, and 
blue, which was wound several times around the 
body and tied, the ends hanging down to the 
ankles ordinarily, but thrown over the shoulder 
when the priest was engaged in active duty. — 
The robe (Ex. xxviii. 31-35), wholly of blue, 
was woven without seam, apparently without 
sleeves, with a hole whereby it was put over ih-e 
head. It is supposed to have reached a little 
below the knees, and to have been visible below, 
and also a little above, the Ephod. The hem at 
the bottom was ornamented with " pomegranates, 
blue, and purple, and scarlet," with golden bells 
between them, which should sound as the high- 
priest went in and out of the holy place. Over 
this was the Ephod (Ex. xxviii. 6, 7; xxxix. 
2-4), a vestment whose construction is imper- 
fectly understood. The word etymologically, 
means simply a "vestment." and a simple "lin- 
en Ephod" was worn by the common priests (1 
Sam. xxii. 18), as well as by others engaged in 
religious services (1 Sam. ii. 18; 2 Sam. vi. 14; 
1 Chr. XV. 27). The "vestment" or Ephod of 
the high-priest here spoken of, however, was a 
very difi'erent and much more gorgeous affair. 
Its material was W =fine linen (of which also 



EXEQETICAL AND CRITICAL. 

In the chapters of this section we have the 
only prolonged narrative in Leviticus, in fact 
the only historical matter at all except the pun- 
ishment of the blasphemer in xxiv. 10-23. 

Ver. 1. The IiORD spake. — A special com- 
mand to carry out now the command already 
given minutely in Ex. xxviii., xxix., and xl. 

Vers. 2-6 contain the preliminary arrange- 
ments. Moses takes Aaron and his sons, and 
the various things previously provided for their 
consecration, and brings tdem into the court of 
the tabernacle. The four sons of Aaron were 
brought, and the language would also include 
his grandsons, if there were any at this time of 
suitable age. The fact, however, that Eleazar 
entered the promised land, would make him less 
than twenty-one at this time, and therefore too 
young to have sons of suf&cient age, and no sons 
of Nadab and Abihu are ever anywhere men- 
tioned. The people were also gathered about 
the wide opening of the court, probably repre- 
sented by their elders in the nearest places, and 
the mass of the men generally standing upon the 
surrounding heights whica overlooked the taber- 
nacle. Lange : " This is the ordinance : first, 
the persons; then the garments as symbols of 
the office ; the anointing oil, the symbol of the 
Spirit ; the bullock for the sin oflfering, the sym- 
bol of the priest favored with the entrusted 
atonement, and yet needing favor ; the ram for 
the burnt offering, the symbol of the sacrificial 
employment ; the ram for the sacrifice of conse- 
cration, the symbol of the priestly emoluments 
in true sacrifices of consecration ; and the basket 
of unleavened bread, the symbol of life's enjoy- 
ments ef the priests, sanctified in every form by 
the oil of the Spirit." 

Ver. 2. The basket, according to Ex. xxix. 2, 
3, 23, contained three kinds of bread all un- 
leavened, the loaf, the oil bread, and the wafer 
anointed with oil. 

Vers. 3, 4. The consecration was thus public, 
not only that Aaron might not seem "to take 
this honor unto himself;" but also that by their 
presence, the people might be assenting to the 
consecration of him who was to minister among 
them and for them. 

Vers. 6-13. The washing, anointing, and in- 
vestiture. 

Ver. 6. And bathed them •with v^ater. — 
Not merely their hands and their feet, which 
Moses must have already done for himsfflf, and 
which was always done by every priest who en- 
tered the tabernacle, or who approached the 
altar (Ex. xl. 31, .S2) ; but doubtless an ablu- 
tion of the whole body as seems to be intended 
in Ex. xxix. 4, and as was practised on the great 



72 



LKVITICUS. 



the tunic mentioned above was made), while that 
of the other Bphods was 13 or common linen of 
which the " linen breeches " were made. (The 
latter word, however, as the more general, is 
sometimes used for both, Lev. vi. 10 (3) ; xvi. 
4, 23, 32). The Ephod of the high-priest ap- 
pears to have been made in two parts, one for 
the back and one for the breast, joined at the 
shoulders by two onyx stones set in gold, upon 
which were engraved the names of the tribes of 
Israel. To these stones were attached chains of 
pure wreathen gold for the support of the breast- 
plate. According to Josephus (_loc. cit., ^ 5), it 
had sleeves and a place left open upon the breast 
to be covered by the breast-plate. It was woven 
with gold thread and colors " with cunning 
work," and with its attachments was one of the 
chief parts of the high-priest's attire. Upon it, 
wrought of the same costly and gorgeous mate- 
rials, was the curious girdle of the Ephod, 
woven on to one of the parts, and passing round 
the body, holding them both together. On this 
was put the breast-plate (Ex. xxviii. 15-30), a 
separate piece of cloth woven of the same mate- 
rials, so that when folded it was " a span " 
square. By gold rings it was attached to the 
chains from the onyx stones on the shoulder, 
and by other gold rings it was tied with bands 
of blue lace to corresponding rings on the Ephod. 
To this breast-plate were attached by settings of 
gold, twelve precious stones, on each of which 
was engraved the name of one of the tribes of 
Israel. — Also he put in the breast-plate 
the Urim and the Thummim. — On these 
words many volumes have been written, and we 
can only here refer to the note on Ex. xxviii. 30. 
From the way in which they are spoken of both 
there (comp. vers. 15-21) and here, they appear 
to have been something different from the pre- 
cious stones before spoken of, and to have been 
placed, not on, but in the breastplate, i. n , in 
the receptacle formed by its fold, although a 
great variety of authorities might be cited for 
the opposite view. There is nowhere any direc- 
tion given for their preparation, and from the use 
of the definite article with each of them, it is 
likely that they were things already known. 
They were used as a means of ascertaining the 
will of God (Num. xxvii. 21; 1 Sam. xxviii. 6, 
etc.) ; but by precisely what process is not 
known, and there are now no means of ascer- 
taining. The many conjectures concerning them 
are conveniently arranged by Clark (Speaker's 
Com.) under three heads: (1) that the Divine 
will was manifested by some physical eflFect ad- 
dressed to the eye or ear ; (2) that they were a 
means of calling into action a prophetic gift in 
the high-priest; (3) that they were some contri- 
vance for casting lots. The Urim and Thum- 
mim were here formally delivered to Aaron, and 
passed on to his successors ; but the last re- 
corded instance of their use is in the time of Ba- 
vid, and they seem to have passed into disuse as 
revelations and teachings by prophets became 
more frequent. It is certain that they had dis- 
appeared, or their use had been lost, after the 
return from the captivity (Ezra ii. 63; Neh. 
vii. 65). 

And he put the mitre upon his head.— 
(Ex. xxviii. 37-39). The word mitre is here used 



in its etymological sense, of a twisted band of 
fine linen around the head, which might now be 
described as a turban. The golden plate, the 
holy oro^i7n, — a plate of pure gold having en- 
graved on it HOLINESS TO THE LoBD. This was 
attached to a " blue lace," whereby it was fast- 
ened to the mitre. It was the crowning glory 
of the high-priest's official dress, and its sym- 
bolism is fully expressed in the command for its 
preparation (Ex. xxviii. 38), "that Aaron may 
bear the iniquity of the holy things, which the 
children of Israel shall hallow in all their holy 
gifts ; and it shall be always upon his forehead, 
that they may be accepted before the Loed." 
This completed the investiture of Aaron, and it 
is added as the LORD commanded Moses, 
both to show that the command had been ful- 
filled, and also that only that which was com- 
manded had been done. In this matter nothing 
was left to human device ; every particular was 
expressly arranged by minute Divine directions; 
for everything was symbolic and intended gra- 
dually to teach Israel spiritual truths, which as 
yet they were only prepared to learn by thesD 
sensible images. 

Vers. 10-12. The anointing of the sacred 
things and of Aapon. 

The composition of the anointing oil, and the 
careful restriction of its use had been minutely 
commanded (Ex. xxx. 22-33). The Rabbis say 
that the art of compounding it was lost after the 
captivity, and hence from that time its use was 
necessarily discontinued. The things to be an- 
ointed had all been made " after the pattern 
shown in the Mount" (Ex. xxv. 40; Heb. ix. 23) 
and expressly for their sacred uses ; yet there 
was a fitness, such as has always been recog- 
nized by the sense of mankind, that they should 
first be especially set apart by a solemn cereiro- 
nial for their holy purpose. The tabernacle 
and all that ■was therein. — In Ex. xxx. 26- 
28, many of the things are specially mentioned, 
showing that Moses with the anointing oil must 
have passed not only into the holy place butinto 
thj holy of holies itself. 

Yer. 11. He sprinkled thereof upon the 
altar seven times. — This refers to the brazen 
altar in the court, as is shown by the things enu- 
merated with it. On the seven-fold sprinkling 
see on iv, 6. And anointed the altar.— As 
this is a different act from the sprinkling, so 
does this special sanctifying of the altar seem 
appropriate to its use in the sacrifices. 

Ver. 12. He poured of the anointing oil 
upon Aaron's head. — Comp. Vs. cxxxiil. 2. 
"The anointing with oil was a symbol of en- 
dowment with the Spirit of God (1 Sam. x. 1,6; 
xvi. 13, 14; Isa. Ixi. 1) for the duties of the 
office to which a person was consecrated," Keil. 
The A. V. is quite accurate in marking the more 
abundant anointing of Aaron by the word 
poured. The symbolism of anointing is abun- 
dantly recognized in the New Test, as applied to 
Christ (Luke iv. 18; Acts x. 38, c(^:). There 
has been much question whether the sons of 
Aaron were also here anointed. On the one 
hand, it had been commanded that they should 
be anointed (Ex. xxviii. 41; xl. 15) "IhoushaU 
anoint them as thou didst anoint their father." 
and they are always recognized as having been 



CHAP. VIII. 1-36. 



73 



anointed (vii. 36 ; x. 7) ; and on the other hand, 
there is no mention here of this having been 
done (which could hardly have been omitted had 
It taken place) ; and as Aaron was first robed, 
and then anointed, while his sons were not yet 
Tobed, it seems necessary to consider their unc- 
tion as having been confined to the sprinkling 
with mingled oil and blood of ver. 30. This 
would be quite in accordance with the recogni- 
tion of the high-priest alone as the anointed 
priest and with all those passages in which his 
anointing is spoken of as something peculiar. 
(The word as in Ex. xl. 16 cannot, of course, be 
pressed — as Kalisch insists — to mean an exactly 
similar form of anointing). 

Ver. 13. Next comes the robing of Aaron's 
sons, all in accordance with the commands so 
often referred to. The bonnets were also a 
sort of turban, but it may be inferred from the 
difference in the Heb. word that they were pro- 
bably diiferently fashioned from that of the high- 
priest. 

Vers. 14-30. The sacrifices and accompanying 
ceremonies. 

In the order of the sacrifices the sin ofi^ering 
comes first, then the burnt offering, lastly the 
peace offering; this, the normal order, is al- 
ways observed (unless in certain exceptional 
cases) where the several kinds of sacrifice come 
together, as was evidently fitting in view of the 
special object of each. 

The victim and the ritual of the sin offering 
are the same as that appointed for the sin offer- 
ing of the high-priest in oli. iv. 3-12, except that 
the blood was not brought into the sanctuary 
nor sprinkled " before the vail." The reason 
commonly assigned for this is that the offering 
was not for any particular sin, but only for a 
general state of sinfulness. So Lange. But it 
is to be borne in mind that this sacrifice was not 
for Aaron alone, but for him and his sons toge- 
ther; also it was not for an already consecrated 
high-priest, but for one who was in the very act 
of being consecrated and not yet entitled to dis- 
charge the functions of the high-priest. In view 
of what he was to be, the victim might well be 
the same as that appointed for the ordinary sin 
offering of the high-priest ; in view of what be 
actually was, it was fitting that there should be 
a difference in the ritual as regards the blood. 
Moses took the blood and put it upon the 
horns of the altar round about with his 
finger, as was done in all sin offerings, only 
here the object of the act seems to have been, in 
part at least, the altar itself. This had been 
already sprinkled and anointed ; now by the 
blood it is still further purified, and also sanc- 
tified, and atonement made for it. On the ne- 
cepsity of the blood in addition to the oil, see 
Heb. ix. 21, 22. The application of this to the 
altar was for the same general reasons as in case 
of the tabernacle and its contents, only that there 
was especial emphasis in regard to the altar on 
account of its peculiar use. As all things in 
heaven and earth are reconciled unto God by 
the blood of the cross (Col. i. 20), so must these 
typical things be reconciled by the blood of the 
typical sacrifice. 

In all this service Moses, by a special Divine 
commission, acts as the priest. Hence he is 
20 



spoken of in Ps. xcix. 6 as " among His priests," 
and Philo calls him a high-priest. He did not, 
however, wear the priestly garments, and strictly 
he was not a priest at all. He had hitherto acted 
as priest (Ex. xl. 23), although he had not be- 
fore offered a sin offering ; but now he was both 
less and more than a priest. Less, in that with 
this consecration his priestly functions abso- 
lutely ceased ; more, in that he now acts on God's 
behalf as the Mediator of the Old Covenant (Gal. 
iii. 19). The Aaronic priesthood was continued 
with its powers by hereditary succession ; but 
all chains must have a beginning, and all au- 
thority must have a giver. Here the first link 
of the chain, the beginning of all priestly autho- 
rity, is given by Moses acting under an express 
commission for this purpose, from the Almighty. 
Ii is to be remembered that all these sacrifices 
were consumed by fire kindled in the ordinary 
way, the fire "from before the Lord' (ix. 24) 
not having yet come forth. 

Vers. 18-21. The burnt offering differed in 
nothing from the ordinary burnt offering, al- 
though the victim was of a kind less commonly 
selected. 

Vers. 22-30. The peace offering, or ram of 
consecration. Any sacrificial animal might be 
offered in the ordinary peace offerings ; but a 
ram, as here, was required along with a bullock 
for the priestly peace offering immediately after 
their consecration (ix. 4-8), and a rnm alone at 
tlie fulfilment of the Nazarite vow (Num. vi. 14, 
17), and this also formed a part of the varied 
peace offerings of the princes after the dedica- 
tion of the altar and tabernacle (Num. vii. 17, 
23. etc.). 

Ver. 22. The ram of consecration, lit. 
"the ram of the fillings," i. e. with which the 
hands of Aaron and his sons were to be filled 
for the wave-offering, ver. 27, and by this phra- 
seology is the idea of consecration usually ex- 
pressed according to the Hebrew idiom (comp. 
the verb in Judg. xvii. 5, 12; 1 Kings xiii. 33; 
Ezek. xliii. 26, etc.). The LXX. renders it 
Kptbv Telec<!)aeac::=lhe ram of perfecting, inasmuch 
as this was the completion of the consecration, 
and signified that the priest was now enabled 
henceforth to offer sacrifice to God. Words- 
worth aptly compares it to the delivery of the 
Bible to one being ordained to the ministry in 
the early Christian Church to signify that he 
was now entitled to exercise his office of dispen- 
sing God's word to the people. Lange gives 
another view of the sense: "The fact that 
Aaron too, and his sons, belonged to the congre- 
gation, and with it must bring offerings of their 
fulness towards the support that they received 
from it, is expressed in the command that they 
shall offer a second ram as a sacrifice of Ful- 
nesses." And further; " Knobel gives Ordina- 
tion offering ; Keil, Peace offering. The peace or 
thank offering, however, was not brought until 
the eighth day, and all the particulars in this 
chapter belong to ordination offeringp. It is 
then the offering of the fulness of his emolu- 
ments, which indeed belongs to the true priestly 
character." 

Ver. 24. Upon the tip of their right ear. 
— Whether the upper or the lower extremity of 
the ear is meant is disputed, and is immaterial. 



74 



LEVITICtrS. 



"He touched the extreme points, which repre- 
eented the whole, of the ear, hand, and foot on 
the riglit, or more important and principal side: 
the ear because the priest was always to hearken 
to the word and commandment of God; the 
hand^ because he was to discharge the priestly 
functions properly ; and the foot, because he 
was to walk correctly in the sanctuary. Through 
this manipulation the three organs employed in 
the priestly service were placed, by means of 
their tips, en rapport with the sacrificial blood." 
Keil (quoted in part by Lange). By the subse- 
quent sprinkling of the same blood upon the 
altar all was associated especially with sacrifice, 
the pre-eminent priestly function. It is notice- 
able that the same parts of the cleansed leper 
were in the same way to be touched with the 
blood of his trespass offering (xiv. 14). In re- 
gard to the choice of the members on the right 
side, Theodoret (Qu. 8 in Lev.) significantly 
notes that "there are also left-handed actions 
and obedience of condemnation." 

Vers. '2.5-28. The ritual of the wave offering 
ia the same as in case of the ordinary peace 
offerings; only Aaron and his sons are here the 
offerers, and hence the portions waved were 
burned upon the altar, instead of being eaten 
by the priests. Lange says : '* The command is 
to be pnrticularly noticed, that the prophet 
should take this offering of the priests from 
their hands, and burn it upon the altar. The 
prophetical spirit must support the priesthood 
in the swinging and upheaving from the earth 
without which it is lost." 

Ver. 29. Moses took the breast. — This 
also he ^yaved for a Tvave offering, but not 
on Aaron's hands. This was done by special 
command, and was not the part belonging ordi- 
narily to the officiating priest himself, but to 
the pries'ly order generally. The parts belong- 
ing to the ofBciating priest were burned upon 
the altar : as if to show that Moses, by thus offi- 
ciating for the moment under a peculiar author- 
ization, did not become actually a priest, although 
he might be in some sense connected with the 
priestly order. 

Ver. 30. The sprinkling of Aaron and his sons 
and their garments once more, and now with 
the oil mingled with the blood of the sacrifice, 
completes the consecration service of this and 
each succeeding day. Lange : " The combina- 
tion of the anointing oil and the blood of the 
sacrifice, of the life of the Spirit and the joyful- 
ness of death, poured out over everything that 
was priestly, is here the typical ground-idea." 
This is the only unction of the sons of Aaron 
that is recorded ; but it seems quite enough to 
constitute them anointed priests. 

Ver. 31. Of the flesh of this sacrifice Aaron 
and his sons must eat ; but no one else might 
share with them (Ex. xxix. 33), not even Moses. 
In this it was sharply distinguished from the 
ordinary peace offering; and this distinction 
was further marked by the command that it 
should be eaten within the court of the taberna- 
cle, and that only on the same day, and in its 
accompanying oblation there was no leavened 
bread. It was a priestly peace offering, and 
was to be eaten by Aaron and his sons as incho- 
ate priests. 



Ver. 84. Rosenmiiller notes that " (he verb 
'ii&y is here to be taken passively, as often 
nON^ and Nip. See 1 Sam. xxiii. 22; Gen 

-T tIt 

xvi. 14." 

Vers. 32-85. Lange: "Seven days they were 
to pass in holy seclusion in the court, seven 
days they were to bring the appointed sacrifices 
and to live on their sacrifice of consecration • 
what remained of it might not be devoted to 
common uses, but must be burned. So for seven 
days they were to keep holy watch, the watch 
of Jehovah in the court of the tabernacle, under 
the penalty of death. Moses makes particularly 
prominent the symbolic force of this divine 
watch; it is Jehovah's express commandment. 
Keil makes plain, however, that they might still 
go out in certain emergencies." 

DOCTEINAL AND ETHICAL. 

I. The whole matter of atonement, both in 
the sacrifices and in the priesthood, depended 
upon the Divine appointment ; neither of them 
had any virtue or power to do away with human 
sin in themselves. Hence they could have been 
but types (since the Divine government is ever 
a reality), and looked forward to a Sacrifice 
which should have value, and a Priest who 
should have power, to accomplish in reality that 
which is here foreshadowed, and restore man to 
communion with God by giving him that holi- 
ness which is an essential prerequisite, and yet 
which of himself he can never attain. 

II. By the fact that none could be a priest 
except by Divine appointment was taught under 
the old dispensation the truth so much empha- 
sized in the new, that salvation is wholly of 
God's free grace. No sacrifice for sin could 
bleed, no priest could sprinkle the blood, except 
as God Himself allowed and commanded. 

III. Moses, who was not a. priest, who had 
never been anointed, consecrated Aaron, and by 
Divine command communicated to another that 
which he did not himself have. This illustrates 
the fact that God is not Himself limited by the 
limitations He has placed upon man. He can 
use for a priest one to whom the priesthood, ex- 
cept for this u'^e, has not been communicated. 

IV. Although God appointed, and Moses mi- 
nistered, yet must all the people be summoned 
to witness the consecration of the priests, and 
by their presence give their assent. This as all 
other parts of the Levitioal system was of the 
nature of a covenant. God alone could pro- 
claim the laws; but it is of the people to pro- 
mise obedience : God alone could constitute men 
priests ; but it is for the people to accept and 
avail themselves of their mediation. 

V. Lange on ver. 13 : " And now first are tbe 
assistants spoken of. The whole priesthood is 
concentrated in the anointed priest, the head 
priest, the high-priest: a symbol which has 
been fulfilled in Christ, but not a second time in 
an inferior symbol." 

VI. In this chapter of Leviticus and the cor- 
responding one of Exodus the consecration of 
Aaron is frequently expressed in the LXX. by 
the verb reT^ida and its derivative TekefMHtf, aM 
correspondingly, with express reference to this 



CHAP. VIII. 1-36. 



75 



law, the same word is applied to the conseora- 
tioQ of Christ in Heb. ii. 10 ; vii. 28. He was 
consecrated in the sufferings of the cross, and 
thenceforward continues our high-priest and 
intercessor for evermore. 

VII. The washing of Aaron and his sons, the 
linen drawers, and the linen tunic express as 
clearly and emphatically as is possible to sym- 
bolism the absolute necessity of inward purity 
in those who would draw near to God. 

VIXI. The culmination of the high-priest's 
vestments was in the golden plate on his fore- 
head, and on this was inscribed "holiness to 
the LoRB." This then was the culmination of 
the Levitieal, as of every other dispensation ; the 
one point towards which all lines of precept and 
of ceremony, of plain Divine command and of 
symbolical teaching converge is " Holiness to 
the Lord." 

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL. 

As Moses by Divine appointment was able to 
consecrate Aaron, so may any one, in the power 
of God, become to another the channel of grace 
which he himself may not possess ; one's own 
deficiencies are then no sufficient bar to work 
for others. Moses summoned all the people : 
there are none without interest in the means 
provided for the atonement for sin. The Sept. 
here (vers. 3, 4) used the word e/cKJ^^erjafu (var. 
led. sicKXiiaia), and this is the first place where 
that word or kiaOifiaia occurs ; Cyril of Jerusa- 
lem hence notes that the Church is thus presented 
to us first when Aaron, the type of Christ, is 
invested with the high-priesthood. Aaron was 
first washed, then vested ; Origen thereupon 
remarks (Hom. 6 in L'V. j 2) that except the 
Christian be washed from his sins, he cannot 
put on the Lord Jesus Christ. Comp. Rev. i. 5, 
6. "So our great High Priest was publicly 
inaugurated in the presence of a large multitude 

by His baptism So all Christians, who 

" are made priests to God " in Christ, are initi- 
ated into their priesthood in baptism." Wordsw. 
With the symbolical setting apart for holy uses 
of the sacred vessels compare the expressions in 
the N. Test, "chosen vessel " (Acts ix. 15), ves- 
sels to honor and to dishonor, and vessels of 
wrath (Rom. ix. 21-23), etc. " The ephod bear- 
ing the onyx stones on the shoulder straps, with 
the breast-plate containing the Urim and the 
Ihummim, is symbolic of the priestly function. 



. . . . The holy crown, with its legible and in- 
telligible motto, indicates the holiness and au- 
thority which appertain to the royal Priest. 
And in their correlation, the stones on the 
shoulder especially denote the priestly, those on 
the breast-plate the prophetic, and the golden 
plate on the forehead the kingly, function of the 
Mediator." Murphy. As Aaron and his sons 
must be anointed to become priests, so, says St. 
John, has Christ communicated an unction to 
the Christian which "abideth" in him (1 John 
ii. 20, 27). The three sacrifices of the consecra- 
tion, the sin, the burnt, and the peace offering, 
as they together represent the three-fold fulness 
of the one sacrifice of Christ, so do they point 
out the three-fold duty by which Christians may 
obtain the benefits of that sacrifice, and thereby 
become "priests unto God," vk. death unto sin, 
fulness of obedience, and communion with God. 
Aaron was consecrated by these sacrifices to be 
a priest " offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, 
which can never take away sins ;" but " Christ, 
"after He had offered one sacrifice for sins for- 
ever," "hath perfected (rercAEiu/cra, hath con- 
secrated as priests) forever them that are sanc- 
tified" (Heb. X. 14). Wordsworth. When Moses 
had gathered the people, he explained to them 
what he was about to do (ver. 5), that they 
might be intelligent witnesses ; so is the service 
of God ever a reasonable service. Aaron's ear, 
hand and foot were touched with the anointing 
oil as well as himself sprinkled ; so must each 
single faculty of those who have "the unction 
from the Holy One" be especially sanctified and 
consecrated to God's service, as well as the 
whole body soul and spirit be generally devoted 
to Him, for the general only becomes con- 
cretely real in the particulars. In the mingling 
of the blood and oil (ver. 30) for the anointing 
seems to be taught that not sacrifice for sin alone 
suffices; but that wiih this must be joined the 
unction of the Holy Spirit. If only sin is put 
out without anything being taken in, the house 
is but swept and garnished for its old occupant. 
With the watch of the now partially consecrated 
priests seven days in the court of the tabernacle, 
compare the waiting of the Apostles in Jerusa- 
lem after our Lord's ascension until endued at 
Pentecost with power from on high. And with 
this, too, compare the life-long watch of every 
Christian; he has already received an uSction 
from on high, but waits in this earthly taber- 
nacle until be shall be called at last to enter into 
the Holy of holies. 



76 LEVITICUS. 



SECOND SECTION. 

Entiance of Aaron and his Sons on their OfSce. 
Chap. IX. 1-24. 

1 And it came to pass on the eighth day, that Moses called Aaron and his Bona, 

2 and the elders^ of Israel ; and he said unto Aaron, Take thee a young [bull''] calf 
for a sin offering, and a ram for a burnt offering, without blemish, and offer them 

3 before the Lord. And unto the children' of Israel thou shalt speak, saying, Take 
ye a kid [buck^] of the goats for a sin offering ; and a calf and a lamb [sheep*] 

4 both of the first year, without blemish, for a burnt offering : also a bullock and a 
ram for peace offerings, to sacrifice before the Loed ; and a meat offering [an 
oblation^] mingled with oil : for to-day the Lord will appear unto you. 

5 And they brought that which Moses commanded before* the tabernacle of the 
congregation : and all the congregation drew near and stood before the Lord. 

6 And Moses said, This is the thing which the Lord commanded that ye should do:' 

7 and the glory of the Lord shall appear unto you. And Moses said unto Aaron, 
Go unto the altar, and offer thy sin offering, and thy burnt offering, and make an 
atonement for thyself, and for the people :' and offer the offering of the people, and 
make an atonement for them : as the Lord commanded. 

8 Aaron therefore went unto the altar, and slew the calf of the sin offering, which 

9 was for himself. And the sons of Aaron brought the blood unto him : and he 
dipped his finger in the blood, and put it upon the horns of the altar, and poured 

10 out the blood at the bottom of the altar : but the fat, and the kidneys, and the caul 
above the liver of the sin offering, he burnt upon the altar : as the Lord com- 

11 manded Moses. And the flesh and the hide he burnt with fire without the camp. 

12 And he slew the burnt offering ; and Aaron's sons presented unto him the blood, 

13 which he sprinkled round about upon the altar. And they presented the burnt 
offering unto him, with [according to°] the pieces thereof and the head: and he 

14 burnt them upon'" the altar. And he did wash the inwards and the legs, and burnt 
them upon the burnt offering on the altar. 

15 And he brought the people's offering, and took the goat, which was the sin offer- 
ing for the people, and slew it, and offered it for sin [a sin offering"], as the first 

16 And he brought the burnt offering, and offered it according to the manner [ordi- 

17 nance"]. And he brought the meat offering [oblation^], and took an handful 
thereof, and burnt it upon the altar, beside the burnt sacrifice of the morning. 

TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL. 

1 Ver. 1. For ^JpT the Sam. and LXX. read ''J3, but change the reading in the opposite way in ver. 3. BoBenmiU- 

ler considers these elders as the same with the rnU and the 7np of oh. viii. 
I T " tIt 

2 Ver. 2. "IpS-ja 7jJ^, lit. calf son o/n 6u!!— a buU calf, or yeariing bull. 

3 Ver. 3. D'-l;; ^y^iS- See note a on iv. 23. 

^ Vor. 3. See note 6 on ii. 7. 

' Ver. i. Oblation. See note ' on ii. 1. The Vulg. adds in eivffttlo tacrificiorum, for each of the sacriflcca. ' 

' Ver. 5. The A. V. more exactly expresses the Sam. 'jsb (comp. vers. 2, 4) than the Heb. ''J3-'7N. 

' Ver. 0. Horsley would here change the punctuation and read — which the Lord commanded : Do it, and the glory, 
etc.; but this would require also the insertion of a pronoun. 

* Ver. 7. For thepeople the LXX. reads tou oIkov trov. 

' Ver. 13. n''nn37=according to its pieces (into which the burnt offering was divided, i. 6). So the Ancient Version! 
generally. So Knobel and Keil. 

10 Ver. 13. The preposition S^ is wanting in the Sam. 

^* Ver. 15. The word of course bears either sense : but the context here clearly requires that of sin-offering. 

^ Ver. 16. [33K'p3. The margin is clearly better than the text of the A. V. The ordinance has been given in cli.t 



CHAP. IX. 1-2 1. 



77 



18 He slew also the bullock and the ram jor a sacrifice of peace offerings, which vim 
for the people : and Aaron's sons presented unto him the blood, which he sprinkled 

19 upon the altat round about, and the fat of the bullock and of the ram, the rump 
[fat tail"], and that which covereth the inwards, and the kidneys, and the caul 

20 ahove the liver : and they'* put the fat upon the breasts, and he burnt the fat upon 

21 the altar : and the breasts and the right shoulder Aaron waved for a wave offering 
before the Loed ; as Moses'* commanded. 

22 And Aaron lifted up his hand [hands'*] toward the people, and blessed them, 
and came down from offering of the sin offering, and the burnt offering, and peace 

23 offerings. And Moses and Aaron went into the tabernacle of the [pm. the] congre- 
gation, and came out and blessed the people : and the glory of the Lord appeared 
unto all the people. 

24 And there came a fire out from before the Loed, and consumed upon the altar 
the burnt offering and the fat : which when all the people saw," they shouted, and 
fell on their faces. 



1' Ver. 19. Fat tail. See note ' on iii. 9. 

1* Ver. 20. The Sam. has the sing., he put. 

M Ver. 21. The Sam., LXX., Targ. Onk. and 30 MS3. TVtfO IMi Ti\7Y HIS— as the Lord commanded Moses. 

T : T • 
w Ver. 22. The k'ri has n^ in the plural, according with the vowel points ; so 20 MSS. and all the ancient versions 

TT 

except the Sam. The plural is probably correct. 

17 Ver. 24. The Heb. verb is singular; but the Sam. has the plural. 



EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL. 

It is noticed by Nicholas de Lyra, that this 
chapter has three essential parts: (1) the com- 
mands (vers. 1-7); (2) the execution of them 
(vers. 8-22) ; (3) the Divine approbation of what 
was done (vers, 23, 24). The second part may 
be subdivided into Aaroa's offerings for himself, 
vers. 8-14 ; and his offerings for the people, vers. 
15-21. Here begins a new Proper Lesson of the 
law for reading in the Synagogue extending 
through ch. xi. ; the parallel Proper Lesson from 
the Prophets being 2 Sam. vi. 1 — vii. 17, which 
gives the account of David's bringing up the ark 
to Mt. Zion and his purpose to build a temple 
for it there. 

Ver. 1. On the eighth day, viz., from the 
beginning of Aaron's consecration. That had 
occupied seven days, and his eatrance upon his 
office now immediately followed on the next day, 
there being no cause for delay, and every reason 
why the priesthoood should be in the active ex- 
ercise of its duties at once. His priesthood was 
still somewhat inchoate, for he had yet dis- 
charged none of its functions, and had not en- 
tered into the sanctuary. This affects the cha- 
racter of the sacrifices prescribed. On the first 
day of the first month the tabernacle had been 
set up (Ex. xl. 17), and the Passover was kept 
on the fourteenth day (Num. ix. 2, 5) ; the seven 
days' consecration came between, and there re- 
mained therefore but a few days before the pre- 
paration for the Passover. We have no data for 
determining the day of the week. The elders 
of Israel are now summoned because they have 
to act officially in presenting the offerings for 
the people ; but doubtless the mass of the people 
were also, as far as might be, witnesses of the 
entrance of Aaron upon his ofSce (ver. 5, comp. 
ver. 24). 

Ver. 2. Take thee. — Aaron is to furnish bis 
own victims at his own proper cost. The victim 
for the sin offering was to be a bull calf, or 



quite young bullock, an inferior offering to that 
prescribed for the high-priest in iv. 3. For this 
various reasons have been assigned : as that this 
was not for any particular sin, but for general 
sinfulness (Poole and others) ; that it had refe- 
rence to Aaron and the people's sin in the golden 
calf (Ex. xxxii. ), and was designed to remind 
him and them of it (Maimonides, Patrick, Nioh. 
de Lyra, and others) ; that the greater sin offer- 
ing was unnecessary, as Aaron and his sons had 
spent the whole previous week in services of 
atonement and of holiness ; but the more im- 
portant reason is that given by Kalisch, " Not 
even on the eighth day had Aaron's dignity 
reached its full independence and glory ; it still 
remained, to a certain degree, under the control 
of Moses, who gave commands to his brother, as 
he had received them from God. Therefore 
Aaron was not permitted to pass beyond the 
court ; he was not yet qualified to appear in the 
immediate presence of God." In a word, the 
inohoatenees of his priesthood was marked in 
the victim and its ritual. A ram for a burnt 
ofiering. — Any male sacrificial animal was al- 
lowed for a burnt offering, but here the most 
impressive kind is not chosen for the reason just 
given. No peace offering is prescribed for the 
priests, because their share in the offerings of 
the people was quite enough for so small a com- 
pany, and sufficed for the common feast of com- 
munion with God. The order of the offerings, 
the sin offering first, the peace offering last, has 
been noticed in the previous chapter. 

Ver. 3. Thou shalt speak. — Moses now 
passes over to Aaron the duty of directing the 
people in their sacrifices as their appointed and 
consecrated high-priest. The offerings for the 
people are : first, the sin offering, which is not 
that prescribed for the sin of the whole people 
(iv. 14), but for the sin of a prince (iv. 23), the 
reason for which generally given is that this was 
not for a particular sin, but only for general sin- 
fulness; but it seems fit that this sin offering 
should have been reduced in proportion to 



LEVITICUS. 



Aaron's, and for the same reason. Second, the 
burnt offering, which was to consist of two vic- 
tims, and yet was much less than on occasions 
of special solemnity (Num. xxviii. 11, 27, etc.). 
Third, the peace offering, which was just enough 
for the purpose of the symbolical sacrificial feast, 
but yet too small for any considerable festivity 
in view of the solemn manifestation to follow 
(vers. 4, 6, 24). 

Ver. 6. Mosea, as before, explains what is to 
be done that thus the people may be intelligent 
witnesses. He announces beforehand (he ap- 
pearance of the glory of the LORD (see ver. 
23), showing that he did all this by appointment, 
and when it appeared it thus establisiied his au- 
thority ; and also that the people, by these sa- 
crifices, might be prepared for this manifestation. 
"The crown of this typical worship was to consist 
in this : To-day the LORD will appear to 
you ; and again, this is the thing 'which the 
LORD hath commanded that ye should do, 
and the glory of the Lord shall appear to 
you." Lange. 

Ver. 7. Go unto the altar. — Aaron is now 
to enter upon his office, and for the first time 
ascend the slope of the altar. Make an atone- 
ment for thyself and for the people. — This 
is distinct from the atonement for the people in 
the sacrifice of their sin offering, mentioned in 
the next clause, and finds its explanation in that 
guilt brought upon the people by the sin of the 
high-priest (iv. 3). So Keil rightly. For this 
Aaron was to atone in making his own atone- 
ment, and then afterwards to offer for their own 
sins. Lange says, " The subsequent command 
in regard to these offerings has this import : with 
his especial sacrifice Aaron should atone for 
himself and for the people as a whole (DJ?n), 
but with the sacrifice of the congregation, he 
should atone for each single member of the con- 
gregation." 

Vers. 8-11. Aaron first offers his own sin of- 
fering, his sons assisting him in those duties 
which were afterwards assigned to the Levites. 
The ritual is the same as that provided in ch. 
iv., except that the blood is not brought into the 
Sanctuary (into which Aaron had not yet en- 
tered, comp. ver. 23), for the reasons given un- 
der ver. 2 ; but the flesh and hide is neverthe- 
less burnt without the camp as required in iv. 
11, 12, the victim is slain by Aaron, — either by 
himself, or by his assistants, — (ver. 8) as in the 
other high -priestly sin offerings (iv. 1,2,4) and the 
blood is put with bis finger upon the horns of 
the altar as in case of the other regular sin offer- 
ings (iv. 25, 30, 34). 

Vers. 12-14. The burnt offering for Aaron and 
his sons was offered in the regular way accord- 
ing to the ordinance of ch. i. After being divided 
the pieces were presented to Aaron, one by one, 
by his sons to be laid upon the altar. No men- 
tion is made of an oblation with this sacrifice, 
either because it is supposed as of course, or 
else because it actually was not brought, the law 
of Num. XV. 4 not having yet been given. 

Vers. 15-21. The sacrifices for the people fol- 
low in the same order. In regard to all the pre- 
vious offerings it is expressly said that Aaron 
burnt them ; the same thing is also said (ver. 20) 



of the parts of the peace offering that were des- 
tined for the altar, and it is clearly implied in 
regard to the others by the expression as the 
first (ver. 15) in regard to the sin offering ; and 
in regard to the burnt offering, both by the 
statement of ver. 16, and by the mention of the 
burning of the accompanying oblation in ver. 
17. These were all therefore burned at first by 
fire kindled by ordinary means. It would, how- 
ever, thus have taken many hours to consume 
them in the ordinary way, and the miracle of 
ver. 24 refers to their being immediately con- 
sumed by the " fire from before the Lord." The 
LXX., however, in vers. 13 and 17, instead of 
burnt renders laid, and this seems to have been 
in the mind of Lange when he says "Aaron has 
laid all the pieces rightly upon the altar of burnt 
offering, and blessed the people from the elevated 
position of the steps (stiege) of the altar. The 
sacrifice is ready, this is the part of the priestly 
body ; but the fire must come from the Loed." 
In regard to the burning instead of eating the 
flesh of the sin offering, see x. 16-20. 

Ver. 17. The burnt sacrifice of the morn- 
ing. — Was this the regular morning sacrifice of 
the lamb offered by Aaron after the sacrifices for 
himself and before those for the people, but not 
otherwise mentioned because it was of course' 
Or is it identical with the lamb of the burnt of- 
fering for the people, so that the morning sacri- 
fice to be offered ever after is here inaugurated, 
as is argued by Murphy ? The former view 
seems the more probable both because the offer- 
ing of the morning sacrifice had already been 
begun by Moses (Ex. xl. 29) upon the first erec- 
tion of the tabernacle and before Aaron's conse- 
cration ; and because the lamb of this offering 
is evidently spoken of (ver. 3) as a part of the 
special burnt offering for the people on this oc- 
casion. 

Ver. 22. Lifted up his bands. — In pro- 
nouncing a blessing upon an individual it was 
customary to lay the hands upon his bead (Gen. 
xlviii. 14, etc.) ; but this being impossible in the 
case of a multitude, the custom was to lift the 
hands, as was also often done in other prayers, 
and this custom has been most scrupulously pre- 
served in the Jewish usages to the present day. 
Hands rather than hand is the more probable read- 
ing, and is also accordant with the Jewish tradi- 
tion. No command had been given for this act, 
but it was a natural sequence of the entrance of 
Aaron upon his office, a part of which was to 
bless the people in the name of the Lord. The 
blessing was pronounced while Aaron stood upon 
the elevated slope (not steps, Ex. xx. 26) of the 
altar. In the following words, came down 
from ofiering, we have a further evidence that 
the victims had been actually laid upon the fire. 

Ver. 23. Went into the tabernacle.— 
Moses enters, not as priest, but to complete the 
initiation of Aaron into his duties ; for the latter 
had not yet entered the sanctuary. Much of 
the priestly duty, the burning of incense, the 
trimming of the sacred lamps, the ordering of the 
shew-bread, etc., was hereafter to be within the 
tabernacle, and it was necessary that Aaron 
should be exactly instructed in all these matters. 
According to the Targum of Jonathan, they went 
in to pray for the promised manifestation of the 



CHAP. IX. 1-24. 



79 



glory of the Lord ; and it is not unlikely that 
the two brothers, the one the leader and lawgiver 
of Israel, now entering the sanctuary for the last 
time, and the other the appointed high-priest 
now entering for the first time, should then have 
united in solemn prayer for God's blessing upon 
the people. On their return, Moses laying down 
his temporary priestly functions, and Aaron 
taking up his permanent office, jointly blessed 
the people. (Comp. 2 Chron. vi. 3). In Numb. 
vi. 24-26 is prescribed the exact form of priestly 
benediction used ever afterwards ; but there is 
no evidence that this form was now employed. 
One tradition makes the form like that of Ps. xo. 
17 ; the Targums of Jonathan and Jerusalem 
give the following: "The Word of the Lord re- 
ceive your oflfering with good pleasure, and may 
He overlook and pardon your sins." 

And the glory of the Lord appeared. — 
This is sometimes considered as included in the 
fire of the following verse, but more generally 
and more probably is looked upon as some glo- 
rious manifestation in the cloud which covered 
the tabernacle (comp. Ex. xl. 34, 35), out of 
which came forth the fire. So Lange. 

Ver. 24. There came a fire. — Similarly was 
the Divine approbation of sacrifices several times 
expressed in after ages, in the fire from the rook 
consuming Gideon's sacrifice; in the fire which 
fell upon the sacrifice of Elijah (1 Kings xviii. 
38) ; in the answer to David's prayer at the 
threshing floor of Oman by fire from heaven upon 
his altar (1 Ohr. xxi. 26); and in the like fire 
consuming the sacrifices at Solomon's dedication 
of the temple (2 Chr. vii. 1). According to Jew- 
ish tradition the fire thus kindled was kept ever 
burning (whether by natural or supernatural 
means, the Rabbis differ) until the temple was 
built; then again kindled in the same way, it 
continued to burn until the reign of Manasseh. 
But it is to be remembered that the fire was not 
now first kindled upon the altar, but had already 
been burning there more than a week. How- 
ever fully therefore it expressed the Divine ap- 
probation, and however reasonably the Israel- 
ites might wish to perpetuate such a fire, there 
is yet, as Keil justly remarks, no analogy be- 
tween this and the legends of the heathen about 
altar fires kindled by the gods themselves. See 
the references in Knobel : Serv. ad (En. 12, 200 ; 
Solin. 5, 23; Pausan. 5, 27, 3; Sueton. Lib. 14; 
Amm. Marc. 23, 6, 34. It is possible that this 
coming forth of the fire may have had a further 
object. In the Pantheistic philosophies of the 
East, fire was regarded as the universal principle 
of the Cosmos, and as inherent in all things. It 
is not likely that the Israelites, at this stage of 
their history, were brought into contact with 
this philosophy ; but by this act they were taught 
that fire itself was sent from the Lord, and were 
thus guarded beforehand against these Panthe- 
theistic notions, which at a later period they 
must encounter. 

Consumed upon the altar the burnt of- 
fering and the fat. — Patrick argues that this 
must have been at the time of the evening sacri- 
fice, at which time also he shows that all the 
other instances of fire from heaven upon the sa- 
crifice probably occurred, and that the burnt 
offering consumed was the lamb of the evening 



sacrifice. But the phraseology, the burnt of- 
fering and the fat, seems unmistakably to 
point to the burnt oifering for the people and the 
fat of the peace offering already burning upou 
the altar. With the evening sacrifice there was 
no offering of fat apart from the lamb itself. 

They shouted in wonder, thanksgiving auj 
praise, and fell on their faces to worship with 
joyful awe as in 2 Uhrou. vii. 3. 

The views of Lange upou this verse are ex- 
pressed in the following extract: "And now 
comes Fire from the Lord, that is, still out of the 
tabernacle of the Covenant, and blazes upon the 
altar and consumes the offering. So speaks the 
primitive energetic faith, in wliicU the medium 
of the Divine operation merges itself in the ope- 
ration of God. It is the essential thing in the 
hierarchical, literal faith that every medium 
should be supposed to be away. Hence is the 
stone of the first tables of the law and the imme- 
diate writing of God; and we come on the path 
of priestly tradition down to the Easter fire in 
the Church of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem. 
On the other hand, the medium is everything to 
the critical, negative, literal faith : for it, the 
matter is legend. But the primitive, religiously- 
inclined people, saw in the shining figures of 
Moses and Aaron, who came back out of the 
Sanctuary, and in the flaming up of the sacrifi- 
cial fire, the glory of the Lord whose appearance 
from the Holy of Holies Moses and Aaron had 
besought. It was the first lifting up of the highly 
significant fire flame in their worship, whose 
typical prefiguration should be fulfilled in the 
atoning fiery operation over the cross of Christ, 
and — not frightened— but joyously, all the peo- 
ple fell on their faces." 

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL. 

I. In Aaron's sin offering for himself and his 
sons, immediately after his consecration, and as 
his first priestly act, is shown most strikingly 
the imperfection of the Levitical priesthood. 
" This offering was probably regarded not so 
much a. sacrifice for his own actual sins, as a ty- 
pical acknowledgment of his sinful nature and 
of his future duty to offer for his own sins and 
those of the people " (Clark). " The law maketh 
men high-priests which have infirmity ; but the 
word of the oath, which was since the law, 
maketh the Son, who is consecrated forever- 
more." Heb. vii. 28. 

II. If this was true of the high-priest, d, fortiori, 
it was true of all other provisions of the Leviti- 
cal law. " If, according to this, even after the 
manifold expiation and consecration which Aaron 
had received through Moses during the seven 
days, he had still to enter upon his service with 
a sin offering and a burnt offering, this fact 
clearly showed that the offerings of the law could 
not ensure perfection (Heb. a. 1 sqq.)." Keil. 

III. The commentary upon this chapter bring- 
ing out its doctrinal significance, is to be found 
especially in the Ep. to the Heb. As other 
points are there brought out strikingly, so is this: 
"And no man taketh this honor unto himself, 
but he that is called of God, as was Aaron. So 
also Christ glorified not Himself to be mada an 
high-priest." Heb. t. 4, 5. 



80 



LEVITICUS. 



IV. la the appointment, in the oonseoration, 
and in the entrance of Aaron upon his ofScial 
duties, his mediatorial functions are everywhere 
distinctly recognized. Thus is the neceHSity set 
forth of a Mediator between God and man, and 
as distinctly as was possible under a typical sys- 
tem is foreshadowed the otiioe of Him who came 
to be man's true mediator with God. 

V. In every possible way, by dress, by ablu- 
tions, by inscriptions on Aaron's frontlet, by 
varied sacrifice, the necessity of holiness in 
man's approach to God is declared. Yet this 
could only be typically attained by sinful man. 
Very plainly therefore did Aaron and liis office 
point forward to that Seed of the woman who 
should bruise the serpent's head, and obtain the 
final victory in man's long struggle with the 
power of evil. 

VI. In the order of the offerings of Aaron both 
for himself and the people is clearly expressed 
the order of the steps of approach to God ; first, 
the forgiveness of sin, then the consecration 
completely to God, and after this communion 
with Him, and blessing from Him. 

HOMILETICAL AND PKACTICAL. 

Moses, the great leader and law-giver of Is- 
rael, retires from his temporary priestly func- 
tions, and delivers them over to Aaron without 
a murmur, content to fulfil the Divine will. So 
John the Baptist found hia joy fulfilled in that 



he must decrease while his Master increased 
(Jno. iii. 30). Moses did not seek to retain an 
ofllce to which God had not called him, comp, 
Num. xvi.; Acts xix. 13-15 ; Heb. v. 4; Jude 11. 

The " glory of the Lord " appeared, and was 
also manifested in Solomon's temple ; the second 
temple was without it, and yet it was promised 
(Hag. ii. 9) that the glory of the latter temple 
should be greater than of the former. This was 
fulfilled when He whose glory was " as of the 
Only Begotten of the Father" appeared in His 
temple. And again, after the consecration of 
the Great High-Priest on Calvary, and His en- 
trance by His ascension into the true sanctuary, 
the glory of the Lord was manifested at Pente- 
cost. Wordsworth. 

As Aaron after the sacrifice blessed the people 
before entering the sanctuary ; so Christ, after 
His sacrifice upon the cross, blessed His disci- 
ples (Luke xxiv. 50) before passing into the 
heavens to continue there our Priest and Inter- 
cessor forevermore. 

The g'ory appeared and the fire came forth 
after the consecration of the high-priest, and 
after his sacrifice, and after he bad entered the 
sanctuary ; even as the fire of Pentecost came 
after Christ's consecration in His sacrifice of 
Himself, and after He had passed into the hea- 
vens. And as the fire in the tabernacle showed 
the Divine approbation of the Levitical system, 
so that of Pentecost expressed His good pleasure 
in the Christian. 



THIRD SECTION. 



The Sin and the Punishment of Nadab and Abihu, v^ith Instructions founded upon 

that Event. 

Chapter X. 1-20. 

1 And Nadab and Abihu, the' sons of Aaron, took either of them his censer, and 
put fire therein,^ and put incense thereon,^ and offered strange fire before the Loed, 

2 which he commanded them not. And there went out fire from the Lord, and 

3 devoured them, aud they died before the Lord. Then Moses said unto Aaron, 
This is it that the Lord spake, saying, I will be sanctified in them that come nigh 

4 me, and before all the people I will be glorified. And Aaron held his peace. And 
Moses called Mishael and Elzaphan, the sons of Uzziel the uncle of Aaron, and 
said unto them. Come near, carry your brethren from before the sanctuary out of 

5 the camp. So they went near, and carried' them in their coats out of the camp ; 
as Moses had said. 

6 And Moses said unto Aaron, and unto Eleazer and unto Ithamar, his* sons, IJn- 



TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL. 

1 Ver. 1. Three MSS., followed by the Vat. LXX., rsad " the two sons." 

2 Ver. 1. In the Heb. the first pronoun, tn3, is plural, while the second, rf SjJ.is singular. 16 MSS., theSam.LXX. 

I ■• T T V T 

and Syr, have the latter in the plural. 

« Ver, 6. OKE^'V The fuller form QnX INE^'I is given in the Sam. 

— T .. .^ 

* Ver. 6. One M3.. followed by the LXX. and Syr. specifies " his remaining sons." 



CHAP. X. 1-20. 



8] 



cover' not your heads, neither rend your clothes ; lest ye die, and lest wrath come 

upon all the people : but let your brethren, the whole house of Israel, bewail the 
7 burning which the Lord hath kindled. And ye shall not go out from the door of 

the tabernacle of the congregation, lest ye die : for the anointing oil of the Lord 

is upon you. And they did according to the word of Moses. 
8, 9 And the Lord spake unto Aaron,' saying. Do not drink wine nor strong drink, 

thou, nor thy sons with thee, when ye go into the tabernacle of the congregation, 

10 lest ye die : it shall be a statute for ever throughout your generations : and' that ye 
may put difference between holy and unholy [common*], and between unclean and 

11 clean : and that ye may teach the children of Israel all the statutes which the Lord 
hath spoken unto them by the hand of Moses. 

12 And Moses spake unto Aaron, and unto Eleazar and unto Ithamar, his sons that 
were left, Take the meat offering [oblation*] that remaineth of the offerings of the 
Lord made by fire, and eat it without leaven beside the altar : for it is most holy : 

13 and ye shall eat it in the [a] holy place, because it is thy due, and thy sons' due, 

14 of the sacrifices of the Lord made by fire : for so I am commanded. And the wave 
breast and heave shoulder [leg'"] shall ye eat in a clean place ; thou, and thy sons, 
and thy daughters with thee : for they be thy due, and thy sons' due, which are given 

15 out of the sacrifices of peace offerings of the children of Israel. The heave shoul- 
der [leg'"] and the wave breast shall they bring with the offerings made by fire of 
the fat, to wave it for a wave offering before the Lord ; and it shall be thine, and 
thy sons'" with thee, by a statute for ever ; as the Lord hath commanded. 

16 And Moses diligently sought the goat of the sin offering, and, behold, it was 
burnt : and he was augry with Eleazar aod Ithamar, the sons of Aaron, whieh were 

17 left alive, saying. Wherefore have ye not eaten the sin offering in the holy place, 
seeing it is most holy, and God hath given"' it you to bear the iniquity of the con- 

18 gregation, to make atonement for them" before the Lord ? Behold, the blood of 
it was not brought in within the holy place : ye should indeed have eaten it in the 

19 [a"] holy place, as I'^ commanded. And Aaron said unto Moses, Behold, this day 
have they offered their sin offering and their burnt offering before the Lord ; and 
such things have befallen me : and if I had eaten the sin offering to day, should 

20 it have been accepted in the sight of the Lord ? And when Moses heard that, 
he was content.'* 

' Ver. 6. HUTSn-'jX- Tbe A. V., ye thall not uncover is quite correct, and is the sense given in most of the ancient 
Tersions ; but the Targ. of Onlcelos, followed hy several Jewish and other commentators, gives the very different sense ye 
ehati not let your hair yrim, derived from the use of ^"13. Kum. vi, 5 = hair. 

« Ver. 8. Bight MaS. suhstitute the name of Moses for that of Aaron. The variation is unimportant ; for, as Boothroyd 
suggests, the communication to Aaron may have been made through Moses. _ i^i, -»r i * 

' Ter. 10. The mid at the beginuiog ot ver. 10 is omitted in the Sam. and all other ancient versions except the Vulgate. 

» Ter. 10. ^'x\r\ is in contrast to lylpn and means simply that which ia not especially consecrated. The word com- 
mon conveys the sense better than unholy. 

» Ter. 12. Oblation. See Textual Note 2 on ii. 1. 

'!> Vers. H, 15. Leg. See Text. Note ^ on vii. 32. 

" Ter. 15. The Sam. and LXX. add and thy daughters', as in ver. 14. 

^ Ter. 17. The Syr. reads in the 1st person, J have given. 

^ Ter. 17. Thirteen MSS. read /or yoa in the 2d person. 

" Tor. 18. The Masoretio punctuation of WlbS tere indicates the article ; it would seem proper, however, to omit it 
Wording to invariable usage. All the versions make a distinction between the sanctuary, into which the blood bad not 
been carried, and the court where the flesh should have been eaten. We can only express this by a change oJtbe article. 

IS Ver. 18. Most of the versions have the passive, as I was commanded, and the LXX, ov rpoTiov fioi <rui'eTii{e iciipios. 

" Ter. 20. BoseumUller notes that "3D"n seribitija- hie ii-ojiaAiu yro 2y"n." 

quaoy of the typical sacrifice has soon come to 
light." Lange. 

The events of this chapter occurred on the 
same day as those of the preceding (see ver. 19), 
that is on the day after their consecration when 
Aaron and his sons first entered upon the dis- 
charge of their priestly functions. Moses there- 
lore still appears here, as in ch. ix., in a pecu- 
liar relation as introducing the new-made priesta 
to their duties, taking care that all things should 
be rightly done, and communicating to them 
further instructions (vers. 3, 5, lii, Iti). 



EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL. 

"We should expect here immediately the 
"iesoriptiou of a great thank ofi'ering feast of 
the people. But instead of this we are told of 
a great misfortune which closes a sacrificial 
feast disturbed in the yery beginning. The 
story is not of the thank offering feast of the 
people, the festal meal of the installation of the 
priests. The joy of the people was very soon 
destroyed by anxiety and fear; for the inade- 



82 



LEVITICUS. 



Vers. 1-5. The sin, death and burial of Nadab 
and Abihu. 

Ver. 1. Nadab and Abihu, being mentioned 
first in the genealogies (Ex. vi. 23; Num. xxvi. 
60), are supposed lo have been Aaron's eldest 
sons. They had been selected to aooompany 
Moses and Aaron and the seventy elders in the 
beatific vision of Ex. xxiv. 1, 9. Wordsworth 
suggests that "perhaps they were 'exalted 
above measure through the abundance of their 
revelations' (2 Cor. xii. 7), and were tempted 
to imagine that they were not bound by ordinary 
rules in the discharge of the duties of the 
priest's office." 

His censer. — iriiino. This is the first time 
the word is translated censer in the A. V., be- 
cause it has occurred before only in connecliou 
with the golden candlestick (Ex. xxv. 38 ; 
xxxvii. 23), or as a pan for receiving the ashes 
from the brazen altar (Ex. xxvii. 3 ; xxxviii. 3). 
There can be no doubt, however, that it is 
rightly translated here in a sense in which it 
frequently occurs afterwards; but the fact that 
there is no previous mention of censers adds lo 
the probability of some unrecorded command 
having already been given in regard to the 
offering of incense. The word H^CDj^D for cen- 
ser is much later, occurring only 2 Chron. xxvi. 
19; Ezek. viii. 11. 

Put incense thereon. — Incense was to be 
burned upon the golden altar twice daily; in 
the morning, when the lamps of the golden can- 
dlestick were trimmed, and in the evening when 
they were lighted (Ex. xxx. 7, 8). It does not 
certainly appear from the narrative at what 
time the act of Nadab and Abihu occurred ; but 
from the abundance of events that had already 
occurred on this day, it is not unlikely that the 
latter time was at hand. The unseasonableness 
of the time assigned by many commentators 
(Keil and others) as a part of their sin cannot 
therefore be maintained. — And offered strange 
fire. — The sin of Nadab and Abihu is always 
described in the same terms (Num. iii. 4; xxvi. 
61); but in precisely what it consisted has been 
the occasion of much difference of opinion. By 
many (Kurtz and others) it is supposed to have 
consisted in the offering of incense not prepared 
according to the directions given in Ex. xxx. 34 ; 
but this would rather have been called "strange 
incense" as in Ex. xxx. 9, and it does not seem 
likely that the new priests, who had now been 
eight days in the court of the tabernacle, would 
have had ready access to any other incense, 
whereas other fire than that of the altar must 
have been in the court for cooking the flesh' of 
the sacrifices. By others (as Keil) the sin is 
supposed to have been in offering the incense at 
a lime not appointed; but it does not appear 
why such a fault should have been described as 
"strange fire," and moreover, as shown above, 
it seems not unlikely that it was actually the 
proper time for the burning of the evening in- 
cense. Knobel thinks that Nadab and Abihu 
proposed, of their own motion, to prepare an 
incense offering to accompany the shouts of the 
multitude as they saw the Divine fire fall upon 
the sacrifice — which may or may not have been 
the fact, as there is no evidence upon the point. 



Another supposition of Knobel must be abso- 
lutely rejected as at variance with the tenor of 
the narrative: "or, frightened by the consu- 
ming fire, ix. 24. they considered an appeasing 
of 6od necessary." It is better to follow the 
general opinion, and take the expression just as 
it is given, making their sin to have consisted 
in offering strange fire^ that is fire other than 
that commanded. " The chief thing is that the 
strange or common fire forms a contrast to the 
fire of the Sanctuary." Lange. So Rosenmiiller, 
Outram (1. xvi. 13), and others. In vi. 12 it is 
required that the fire should be always burning 
upon the altar, and as this fire was for the con- 
sumption of the sacrifices, it would naturally be 
understood for the burning of the incense; in 
xvi. 12 it is expressly prescribed for the incense 
on the great day of atonement, and it became a 
part of the symbolism of the sanctuary service 
(Rev. viii. 5). The fact that no command on 
this point of detail is anywhere recorded does 
not preclude the supposition that such a com- 
mand had been given. At all events, the gene- 
ral principle of exact conformity to the Divine 
commands should have prevented Nadab and 
Abihu from offering " strange " or uncommanded 
fire before the Lord. 

As to the causes which led them to commit 
this sin, the narrative is equally silent ; but the 
connection of the precept in ver. 9 with this 
event seems to imply that there had been some 
violation of it. (See Targ. Hieros., Nic. de Lyra, 
Patrick, etc.) This might have concurred with 
already existing spiritual pride and self-will, 
or have temporarily produced them. "From 
vers. 8, 9, it is likely that they had lost their 
soberness in the feast which had begun." 
Lange. But however this may have been. Von 
Gerlach's remark is in place: "By this connec- 
tion is taught, that as no external event was to 
depress with grief the priest, so ought he to ap- 
ply no artificial means to his senses to produce 
exhilaration : his whole thoughts and attention 
are to be directed to the sacred offices which 
are commanded him. We are reminded of the 
antithesis, Eph. v. 18." In the expression 
'which he commanded them not, Rosen- 
miiller notes a /leiuai^ of frequent occurrence, 
meaning " which He forbade." 

Ver. 2. Fire from the LORD.— Plainly a 
miraculous fire as that which consumed the sac- 
rifice (ix. 24). It did not consume iheir bodies, 
or even their clothes (ver. 5), and it must have 
been by an inadvertence that Lange says: "If 
they came thus strongly excited with their 
glowing fire into the half darkness of the sanc- 
tuary, they may have set themselves a-fire, by 
which they were destroyed." 

The severity of this judgment may be com- 
pared with that upon TJzza (2 Sam. vi. 7; 1 
Chron. xiii. 10), upon the Sabbath-breaker 
(Num. XV. 32-36), or in the New Testament with 
that upon Ananias and Sapphira. In all these 
cases the punishment was not determined so 
much by the aggravation of the offence itself M 
by the necessity of vindicating God's majesty 
and by a signal judgment on the first occasion, 
preventing a repetition of the offence. In such 
cases it is very necessary to separate the tem- 
poral from the thought of eternal punishmei'' 



CHAP. X. 1-20. 



Philo (as quoted by Calmet) undoubtedly pushes 
this too far when he says : " The priests Nadab 
and Abihu died that they might live, receiving 
an incorruptible for their mortal life, and pass- 
ing from creatures to their Creator;" but yet 
we may not argue from temporal punishment to 
eternal doom, and the recollection of this may 
often serve to remove much of the iusorutable- 
ness of the Divine judgments. 

Ver. 3. This it is that the LORD spake 
— not in precisely these words, but again and 
again in their substance. See £x. xxix. 44.; 
xix. 22; Lev. viii. 33. Yet the very words may 
have been spoken, although not recorded, as in 
Ex. xxxiii. 12. Priests are continually desig- 
nated as those that "come nigh" to God (e.g. 
Ezek. xlii. 13). — I ■will be sanctified. — Comp. 
Ex. xix. 4, 6. " The law of the sanctuary is 
proclaimed to mean : that all approach to Jeho- 
vah of those who draw near to Him, of the 
priests in the holy acts of sacrifice, has the pur- 
pose of showing forth Jehovah in His holiness, 
i. e. in His pure and strict and all-folly-abhor- 
ring personality ; and this hallowing of His 
name in highest solitude should have the result 
of revealing Him before all the people in His 
majesty, in the glory of His manifestation. The 
pure and brilliant exterior of the Cultus depends 
in its purity and ohasteness upon the most per- 
fect interior parity and truth. But when Moses 
applies this law to the present mishap, it ex- 
presses the truth that it is fulfilled not only in 
the pure service of God of good priests, but also 
in the unclean service of evil priests. Should 
these, for example, bring before the Lobd, in 
passion or excitement, strange fire, fire of the 
intoxication of extravagance, fire of fanaticism, 
they should be seized and consumed by that fire 
changed, as it were, into the fire of the judgment 
of Jehovah ; and also by such judgments on such 
priests Jehovah should be glorified before all 
Hia people — as it has always clearly been, espe- 
cially to-day. How many a, Protestant zealot 
has screamed himself dead in the sanctuary ! 
But the mediaeval priests began to burn them- 
selves when they kindled the flames of the pyres." 
Lange. 

Aaron held his peace means not only that 
he abstained from the customary wails and cries 
of the mourner; but that he uttered no murmur 
against the judgment of God, or remonstrance 
against the law as set forth by Moses. This 
may perhaps have been made easier to him by 
the stunning effect of so great and sudden a 
bereavement. 

Ver. 4. The sons of ITzzlel. — From Ex. vi. 
18 it would appear that Uzziel was the youngest 
of Aaron's three uncles. Brethren is used, as 
BO frequently in Scripture, in the sense of kins- 
men. Elzaphan was the "chief" of his father's 
house. Num. iii. 30. — Prom before the sanc- 
tuary. — Notwithstanding the Jewish tradition 
that they perished within the sanctuary, it ap- 
pears'from this expression that the Divine judg- 
ment fell upon them while they were still in the 
court. " They buried the dead in their linen 
co^ts : these priestly garments had been defiled 
with the dead bodies, and were buried with 
them. There is nothing else degrading in the 
form of burial. The burial without the camp 



was common for all corpses. The buriers were 
also reminded that the dead were their breth- 
ren." Lange. This was now the eighth day of 
the month ; the Passover lamb was to be slain 
on the 14th. Mishael and Elzaphan were there- 
fore unable to keep the Passover on account of 
their defilement by a dead body, for this la.sted 
seven days (Num. xix. 11-13). In view of these 
facts Blunt suggests ( Undesigned Coincidences, I. 
14) that it was the case of these Levites which 
was considered and provided for by the law of 
the Passover of the second month. Num. ix. 6-12. 

Vers. 6, 7. All signs of mourning are forbid- 
den to the priests. By a subsequent enactment 
these were in all oases perpetually forbidden to 
the high-priest (xxi. 10-12), but in moderation 
allowed to the ordinary priests for those nearest 
of kin (ib. 1-6). Here, however, they are abso- 
lutely forbidden to both, doubtless because "any 
manifestation of grief on account of the death 
that had occurred would have indicated dissatis- 
faction with the judgment of God" (Keil) ; "be- 
cause, from their office, they were especially 
concerned as consecrated priests in outwardly 

maintaining the honor of Jehovah The 

people, on the other hand, as not formally stand- 
ing so near to Jehovah, were permitted to 
be'wail the burning vrhich the Lord had 
kindled" (Cook). 

Uncover not your heads. — This is the 
sense of the LXX. and Vulg., and means that 
they were not to remove their priestly turbans, 
as they were still to go directly on with their 
priestly functions. The word means literally to 
set free, and it may therefore have here the added 
sense, "do not go about with your hair dishe- 
velled, or flowing free and in disorder (xiii. 45)." 
Keil. Both this and the rending of the clotlies 
were among the most common signs of mourning 
among the Jews. 

Lest V7rath come upon all the people. — . 
They were to observe this precept not only for 
their own sake — lest ye die — but also for the 
people's. It has already been shown (iv. 3) that 
the sin of the high-priest, as their theocratic 
head, brought guilt upon the people, and in- 
volved them in the consequent punishment ; in 
this case emphatically it must do so, because 
Aaron and his remaining sous were now the sole 
appointed mediators with God, and any mark 
of dissatisfaction with His judgments would 
have placed them in an attitude of opposition to 
God. 

Though the priests might not turn aside from 
their sacred functions, yet Nadab and Abihu 
were not to go unmourned. The TArhole house 
of Israel were to bewail the burning — not 
indeed as murmuring against the Divine judg- 
ment, but yet as recognizing that a sad calamity 
had befallen them. 

Ver. 7. Ye shall not go out — vii.: for the 
purpose of accompanying the remains of the 
slain priests to their grave, and in any way 
ceasing from their sacred functions on their ac- 
count. A like command is made of perpetual 
obligation upon the high-priest in xxi. 12. The 
reason is given — for the anointing oil of the 
LORD is upon you; consecrated wholly to 
His service, they might not turn aside from it 
for any purpose. Comp. Matt. viii. 22. 



84 



LEVITICUS. 



Ver. 8. Spake unto Aaron. — Either through 
MoseB (see Textual note 6) ; or else Aaron, being 
now fully constituted high-priest, and having 
shown his submission in what had just occurred, 
was made directly the recipient of a Divine eom- 
municaiion concerning the duties of the priests. 

Vers. 9-11. Strong drink.— Heb. IJEJ used 
apparently in Num. xxviii. 7 as a, synonym for 
wine, but generally taken for an intoxicating 
drink prepared from grain or honey, or espe- 
cially from palms. The prohibition of wine and 
strong drink to the priests is only in connection 
with their service in the tabernacle. For the 
present this must have amounted to an almost 
absolute prohibition, as the service of Aaron and 
his two sons could have been little less than con- 
tinuous; but as the priesthood multiplied, of 
course the time of service for each of them was 
reduced. The connection of this precept with 
what goes before and what follows seems almost 
necessarily to imply that it was called forth by 
some violation of it on the part of Nadab and 
Abihu. This supposition, Lange saya, "is made 
probable by the otherwise unexplained command 
here given, and thus indeed the outward strange 
fire was only the symbol of the inner strange fire 
of wine-produced enthusiasm, which so often can 
mingle itself in pious and animated speeches and 
poems, by which indeed holy and unholy things 
are confused." The object of the command is 
expressed in vers. 10, 11: that the mind of the 
pi'iests might be clear in the exercise of their 
own duties, and in the instruction of the people 
in regard to theirs. 

Vers. 12-15. The oblation that remaineth 
from the sacrifices of the day mentioned in ix. 
17. Eat it in a holy place — as has been so 
often before commanded in regard to those things 
which might be eaten only by the priests — not in 
the panoiuary, but in a place provided for the 
purpose in the court — LXX. : iv t6ku dyiu. Af- 
ter this followed the holy meal upon the priests' 
portion of the peace oS'erings (vers. 14, 15), eat- 
en with their families without the court, in any 
clean place. 

Vers. 16-18. The goat of the sin offering 

had indeed been otfered for the whole congrega- 
tion (ix. 3), but its blood had not been brought 
within the sanctuary. Under these circumstances 
Moses emphatically declares, and Aaron tacitly 
acknowledges, that its flesh should, under ordi- 
nary circumstances have been eaten by the 
priests, instead of being burned. Origen cha- 
racterizes it as being in consequence an imper- 
fect sacrifice. This shows distinctly that the law 
for the burning of the sin offering for the whole 
congregation (iv. 19, 12) turned upon the treat- 
ment of the blood, as Moses shows in ver. 18, and 
not upon the fact that it was offered for all the 
people. It is said that Moses 'was angry ^vith 
£SIeazar and Ithamar, while Aaron is not 
mentioned ; doubtless because the fault was with 
them as the ordinary priests, to whom this duty 
belonged, and not to the high-priest. Lange : 
" Eleazar and Ithamar also, the two remaining 
sons of Aaron, have apparently made an error in 
form ; that is, they ought to have eaten this flesh 
of the goat of the sin offering (not their own. but 
that of the people) in a holy place as being a 



most holy thing. This they had neglected ; still 
more, they had burnt the goat. But if they 
would thus treat the sin goat of the people, as if 
the ritual for the sin offering of bullocks was to 
be applied, they ought also to have brought its 
blood into the sanctuary; but they had not done 
this, and thus had violated the ritual in two 
ways" [i.e., in one or other of the two ways; 
but as they had treated the blood exactly as they 
were commanded, their fault consisted only in 
the wrong treatment of the flesh]. "In other 
words : since the blood had been poured out at 
the altar in the court, they must also in conse- 
quence eat the flesh of the sin offering, since it 
was given them as a right from Jehovah, as a 
recompense because they had as priests to bear 
the misdeeds of the congregation, and to make 
atonement before Jehovah. But at this reproach 
of Moses, Aaron knew how to excuse himself and 
his sous. In the first place, his sons had done 
their duty in regard to their own sin and burnt 
offering. In the second place, this fearful acci- 
dent had happened to him and them, and made 
them incapable of eating He appeals to feel- 
ing : would it please Jehovah if he should eat in 
such a frame of mind? This time Aaron has 
conquered Moses. The first violation of the law 
proceeded from gross disrespect of the law in 
carnal conduct ; this second violation proceeded 
from a righteous spiritual elevation above the 
letter which even Moses must allow." 

Ver. 17. To bear the iniquity of the con- 
gregation. — This expression, however difficult 
it may be to define the exact limits of its mean- 
ing, certainly makes two points cleaj : first, that 
the eating of the flesh of the ordinary sin offering 
by the priests was an essential part of its ritual; 
and second, that the priests, in receiving the 
sacrifice and undertaking to make expiation for 
sins, did act in a mediatorial capacity. "The 
very eating of the people's sin offering argued 
the sins of the people were in some sort laid upon 
the priests, to be taken away by them." Patrick. 
This eating, however, does not constitute with 
the sprinkling of the blood "a double atone- 
menent," to which Lange rightly objects; but is 
simply a lesser part of the one atonement of 
which the blood was the more essential portion. 
The office of the priests, receiving the victim at 
the people's hands, was with it to make an atone- 
ment or "covering" for the people's sins. 
Having undertaken this, the responsibility for 
those sins in a certain sense rested upon them; 
they must bear the iniquity of the congre- 
gation. — This was only possible to do by a strict 
observance of the Divine appointment, since the 
sacrifice could have no inherent efficacy. They 
must both sprinkle the blood and cat the flesh. 
Without the latter, " the sacrifice was imperfect 
and the sin remained." Origen. 

Ver. 19. In Aaron's excuse that "spiritual 
elevation above the letter" which Lange has 
noted becomes very plain. It is striking to find 
this not only in the law, but in regard to the 
very centre of the law, the sin sacrifice, and 
that, too, in the very first moment of its insti- 
tution. On Aaron's unfitness now to eat this 
offering comp. Hos. ix. 4. 

Ver. 20. He was content. — " Moses admit- 
ted Aaron's plea, but it is not stated whether he 



CHAP. X. 1-20. 



8S 



was conscious that he had himself spoken hastily 
and now conceded the point at issue (as we find 
him doing on another occasion in reference to 
the settlement of the two tribes and a half, Num. 
zxxii. 6), allowing that the priests had done 
what was in itself right, as S. Augustin, the later 
Targums, Kurtz, and others, interpret the pas- 
sage ; or whether he yielded out of sympathy 
with Aaron's natural feelings. The latter alter- 
native is perhaps the more probable one." 
Clark. But neither alternative is necessary. 
Both here and in the case cited from Numbers 
(parallel to which also is Josh. xxii. 10-31) 
Moses remonstrated against an apparent disre- 
gard of the command of God ; he was appeased 
when assured that no disregard was intended, 
and that in this case the act was exceptional un- 
der entirely exceptional circumstances. 

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL. 

I. Self-ohosen service (efe^Spj^ff/cci'n, Col. ii. 23) 
is displeasing to God, as a substitution of what 
He has not commanded for what He has com- 
manded. It is of the nature of rebellion and is 
BO regarded by Him. " The symbolical meaning 
of this history is very deep and comprehensive. 
Every gift to God, every sacrifice for Him, every 
act of zeal in His service, however it might 
otherwise outwardly be right, is displeasing to 
the Lord so soon as the fire of self-denial ceases 
to originate from the Holy Spirit, 1 Cor. xiii. 3." 
0. von Gerlach. 

It. Nadab and Abihu were honored with being 
"brought near" to God. and were the appointed 
persons to burn incense in the proper way. 
Tbey perverted their office and abused their pri- 
vilege, and they perished. So generally God's 
gifts perverted work harm to him who perverts 
them, and this harm is intensified in proportion 
to the greatness of the gift, 2 Cor. ii. 16. 

III. Hence comes the general principle that 
religious responsibility is proportioned to reli- 
gious privilege (ver. 8) — a principle often in- 
sisted upon in our Lord's teaching. 

IV. Under the old covenant, death, as the fruit 
of sin, brought defilement by its touch. Even 
father and brothers might not touch the dead 
bodies of the fallen, lest ihey should be defiled. 
Under the new covenant, sin has been conquered 
by Him who knew no sin, and death by Him who 
rose from the grave. " No longer, therefore, 
under the Gospel, is death an unclean thing. 
"Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord," 
KcT. xiv. 13. The Levitical law, by its treatment 
of death and burial, shows us our condition by 
nature in contrast with the blessings given by 
Him who is "the Resurrection and the Life." 
Wordsworth. 

V. It was required of the Levitical priests that 
in their service in the sanctnary they should 
drink neither wine nor strong drink. Similarly 
St. Paul provides (1 Tim. iii. 2, 8) that the 
Christian ministry must be " not given to wine," 
and when requiring it for his infirmities, should 
use it moderately (ib. v. 23). Theodoret. The 
service of God must be "a reasonable service," 
with faculties unimpaired, and not disturbed by 
artificial stimulants. 

VI. When the priests are said (ver. 17) to 



bear the iniquity of the congregation, the 
temporary and typical character of the Levitical 
system is at once manifest. It was plainly im- 
possible for men, who yet had to offer sacrifices 
for their own sins, to bear the sins of others, and 
so present them as holy before God, except as 
they represented something else, vii.: the great 
High Priest who should atone for the sin of the 
world. 

VII. The burning, instead of eating, the flesh 
of the sin offering, finally acquiesced in by 
Moses, is instructive dootrinally as showing even 
in the most rigid part of the Levitical law, "a 
certain freedom in the arrangement of the minor 
details, while the substance of the rules is kept 
inviolate. It is one of the examples we occa- 
sionally meet of a distinction being judiciously 
and honestly made between the letter and the 
spirit of a law." Murphy. Under the Old Tes- 
tament as under the New, God desires "mercy 
and not sacrifice" (Hos. vi. 6; Matt. ix. 13; 
xii. 7). 

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL. 

In this chapter, instead of the expected festi- 
vities consequent upon the inauguration of the 
new priesthood, we find a fearful judgment ; so 
the sin of man ever comes in to mar the good 
work of God and turn to wormwood His cup of 
blessing. By this fearful example all will-wor- 
ship is shown to be displeasing — all attempt to 
serve God in opposition to the ways of His ap- 
pointment. " They also offer a strnnge fire, who 
offer any thing of their own to God without truly 
and humbly acknowledging that they have re- 
ceived all from God." Estius. "When we bring 
zeal without knowledge, misconceits of faith, 
carnal affections, the devices of our will-wor- 
ship, superstitious devotions into God's service, 
we bring common fire to His altar. These flames 
were never of His kindling; He hates both al. 
tar, fire, priest, and sacrifice." Bp. Hall. 

The greatness of the punishment was in pro- 
portion to the appointed nearness to God of 
those who had offended. Privilege always 
brings responsibility. The judgment on Chora- 
zin and Bethsaida must be heavier than upon 
Sodom and Gomorrha. Compare Heb. ii. 3 ; 
xii. 25. 

God may use the same means for showing His 
love and His anger. He consumed the sacrifice 
by fire ; He slew Nadab and Abihu by fire. The 
result to us of His action depends on our attitude 
towards Him. The same Gospel is a "savor of 
4ife unto life" and of "death unto death." 
Again : He often uses for man's punishment the 
very instrument of man's sin; these men sinned 
by fire and perished by fire; so also the compa- 
nions of Korah, Num. xvi. 35. So under the 
laws of His Providence are men's passions made 
the means of punishing them, and often the ob- 
jects of unlawful ambition or desire, when at- 
tained, become the very scourges of those who 
sought them. 

Aaron held his peace, as the righteous must 
needs do before the judgments of God, however 
distressing. See Jobi. 22; Ps. xxxix. 9. There 
can be no hope and no comfort in the world if we 
may rightfully murmur at the doings of "the 
Judge of all the earth." 



85 



LEVITICUS. 



The touch of the dead communicated defile- 
ment, but the touch of the Giver of life caused 
him who was borne out upon the bier to arise 
(Luke vii. 14), and the damsel who slept in 
death to arise and walk (Mark v. 42). Words- 
worth. Thus does the Antitype excel the type. 

Aaron and his surviving sons might not leave 
the sanctuary to mourn those who had fallen, but 
all Israel might bewail them ; so is the immedi- 
ate service of God more pressing than all else; 
what, may be right at another time, or to other 
persons, must be foregone by those who have a 
duty to God with which it interferes. His ser- 
vice is the prime object to which all other things 
must conform themselves. 

The priests' fervor is not to come of wine or 
strong drink. In the service of God they who 



draw near to Him have need of all the calmness 
and clearness of their minds, lest they do Him 
dishonor while they profess to serve Him. The 
excitement of worship, which comes of the abuse 
of His gifts, though showing itself in eloquence 
or in more than natural zeal, is not pleasing to 
Him. 

From the fault of the priests in not eating the 
flesh of the sin offering, Theodoret thus reasons 
of the duty of the Christian minister: "Hence we 
learn that we who eat of those things which are 
offered by the people, and do not live according 
to the law, nor diligently pray to God for them, 
will bring down punishment from God ;" and 
Origen says that it behooves the priest first to 
make himself acceptable to God before he presumes 
to seek from Him acceptance for the people. 



PART THIRD. THE LAWS OF PURITY. 



Chapters XI. — XV. 



• The Preliminary Conditions of Sacrifice : the Typical Cleanness 
and Purifying.'^ — Lange. 



PRELIMINARY NOTE ON CLEAN AND UNCLEAN ANIMALS— AND ON 
DEFILEMENT BY CONTACT. 



There has been no little debate as to the origin 
and ground of the distinction between clean and 
unclean animals. Such a question can only be 
settled historically. In Gen. vii. 2 Noah is di- 
rected to take into the ark " of every clean beast 
by sevens, the male and his female," while "of 
beasts that are not clean by two, the male and 
his female." There was then already a recog- 
nized distinction, and this distinction had no- 
thing to do with the use of animal food, since 
this had not yet been allowed to man. After the 
flood, when animal food was given to man (Gen. 
ix. 3), it was given without limitation. "Every 
moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; 
even as the green herb have I given you all 
things." It may therefore be confidently af- 
firmed that this distinction did not have its ori- 
gin and ground in the suitableness or unsuitable- 
ness of different kinds of animal food, as has 
been contended by many. Neither could it pos- 
sibly have been founded in any considerations 
peculiar to the chosen people, since it is here 
found existing so many ages before the call of 
Abraham. Immediately after the flood, how- 
ever, we have a practical application of the dis- 
tinction which seems to mark its object with suf- 
ficient plainness: "Noah builded an altar unto 



the Lord ; and took of every clean beast, and 
of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings 
on the altar" (Gen. viii. 20). The original dis- 
tinction must therefore be held to have been be- 
tween animals fit and unfit for sacrifice (comp. 
Calvin in Lev. xi. 1). On what ground the se- 
lection was originally made for sacrifice is wholly 
unknown ; but it is altogether probable that the 
same kind of animals which were "clean" in 
the time of Noah were included in the list of the 
clean under the Levitical law. Many of the lat- 
ter, however, were not allowable for sacrifice un- 
der the same law, nor is it likely that they ever 
were ; on the other hand, all were admissible for 
food in Noah's time, while under the Levitical 
law many are forbidden. While, therefore, the 
original distinction must be sought in sacrificial 
use, it is plain that the details of this distinction 
are largely modified under the Levitical law pre- 
scribing the animals that may be allowed for 
food. 

When inquiry is now made as to the grounds 
of this modification, the only reason given in the 
law itself is comprehensive (Lev. xi. 43-47; xx. 
24-26; Deut. xiv. 21): "For I am the Lokd your 
God; ye shall therefore sanctify yourselves, and 
ye shall be holy ; for I am holy." " I am tho 



PRELIMINARY NOTE QN CLEAN AND UNCLEAN ANIMALS. 



87 



LoKD your God, which have separated you from 
other people." This points plainly to the sepa- 
ration of the Israelites by their prescribed laws 
of fiod from other nations ; and it is indisputa- 
ble that the effect of these laws was to place al- 
most insurmountable impediments in the way of 
familiar social intercourse between the Israelites 
and the surrounding heathen. When this sepa- 
ration was to be broken down in the Chrisli.in 
Church, an intimation to that effect could not be 
more effectively conveyed than by the vision of 
St. Peter of a sheet let down "wherein were all 
manner of four-footed beasts, and creeping 
things, and fowls of the air," with the com- 
mand, "Rise, Peter, kill and eat" (Acts x. 
13). The effectiveness of the separation, how- 
ever, is to be sought in the details, not in 
the general character of the distinction, as it 
is now well known that the ordinary diet of the 
Egyptians and other nations of antiquity was 
substantially the same with that of the Israel- 
ites. Various reasons given by the fathers and 
others, with replies showing their fallacy, may 
be found in Spencer, de leg. Hebr. I. u. vii., J 1, 
what he considers the true reasons (seven in 
number) being given in the following section. 
Comp. also Calvin in Lev. xi. 1. 

It is to be observed that the distinction of 
clean and unclean animals has place only at 
their death. All living animals were alike clean, 
and the Hebrew had no scruple in handling the 
living ass or even the dog. The lion and the 
eagle, too, as has been well observed by Clark, 
were used in the most exalted symbolism of pro- 
phetic imagery. But as soon as the animals 
were dead, a question as to their cleanness 
arose; this depended on two points: a) the 
manner of the animal's death; and b) the na- 
ture of the animal itself. All animals whatever 
which died of themselves were unclean to the 
Israelites, although they might be given or sold 
to "strangers" (Deut. xiv. 21), and the touch 
of their carcasses communicated defilement 
(Lev. xi. 39, 40). This then was one broad dis- 
tinction of the law, and was evidently based 
upon the fact that from such animals the blood 
had not been withdrawn. 

But a difference is further made between ani- 
mals, even when properly slaughtered. In a 
very general way, the animals allowed are such 
as have been generally recognized among all 
nations and in all ages as most suitably forming 
the staple of animal food; yet the law cannot 
be considered as founded upon hygienic or any 
other principles of universal application, since 
no such distinction was recognized in the grant 
to Noah. Moreover, the obligation of its obser- 
vance was expressly declared to have been abro- 
gated by the council at Jerusalem, Acts xv. 
The distinction was therefore temporary, and 
peculiar to the chosen people. Its main object, 
as already shown, was to keep them a separate 
people, and it is invested with the solemnity of 
a religious observance. In providing regula- 
tions for this purpose, other objects were doubt- 
less incidentally regarded, such as laws of health, 
etc., some of which are apparent upon the sur- 
face, while others lie hidden in our ignorance 
of local customs and circumstances. 



Before closing this note it is worthy of remark 
that the dualistic notions which formed the basis 
of the distinction between clean and unclean 
animals among the Persians were absolutely 
contradicted by the theology of the Israelites. 
Those animals were clean among the Parsees 
which were believed to have been created by 
Ormuzd, while those which proceeded from the 
evil principle, Ahriman, were unclean. The 
Hebrews, on the contrary, were most emphati- 
cally taught to refer the origin of all things to 
Jehovah, and however absolute might be the 
distinction among animals, it was yet a distinc- 
tion between the various works of the one Cre- 
ator. 

The general principles of determination of 
clean animals wore the same among tlie Israel- 
ites as among other ancient nations ; in quadru- 
peds, the formation of the foot and the method 
of mastication and digestion ; among birds, the 
rejection as unclean of birds of prey ; and among 
fish, the obvious possession of fins and scales. 
All these marks of distinction in the Levitical 
law are wisely and even necessarily made on 
the basis of popular observation and belief, not 
on that of anatomical exactness. Otherwise the 
people would have been continually liable to 
error. Scientifically, the camel would be said 
to divide the hoof, and the hare does not chew 
the cud. But laws for popular use must neces- 
sarily employ terms as they are popularly un- 
derstood. These matters are often referred to 
as scientific errors ; whereas they were simply 
descriptions, necessarily popular, for the under- 
standing and enforcement of the law. 

Defilement by contact comes forward very 
prominently in this chapter, as it is also fre- 
quently mentioned elsewhere. It is not strange 
that in a law whose educational purpose is 
everywhere so plain, this most effective symbol- 
ism should hold a place, and the contaminating 
effect of converse with evil be thus impressed 
upon this people in their spiritual infancy. It 
thus has its part with all other precepts of cere- 
monial cleanness in working out the great spi- 
ritual purposes of the law. But beyond this, 
there is here involved the great truth, but im- 
perfectly revealed under the old dispensation, 
that the body, as well as the soul, has its part 
in the relations between God and man. The 
body, as well as the soul, was a sufi'erer by the 
priraeTal sentence upon sin, and the body, as 
well as the soul, has part in the redemption of 
Christ, and awaits the resurrection of the just. 
The ascetic notions of the meJiseval ages re- 
garded the body as evil in a sense entirely 
incompatible with the representations of Scrip- 
ture. For not merely is the body the handmaid 
of the soul, and the necessary instrument of the 
soul's action, but the service of the body as well 
as the FOul is recognized in the New Testament 
(e. g., Rom. xii. 1) as a Christian duty. On its 
negative side, at least, this truth was taught 
under the old dispensation by the many laws of 
bodily purity, the series of which begins in this 
chapter. The laws of impurity from physical 
contact stand as an appendix to the laws of food 
and as an introduction to the other laws of 
purity, and form the connecting link between 
them. 



88 LEVITICUS. 



FIRST SECTION. 

La^7a of Clean and Unclean Food. 

"The Cleanness of the Sacrifice — or the Contrast of the Clean and Unclean Animals" — Lange. 

Chap. XI. 1-47. 
1, 2 And the Lord spake unto Moses and to Aaron, saying unto them, Speak unto 
ihe children of Israel, saying, These are the beasts [animals^] which ye shall eat 

3 among all the beasts that are on the earth. Whatsoever parteth the hoof, and is 
cloven footed [and completely separates the hoof*], and cheweth the cud, among 

4 the beasts, that shall ye eat. Nevertheless these shall ye not eat of them that 
chew the cud, or of them that divide the hoof: as the camel, because he cheweth 

5 the cud, but divideth not the hoof; he is unclean unto you. And the coney,' be- 
cause he cheweth the cud, but divideth not the hoof; he is unclean unto you. 

6 And the hare, because he cheweth the cud, but divideth not the hoof; he is unclean 

7 unto you. And the swine, though he divide the hoof, and be cloven footed [and 
completely separates the hoof*], yet he cheweth not the cud ; he is unclean to you, 

8 Of their flesh shall ye not eat, and their carcase shall ye not touch ; they are un- 
clean to you. 

9 'These shall ye eat of all that are in the waters : whatsoever hath fins and scales 

10 in the waters, in the seas, and in the rivers, them shall ye eat. And all that have 
not fins and scales in the seas, and in the rivers, of all that move in the waters, 
and of any living thing which is in the waters, they shaU he an abomination unto 

11 you : they shall be even an abomination unto you ; ye shall not eat of their flesh, 

12 but ye shall have their carcases in abomination. "Whatsoever hath no fins nor 
scales in the waters, that shall he an abomination unto you. 

13 And these are they which ye shall have in abomination among the fowls ; they 
shall not be eaten, they are an abomination : the eagle,' and the ossifrage,' and the 

TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL, 

1 Ver. 2. n^nn ^^ a different word from 710)13 in th^ following clause, and the difference should be recognized in 

T — T " : 

the tranalation, as it is in the Semitic versions. The former is the more general term, the latter (comp. Gen. i. 24) refers to 
tUe quadrupeds included in this section (vers. 1-S) in contradistinction from birds and reptiles. 

2 Ver. 3. r>D"l3 JJDty P^DK'1. The idea is that of not merely partially (like the camel), but completely dividing 

the hoof. The Sam., LXX., Syr. and nine MSS. make this still more indefinite by inserting 'j^tS— '""> before the lust 

word. 

8 Ver. 5. ti]tj?n. The animal is indicated here as one that chews the cud (or appears to do so), in Ps. civ. 18; Prov. 

XXX. 20, as living in the rocks, and in the latter as being very weak. It ocurs elsewhere only in the parallel place, Deat 
xiv. 7. Ilere the LXX. renders it SairuTrous, Aq. Xa-yuds; in Dent. xiv. 7, the LXX. has x°*-P°yP^^^"^''=^^^^H avimd^ 
which is adopted by the Vulg. in both places. The Sam. translates it Vabr, the Htjrax Syriacus, whicli is said to be still 
called t£o/un in Southern Arabia. FUrsteays; " The Targ. points to the same animal when it triuislates KTIDi KD£)Qi 

t: - _ T : " 
NTDtD (leaper) since the Vabr goes by leaps." The Duke of Argyle (Beign of Law, p. 264) speaks of a specimen of it in the 

Zoological Gardens, and states that in the structure of the teeth and the foot it is assimilated to the rhinoceros. Cnvler 
classc'l it with the pachyderms. The Eabbins understood it to be a rabbit, and were followed by Luther and the A. V. in 
the old word Coniy. Bochart (Hieroz. Lib. III., c. 33) understands it of the Jerboa or bear^moiMe, and BO Gesenius, Geddes 
and Others, Although the word in the A. V. is certainly wrong, yet as it is obsolete, it seems unnecessary to makeachange 
whiclj could only be either to the Heb. word, or to the scientific name. 

* Ver. 7. The construction is the same as in ver. 3. See note 2. 

5 Ver. 9. The Sam., one MS., the LXX. and Syr. prefix the conjunction 1. 

* Ver. 12. The same, with fourteen MSS., here prefix the conjunction. 

' Ver. 13. Ti^J is uniformly translated eagh in the A. V., derd! in the LXX., and aqwUa in the Vulg. Kalisoh saj» 

this "is beyond a doubt." The same meaning is given by Fiirst and Gesenius, although both would include also the Bense 
of vutture. Clark's proposed emendation, the great vulture^ seems therefore unnecessary. 

8 Ver. 13. D13 H^JT^J^. Both, by preponderance of authority, species of eagles, and the former sufficiently well 

described by oasifrage ; the latter species is not certainly identified, the word occurring only here and in the paraUel, Dent 
xiv. 12. The LXX. renders a\iaicTos=8ca eagle. FUrst prefers Taleria^ the black eagle. Kalisch prefers the sense wHtort. 
Gesen. (ThcHaur,), blaclt eagle. 



CHAP. XI. 1-47. 89 



14, 15 ospray,' and the vulture,' and the kite"" after his kind ; "every raven after his 

16 kind ; and the owl [ostrich"], and the night hawk [owP^], and the cuckow [gull'*], 

17 and the hawk after his kind, and the little owl,'^ and the cormorant, and the great 
18, 19 owl,'* aud the swan," and the pelican, and the gier eagle [vulture'*], and the 

stork," the'^ heron"" after her kind, and the lapwing [hoopoe''''], and the bat. 

20 All"' fowls that creep [all winged creeping things'*^], going upon all four, shall he 

21 an abomination unto you. Yet these may ye eat of every flying creeping thing 
that goeth upon all four, which have'^ legs above their feet, to leap withaP* upon 

22 the earth ; even these of them ye may eat ; the locust after his kind, and the bald 
locust''' after his kind, and the beetle''' after his kind, and the grasshopper after his 

23 kind. But all other flying creeping things, which have four feet, shall he an abo- 

• Ter. 14. HX^, » word, air. My. In the parallel passage, Dent. xiT. 13, it is DNI- Ito etymology indicates a rave- 

T T TT 

nons biri of swift flight. LXX. yv^=^itv.ltare^ Vulg. miluua=kit''. Bodiart considers it a species of hawk or falcon. So 
Ealiscli. In Deut. xiv. 13 there is mentioned also H^^, making twenty-one Tarieties of birds ; but that word in Dent, is 

T • 

omitted by the Sara, and four MSS. 

W Ver. 14. n'^N is only to be Identified by the fact that it here stands for the name of a class — after his land, and that 

in Jobxxviii. 7 it is spoken of for its great keenness of sight. The LXX. renders here Jnf£, in Deut and Job vulture. Clark 
makes it milvus regalis. 

11 Yer. 16 and vor. 20. The Sam., manv MSS. and versions prefix the conjunction. 

IS Vor. 16. 713 J?'n nS. LXX. o-Tpoi/eds. The word is uniformly rendered oml in the text of the A. V. ; but in the 

marg. of Job xxx. 29; laa. xill. 21; xxxlv. 13; xliii. 20, it is rendered oatrich in accordance with the Targ., LXX., Yulg. 
and Syr., and there can be no doubt that this is the true sense. The fern, stands for the bird coUec tivelv , of both sexes. 
Bosen.: "Vox, j^S, apposlta est ex more quodam Orientalium, qui nomina jjaier, mater, JlUwt, JUia, animalium quorundam 

nominibns prsefigrere Solent sine respectu setatis et sexus." Bochart, however, thinks it means distinctively the female. 
IS Yer. 16. DDnB (from DDD. to do violmce), interpreted by Uocbart, and others on his authority, of the male 

ostrich; but this is now generally rejected. The Targ. Onk. has XY'V, and Targ. Jerus. t{JT'3[3n=™<iHo«'- Others 

(Knobel) consider it the cmhio ; but the rendering of the LXX. and Yulg,, oiol, is now adopted more generally than any other. 
1* Yer. 16. tin!? occurs only here and in Deut. xiv. 16. Knobel understands it of a species of hawk trained in Syria 

for hunting gazelles, etc.; but most other interpreters understand it of a sea bird, whether the stormy petrd (Bochart) or 
more generally the sea guU after the Yulg. and LXX. Xapos. 

li> Ter. 17. 0)3. There seems no sufficient reason to question the accuracy of the A. Y., which is substantially that 
ofthe ancient versions. Tristram identifies it with the Athene mmdionahs common in Syria. Bochart, however, would 
render Pelican, and Biggs Aight-hawJc. 

1« Yer. 17. The A. V. is probalily right. The LXX., Yulg. and Targ. Onk. have Ibis, which seems to have arisen trom 
a misplacement of the words of the tex^ rather than &om a different translation of '^Wi"^ They are followed by Bigga 

and others. .^ - . . . j .:,■+. 

1' Yer. 18. riDtffJjI. The same word is used, ver. 30, for mole (probably chameleon) : here it refers to a bird, ana it is 

likely that this is the word for which Ibie stands in the LXX. and Yulg. But it is not probable that the Israelites would 
have come much in contact with the Ibis. The preponderance of authority (see Mrst) is for some variety of owl, accord- 
ing to the Ohald., Syr. and Sam. ; but there does not appear to be sufflcient certainty to warrant a change in the text of 
the A Y 

18 Yer. 18. DITI LXX. rendering doubtful. The best authorities agree that some species of vulture is meant. Ge- 

senius (thesaur.) w^onld make it a very small spedes. of the size of a crow. Others consider it moat probably the large 

Egyptian vulture, Neophron perenapUrus. Perhaps something of this kind was meant by gier eagle. Kalisoh, governed 

only bv the order of the birds, would translate neZican. ,, 

"Yer. 19. nTDH, LXX., Aq., Symm., Tfieod., heron, but LXX. in Job xxxix. 13 ttorlt. Either bird answers well 

enonirh to the etymology and to the passages vfhen it occurs, and sinrlis as likely to be right as fteron. . 

20 Yer. 19. The Sam. and sixteen MSS. prefix the conjunction which is found in the parallel place m Deut. J! or the 
want of it Knobel would connect the word with the preceding as an adjective ; but it seems better to consider it as an acci- 
dental omission. „ . . .1. TT I. ^ T-VV 

a Yer. 19. nSJN. Tbo meaning of the rendering in Targ. Onk. is unknown, Syr. retains the Heb. word, LXX. xop"- 
SpuSt, a bird chieflyVemarkable for its greediness. The Heb. etymology is uncertain. Clark identifies it witti the great 
plover (Ohmadrius aedimemm). FUlst defines it Parrot, and so Gesen. Bochart, following the etymology of the Babb us 
defines it the angry Urd, and considers it some species of eagle. It seems probable that the A. Y. is wrong, but difBouIt to 
determine upon a substitute. . , , ^, x,. .» *• *i. tw - ..^^ 

" Yer. 19. nS'DII. The bird intended has not been certainly identified; but the authonty of the LXX., eiroira, ana 

Ynlg.,tij!«iia,is here' followed. The Arab, adopts it, and it is followed by Biggs. Bochart would render mountoin cocTs 
after the Chald. 

« Ter. 20. eiiun Vltt* Si. The idea of fmels that creep is not less strange and grotesque in Heb. than in English. 
The word V-W by its el^imology means those creatures that muldply abundantly, swarm, whence it came to be applied 

to very much the same creatures as we mean by vei-min. It can hardly be better ^^f^^.^^^X^lZtTZV^^Z 
Going upon aU four does not necessarily mean having just lour feet, but going with the body in a horizontal posi- 

""a Ter. 21. For the ^ ofthe text the h'ri has 1 7, and so the Sam. and many MSS. So it must necessarily be under- 
Btood, as it is in the versions. 

* Yer. 21. For |ri3 the Sam. and thirty-seven MSS. have Drij- 

» Ter. 22. Beetle'iJ certainly wrong ; for this, like the rest, muJt have been one of the leaping insects. There are no 
means of identifying these four varieties. Each of them stands for a class "after his kind." Two of them, the U^JIQ and 
"18 Sj'in, do not occur elsewhere. The others are of frequeot occurrence, and are uniformly translated in the A. V. the 
first (ocirf. the last arasrhopper. It would probably be better in the other cases to follow the example of the older English 
»nd most modern versions in giviug simply the Hebrew names without attempting translation. 

21 



90 LEVITICUS. 



24 mination unto you. And for these ye shall be unclean : whosoever toucheth the 

25 carcase of them shall be unclean until the even. And whosoever beareth ougM of 
the carcase of them shall wash his clothes, and be unclean until the even. 

26 The carcases of every beast which divideth the hoof, and is not cloven footed, 
nor cheweth the cud, are unclean unto you : every one that toucheth them" shall be 

27 unclean. And whatsoever goeth upon his paws, among all manner of beasts"' that 
go on all four, those are unclean unto you : whoso toucheth their carcase shall be 

28 unclean until the even. And he that beareth the carcase of them shall wash his 
clothes, and be unclean until the even : they are unclean unto you. 

29 These also shall he unclean unto you among the creeping things that creep upon 
the earth ; the weasel,'* and the mouse, and the tortoise [the great lizard'"] after 

30 his kind, and the ferret [gecko'"], and the chameleon [strong lizard'^], and the 
lizard [climbing lizard'^], and the snail [lizard^], and the mole [chameleon^], 

31 These are unclean to you among all that creep : whosoever doth touch them, when 

32 they be dead, shall be unclean until the even. And upon whatsoever any of them, 
when they are dead, doth fall, it shall be unclean ; whether it he any vessel [thing"] 
of wood, or raiment, or skin, or sack, whatsoever vessel [thing"*] it he, wherein 
[wherewith'*] any work is done, it must be put into water, and it shall be unclean 

33 untU the even ; so it shall be cleansed. And every earthen vessel, whereinto any 

34 of them falleth, whatsoever is in it shall be unclean ; and ye shall break it. Of 
all meat [food'°] which may be eaten, that on which such [om. such''''\ water cometh 
shall be unclean : and all drink that may be drunk in every such vessel shall be 

35 unclean. And every thing whereupon any part of their carcase falleth shall be 
unclean ; whether it he oven, or ranges'* for pots, they shall be broken down : jar 

36 they are unclean, and shall be unclean unto you. Nevertheless a fountain" or pit, 
wherein there is plenty of water, shall be clean : but that which" toucheth their 

" Ver. 26. Six MSS. and the LXX. specify, what is Bufficientl.v plain, iheir carcases. »» Ver. 27. See note' on yer. 2. 

28 Ver. 29. 'Vjx^ occurs nowhere else. The A. V. aeems justified in following the LXX. and Targ., although Bochart 

would render mole, which is still called Chuld bv the Arabs. 

29 Ver. 29. J]f, a word in this sense, dn-. Xe-y. There seems no doubt that this and all the names following in ver. 30 

indicate vari 'US species of lizard. So Kiggs. This particular one is called by the LXX. 6 KpofcdSvAo; 6 xepo"a'os='flnd 
crocndil'', nnd so St. Jerome. Bochart considers it a kind of large lizard abounding in Syria, often two feet long. Tristam 
iflcntifics it with the uromastix apinijies. The translation proposed by Clark, the great lizard^ is probably as good as can 
bo ha-i. 

80 Ver. 30. HpJX in this sense only here. LXX. fivya\-ri^=shrew mouse; Onk. ''7''=Afi(^e Iwg; the other oriental Ter- 

sions by Ta^ious names of lizard. Almost all the authorities concur in making: it some variety of lizard. Enobel is ce^ 
tait.ly wrong in iflcniifving it with the Lacerla Nilotica, an animal lour feet long. FUrst only so far defines it as "a reptile 
with a long narrow neck." The translation of Eosenmilller, lacerta gecht, seems as probable as any. 

'1 Ver. 30. nil, a word ot frequent occurrence for strength, power, but as a name of an animal occuiring only here. 

The etymology seems to indicate a characteristic of strength (although Furst makes it the alimy), and the connection, 
s.ime variety of lizard. The translation chameleon is derived from the LXX., and is probably wrong. Keil shows that Kao- 
bel (followed by Clark) is in error in translating by frog. The uncertainly is too great tci substitute another »ord lor tbat 
of the A. v., which yet must be changed, because the last name belongs to the ch>Lmeleon. The etymology simply is there- 
fore indicated. , 

8a Ver. 30. DXtDl, another word, air. Ae-y. LXX. icaAa/3iiT,js, Vulg. stellio. Knobel makes it a crawling, and Fneut a 

climbing lizard. The latter is adopted as a probable sense In order to avoid confusion in the text. 

S3 Ver. 30. Don, also air. Key. LXX. (raifa, Vulg. lacerta, and so also the Syr. The A. V. comes from the Targ. 

Je»ns. and Eabbinical authorities. Otherwise there is a general agreement with Bochart that it should be rendered 
lizard. 

8* Ver. 30. n^E/jH bas already occurred, ver. 18, as the name of a bird. Here it is some variety of lizard, and from 

its etymology — Q^^j, to breathe, to draw in air — there is a good degree of unanimity in understanding it of the chameleon, 

either as inflating itself, or as popularly supposed to Hvo on air. 

» Ver. 32. i'73 is evidently here used, as in Ex. xxii. 6 (7), in its most comprehensive sense. It is only limited by 
the clause wbereirltb any work is done. This change of course makes it necessary to translate DDSi '»''«'''" 
wi(&, instead of wfterein. 

*> Ver. 34. l2\A means any kind of food, especially cereal. The English meat is now so altered in sense that it is bat- 
ter to change it, 

w Ver. 34. The word mcTi is unfortunately inserted in the A. V. The idea is (comp. ver. 38) that all meat prepared 
with water should be rendered unclean by the falling of any of these animals upon it. 

^ Ver. 35. D^'1^3 occurs only here, and there is much question as to its meaning. According to Keil it "can only 

signify, when used in the dual, a vessel consisting of two parts, i. «. a pan or pot with a lid." So Enobel and the Targumsi 
others a support for the pot like a pair of bricks, LXX. xuproirovs; others, as FUrst, " a cooking furnace, ptxjbably consisling 
of two ranges of stones which met together in a sharp angle." 

8» Ver. 35. The Sam. and LXX. add of waters. 

*^ Ver. 36. Roseumiiller, Ke'l, and others understand this in the masculine, fte who, viz. in removing the carcase. The 
moaning, however, S' ems to bo more genoial : the person or the thing touching tho carcase, in removing it or otherwiaa 



CHAP. XI. 1-47. 



91 



37 carcase stall be unclean. And if any part of their carcase fall upon any** sowing 

38 seed which is to be sown, it shaU he clean. But if any water be put upon the seed, 
and any part of their carcase fall thereon, it shall be unclean unto you. 

39 And if any beast, of which ye may eat, die ; he that toucheth the carcase there- 

40 of shall be unclean until the even. And he that eateth of the carcase of it*^ shall 
wash his clothes, and be unclean until the even : he also that beareth the carcase 
of it" shall wash his clothes, and be unclean until the even. 

41 And every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth shall he an abomination ; 

42 it shall not be eaten. Whatsoever goeth upon the belly,*' and whatsoever goeth 
upon all four, or whatsoever hath more feet among all creeping things that creep 

43 upon the earth, them ye shall not eat ; for they are an abomination. Ye shall not 
make yourselves abominable with any creeping thing that creepeth, neither shall 

44 ye make yourselves unclean with them, that ye should be defiled thereby. For I 
am the Loed your God : ye shall therefore sanctify yourselves, and ye shall be 
holy ; for I am holy : neither shall ye defile yourselves with any manner of creep- 

45 ing thing that creepeth upon the earth. For I am the Lord** that bringeth you 
up out of the land of Egypt, to be your God ; ye shall therefore be. holy, for I am 
holy. 

46 This is the law of the beasts, and of the fowl, and of every^ living creature 
that moveth in the waters, and of every creature that creepeth. upon the earth : 

47 to make a difference between the unclean and the clean, and between the beast** 
that may be eaten and the beast** that may not be eaten. 

^ Ver. 37. The Sam., two MSS., and Vulg. omit amy ; but two MSS. and the LXX. insert it before tetd in the follow- 
ing verde, 

« Vers. 39 and 40. Several MSS. and the LXX. have the plural in these places. 

^ Yer. 42. The letter 1 in \)y\ir^eUy is printed in larger type in the Heb. Bibles to indicate that it is the middle let- 
ter of the Pentateuch. 

** Ver. 45. The Sam., two MSS. and the Syr. add, as in ver. 44, your God. 

* Ver, 47. See note on ver. 2. 



EXEGETICAL AND CEITICAL. 

The whole of Lange's "Exegetical" is here 
given in full, the remarks of the translator being 
added in square brackets. 

"Cleanness as a condition of the sacrifices — 
the cleanness of the sacrificial animals, and the 
cleanness to be regained through the purification 
of men and of human conditions. Chap, xi.-xv. 
'These are regarded in the law as defiling: the 
use of certain animals, and the touching a oar- 
case (chap, xi.); the confinement of a woman 
(chap, xii.) ; the leprosy (chap, xiii., xiv.) ; the 
issue of seed of a man (ch. xv. 1-15) ; the invo- 
luntary emission of semen (ib. 15, 16) ; the car- 
nal conjunction of the sexes (ib. 18) ; the menses 
of a woman (ib. 19-24) ; and the lasting issue 
of blood of the same (ib. 25-30) ; to which Num. 
xix. 11-22 adds the touching the dead ; but the 
things mentioned do not all give the same un- 
cleannesB,' etc. Knobel, p. 432. The priests 
were to administer the laws of cleanness and of 
purification, so to speak, as the religious district 
physicians of the theocracy. On the laws of the 
Gentiles about cleanness, see Knobel, pp 436- 
40; on the animals, pp. 443 ss. (the detailed pre- 
sentation)." 

"Chap. xi. The cleanness of the sacrifice, or 
the contrast of the clean and unclean animals. 
The clean sacrificial animal is marked out from 
the four-footed beasts by two characteristics: 
cleaving the hoof and chewing the cud. The 
cloven hoof distinguishes the slow-moving, tame 
animal, naturally adapted to domestication, from 



the single-hoofed animal, naturally wild, although 
sometimes capable of being tamed. The rumi- 
nation characterizes quiet, dispassionate, grami- 
nivorous animals, as opposed to the carnivorous 
beasts of prey, and the unclean omnivorous 
beasts." 

" Thus especially are the one-hoofed excluded, 
although they chew the cud ; the camel, and (as 
stated) the rock badger, the hare. And so with 
those that cleave the hoof and do not chew the 
cud — the swine. And, of course, the four-footed 
creatures which lack both characteristics." 

" In regard to all unclean animals, the use of 
their meat and the touching of their carcase is 
forbidden. That they certainly might not 
be offered in sacrifice is therewith presupposed. 
Vers. 1-8." 

[From this general view of the chapter, and 
from several of the particulars, a dissent must be 
expressed. Although, as has been shown in the 
preliminary note, the original distinction between 
clean and unclean animals was in regard to their 
fitness or unfitness for sacrifice ; yet here there 
is no immediate reference to sacrifice at all, and 
the animals are classified solely in relation to 
their being allowed or forbidden for food. Again, 
in the detail, while among the animals reared by 
man it may be true that "the cloven hoof dis- 
tinguishes the slow-moving tame animal;" yet 
this certainly could not apply to the gazelle and 
other kinds of deer, which are equally included 
among the clean animals. Probably Lange's re- 
mark was made because his mind was already 
fixed upon the classification of animals for sacri- 
fice, although even then it would but imperfectly 



92 



LEVITICUS. 



apply to the goat. Also, on the other side, "the 
Bingle-hoofed animal, naturally wild, but some, 
times capable of being tamed," is quite insuffi- 
cient in its description, for the single-hoofed 
horse is quite as much a domestic animal as the 
bull or the goat, and it fails altogether to include 
the many-toed domestic cat and dog, which were 
eminently unclean. 

[The first and larger half of this book is con- 
cerned with the means of approach to God. 
First of all came the laws of sacrifice, chaps, i. — 
vii.; then followed the consecration of the priests 
by whom the sacrifices were to be offered, with 
an account of their entrance upon their office, 
and the connected events, chaps, viii. — x.; now 
follow the laws of purity, chaps, xi. — xv., and 
of these first, the laws of clean and unclean food, 
contained in the present chapter. In this con- 
nection also the uncleanness produced by contact 
with the dead bodies of animals unclean for food 
is emphatically set forth, and thus this chapter 
is intimately connected with the laws of purifi- 
cation in the following chapters. "In all the 
nations and all the religions of antiquity we find 
the contrast between clean and unclean, which 
was developed in a dualistio form, it is true, in 
many of the religious systems, but had its pri- 
mary root in the corruption that had entered the 
world through sin. This contrast was limited in 
the Mosaic law to the animal food of the Israel- 
ites, to contact with dead animals and human 
corpses, and to certain bodily conditions and 
diseases that are associated with decomposition." 
Eell. 

[Vers. 1-8 are concerned with the larger 
quadrupeds. The distinction is so made among 
these that the Israelites might be in no mistake 
about them. To an anatomist it might have been 
enough to say either parteth the hoof, or 
Chevreth the cud; but since several animals 
apparently had one of these characteristics with- 
out the other, or were popularly supposed to 
have them, for the sake of clearness both are 
given, and also some animals are excluded, as 
the camel, which apparently lacked one of them, 
although anatomically it might be considered as 
possessing both. 

[Ver. 1. Both Moses, as the lawgiver, and 
Aaron, as the now fully consecrated high-priest, 
to whom would especially pertain the enforce- 
ment of the laws of purity, are now addressed 
together. 

[Ver. 3. No enumeration is here made of the 
animals possessing these qualifications ; but there 
is such an enumeration in the parallel passage. 
Dent. xiv. 4, 5. 

[Ver. 4. The camel has a ball behind the cleft 
of the foot on which it treads. It comes, there- 
fore, under the class of those with hoofs not 
completely cloven. So also the swine in ver. 7 
is spoken of as dividing the hoof, because he 
does so in all common acceptation, and is so 
spoken of at this day, although anatomically he 
has four toes. Correspondingly in vers. 5, 6 
animals are spoken of which appear to the eye 
to cheiw the cud, although they do not really; 
because otherwise the people, guided by the ap- 
pearance, would be led into transgression. All 
these animals, it is needless to say, were eaten 



among siirrounding people, some by one nation, 
some by another. — F. G.] 

Vers. 9-12. "The clean aquatic animals are 
distinguished likewise by two characteristics — 
they must have fins and scales. All aquatic ani- 
mals, on the other hand, which have not these 
characteristics, should be not only unclean to 
them, but an abomination. The fish nature must 
thus appear distinctly marked. Of fitness for 
sacrifice, nevertheless, nothing is said here" 
[obviously because fish were not. included among 
sacrificial animals at all] ; " as food for fast days, 
fish could not possibly have been used by the Jews." 
[In this, as in the preceding law, the marks of 
distinction are to be understood of obvious ones: 
fins and scales that were apparent to the eye. 
As the law covers all that are in the waters, 
the Crustacea, lobsters, crabs, etc., and the mol- 
lusks, oysters, etc., are wholly forbidden. — E.G.] 
Vers. 13-19. "With reference to birds, the 
unclean varieties are named at length : eagles, 
hawks, fish-hawks, vultures, kites, and every 
thing of that kind, all kinds of ravens, the 
ostrich, the night-owl, the cuckoo, the kinds of 
sparrow-hawk, the eared owl, the swan, the 
horned owl, the bat, the bittern, stork, heron, 
jay, hoopoe, swallow. The clean kinds are not 
named; they are limited to a few examples. 
Pigeons and turtle-doves, however, were more 
especially made use of for sacrifice." ["Pigeons 
and turtle-doves" were the only birds used for 
sacrifice, but they are not mentioned here, be- 
cause this chapter is not concerned with sacri- 
fice. For the birds intended by this list of 
twenty Hebrew names, see the Textual notes. 
All the birds mentioned, so far as they can be 
identified, feed more or less exclusively upon 
animal food ; but no general characteristic is 
given. The list is probably only meant to in- 
clude those prohibited birds with which the 
Israelites were likely to come in contact. All 
not included in it, however, would have been 
lawful under a strict construction of the law. 
The bat is included in the prohibited list on the 
general principle of this whole nomenclature; it 
was popularly regarded as a bird. — F. G.] 

Vers. 20-25. "A remarkable exception is made 
by the varieties of locusts appended to the birds 
(locusts, crickets, grasshoppers, green grasshop- 
pers). It is as if these animals were to be an 
important object of game for the theocracy." 
[It is evident that they did, as in the case of John 
the Baptist, become an important item of food 
for the poorer classes, and as they are still in the 
desert regions adjoining Palestine. — F. G.] 
"But besides these, all winged (four-footed) in- 
sects are described as things to be avoided (not 
abominable)." [This is a general prohibition 
of all small flying creatures, having more than 
two feet. Creeping things in the original 
means also "things that swarm" ormultiplyin 
great numbers. Going upon all four seems in- 
tended, in contrast to birds which have only two 
feet, to include all that have more than two feet, 
and consequently creep in a horizontal position. 
It is so understood by Jewish writers. From 
this general prohibition the sallatoria are ex- 
cepted, which are still, as they have always 
been, used as an article of food by the poorer 
classes in the East. T..ese have, like the common 



CHAP, XI. 1-47. 



93 



grasshopper, very long hind legs for leaping. 
With this exception, this whole class of creatures 
is described in vers. 23-25 as abominable. Yet 
the living animal communicated no uncleanness 
by contact — only its dead body. This is a decla- 
ration immediately afterwards (vers. 27, 28) ex- 
tended also to the bodies of unclean quadrupeds, 
and also (vers. 39, 40) to the bodies of even clean 
animals that have died of themselves. Washing 
of the clothes (vers. 25, 28) required of those 
who bore their carcases was evidently because 
contact with the clothes could hardly be avoided 
in doing this. — F. G.] 

Vers. 26-28. "Once more the oharacteristica 
are enjoined — to which, however, the definition 
is added that also all beasts which go on paws 
(the stealthy-going beasts of prey) are to be con- 
sidered unclean." 

Vers. 29-38. " Moreover there is still a crowd 
of little animals named in which there is no at- 
tempt at a natural history classification, as a re- 
semblance has already appeared in the four- 
footed flying creatures. Mammalia: mole and 
mouse ; amphibia : the lizard, the Egyptian li- 
zard, the frog, the tortoise, the snail, the chame- 
leon. This division of various animals is more 
especially prominent because the individuals that 
compose it could easily make clean objects un- 
clean. First, the dead body of all these crea- 
tures is, and makes, unclean ; secondly, the wa- 
ter with which one has purified either himself or 
any object from them ; thirdly, utensils, meats 
and drinks which these creatures" [i.e., their 
dead bodies] "have touched, vers. 29-35. On 
the other hand, these animals cannot defile the 
spring, the cistern, or the seeds intended for 
sowing. The case is different with seed intended 
for food when wet with water, vers. 36-38." 
[The names of these creatures have already been 
treated in the Textual notes. It appears that, 
except the first mentioned weasel (or mole) and 
the mouse, they are all of the lizard family. But 
in vers. 32-38 the uncleanness produced by con- 
tact with their dead bodies is carried much fur- 
ther than in regard to the animals previously 
named, doubtless for the reason suggested by 
Lange that there was more likelihood of contact 
from them. Any thing of which use was made 
in doing work (ver. 32) must be soaked in water. 
Skin included in the list refers to the skins used 
for churning, for holding wine and other liquids, 
and for a variety of purposes. The earthen ves- 
sel (ver. 33) into which any of their bodies fell 
must be broken on the same principle, but with 
an opposite application, as in vi. 28. The ground 
in both cases is the absorbent character of 
unglazed earthenware; there it must be broken 
lest what it had absorbed of the "most holy offer- 
ing " should be defiled ; here lest the defilement 
it had itself absorbed should be communicated. 
In vera. 34 and 38 it is provided that if their 
carcase fell upon any food or seed in a dry 
state, it should not communicate defilement ; but 
if these were wet, they should be defiled. The 
reason of the distinction is evident — the moisture 
would act as a conveyor of the defilement. In 
ver. 35 the strong contamination of these dead 
bodies is still further expressed ; but in ver. 36 
an exception is made in favor of any large col- 
lection of water in fountains or cisterns, on the 



general principle that God " will have mercy ra- 
ther than sacrifice." — F. Q.] 

Vers. 89, 40. "Finally comes into considera- 
tion the carcase of the clean animal that has died 
a natural death. This also makes unclean (a) 
by contact, (6) by unconscious using thereof, (c) 
through carrying and throwing it away. The 
one defiled must wash his clothes and hold him- 
self unclean until evening." [Yet from vii. 24 it 
is evident that this precept applied to the dead 
body as a whole, not to the fat, or probably to 
the skin, when it had been separated. The rea- 
son for the uncleanness of the carcase was evi- 
dently that its blood had not been poured out, 
but was still in the veins and arteries;, and spread 
about in the flesh. This would not apply to the 
separate fat, nor to the skin, when properly 
cleaned. The provision for puiifioation of one 
who had eaten of the flesh may apply not only to 
unconscious eating (Lange), but also to eating in 
cases of necessity. It did not constitute a sin, 
but only a ceremonial defilement, for which 
purification was provided. — F. G.] 

Vers. 41, 42. "At last the true vermin are 
spoken of. Every thing that crawls, that goes 
on the belly (in addition to the division already 
given), four-footed vermin, and those having 
more than four feet (beetles)." [It was a curi- 
ous conceit, adopted from Miinster by some of 
the older writers, that flies and worms living 
upon fruit and vegetables are not here prohibited 
because they do not •' creep upon the earth." 
The text evidently intends to forbid all creep- 
ing things, and is especially comprehensive in 
ver. 43. Tiie Talmudists also exclude from the 
operation of the law all the minute creatures 
supposed by them to be spontaneously generated 
in vegetables, fruits, cheese, etc., and all the mi- 
nute parasitic animals. It is plain enough, how- 
ever, that the law, making its distinctions by ob- 
vious and popularly recognized marks, does not 
enter at all into minuiise of this sort.] 

Vers. 43-45. [Ye shall not make your- 
selves abominable. — Lit.] "Ye shall not 
make your souls an abomination — a strong ex- 
pression, but the key to this legislation. From 
tlie educational standpoint of the law for this 
morally infant people, purification must be made 
from all beastly conditions by a strong exclusion 
of all the lower animal forms, and the people 
thus be elevated to a consciousness of personal 
dignify. Therefore it is also further said that 
this is in conformity with the character of Jeho- 
vah your God. Ye shall therefore sanctify 
yourselves, and ye shall be holy — i. e., be- 
come sanctified personalities ; for I am holy — 
i.e., the absolute sanctified Personality. They 
could thus, by the defilement of their body, de- 
file also their souls. This also is made promi. 
nent: that Jehovah bringeth you up out of 
the land of Egypt, the country defiled by ani- 
mal worship." 

Vers. 46, 47. "This is the lav7. — Although 
it is not specifically extended over the whole ani- 
mal kingdom, it is still a general regulating prin- 
ciple according to which the distinctions are to be 
made. In principle, with this, the distinction is 
also introduced in regard to the vegetable king- 
dom, the contrast of edible and inedible plants. 



94 



LEVITICUS. 



Yet the application of this to the manner of 
living, to the usages, is left untold." 

" In regard to the law of clean animals, we 
have to distinguish different classes : the speci- 
fically clean, or cleanest animals, are those used 
in sacrifice — old and young cattle, sheep and 
goats, turtle-doves, and (young) pigeons. These 
animals form the common food of Jehovah and 
His people ; the symbolical food of Jehovah, and 
the actual food of the Israelites — a mark of the 
divine dignity of man, and of his designation e,a 
the image of God Of the vegetables : with this 
animal centre correspond the cereals, especially 
barley and wheat, incense, wine, and oil ; of the 
mineral kingdom, salt. The second class is 
made up of the clean animals which men were 
allowed to eat, but which were not fitted 
for sacrifice. The third class is made up of 
the unclean animals, the touch of which, — 
so long as Ihey are living, — does not make 
men unclean, but of which they are not al- 
lowed to eat, and whose carcase defiles them, 
(not the fat of the slain imiraals). In the fourth 
class, finally, are the repulsive animals, which 
even while living are repulsive at least to men, 
the creeping and crawl ng animals. That this 
classificatiou w.iis to -be symbolic of spiritual 
conditions is shown to us very clearly in the vi- 
sion of Peter in Acts x. ; but that the ordinary 
symbolism is limited by exiraordinary symboli- 
cal requirements is shown to us by the appear- 
ance of the eagle in the forms of the Cherubim. 
With the New Testament this symbolism gene- 
rally has reached its end, that is, face to face 
with Christian knowledge. But yet, condition- 
ally, it remains in the New Testament era pro- 
portionately through the Christian national cus- 
toms, as this can be deduced from the prohibition 
of the eating of blood, and of things strangled 
(Acts XV.). The condition of natural abhor- 
rence towards all repulsive objects certainly re- 
mains more or less -ineradicable, although even 
in this respect, necessity can break iron." 

" We should distinguish here most carefully 
between the theocratic teleological rules, which 
have a divine and ideal force, and their exem- 
plification, which belongs to the Jewish senaus 
communis, and its product, popular usage ; as is 
shown here, particularly by the example of the 
unruminating animals, the badger and hare 
(which seemed to the people to ruminate to some 
extent). Obstinacy in valuing the literal inspi- 
ration would certainly make here an irrecon- 
cilable conflict between theology, or even nomi- 
nal belief, and natural science, and the hare 
would become the favorite wild game of negation 
as Balaam's ass is its favorite charger." 

" In regard to the animals mentioned here, we 
must refer to the detailed treatment of Knobel 
and Keil, the quoted literature of the latter, and 
the natural history of Calwer and others." 

[It is to be observed that there is no defile- 
ment whatever produced by the contact with any 
living animal. The distinction between animals 
which are attractive and those which are repul- 
sive to man is not at all recognized ; nor Indeed, 
judging from the habits of different nations, 
would it be easy to draw any line of distinction 
on this ground. The law simply prescribes what 



animals shall be, and what shall not be used /or 
food — between the beast that may be 
eaten and the beast that may not be eaten, 
ver. 47. The distinction is nevertheless symbo- 
lical, as the line of separation is plainly so taken 
as to exclude from the list of the clean all carni- 
vara, except in the case of fish whose habits are 
to a great extent hidden under the waves from 
common observation. But while no living ani- 
mal defiled, the bodies of all dead animals, not 
properly slaughtered, did defile. The peculiar 
care with which defilement is guarded against 
in the case of the carcasses of certain of the 
smaller animals (vers. 29-38), seems to be due 
to the greater liability to contact with them. The 
degree of uncleanness occasioned by contact with 
the dead body of any animal which died of itself, 
was the same in all cases, vers. 2-5, 28, 31, 40, even 
in that of animals otherwise fit for food. The only 
exception is in case of sacrificial or food ani- 
mals when properly slaughtered, an exception 
obviously necessary unless sacrifices and animal 
food were to be prohibited. The Apostle has 
expressly taught " that there is nothing unclean 
of itself" (Rom. xiv. 14); and we must look 
therefore for the ground of the distinctions made 
in this chapter, not directly to anything in the 
nature of the various animals themselves, but to 
the educational object of the law. That educa- 
tional object, however, was of course best sub- 
served by having regard to such characteristics 
of the animals as should make the lessons to be 
taught most impressive and most easily appre- 
hended.— F. G.]. 

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL. 

I. The doctrinal significance of the distinction 
between animals clean and unclean for food, must 
be considered in view of two facts: first, that as 
far as food is concerned, this is distinctly a part 
of that law which was "added because of trans- 
gressions." It limited an earlier freedom, and 
it passed away when the law was superseded by 
a higher revelation. Secondly, that for the time 
while the law was in force — the whole period of 
Israel's national existence — these precepts vpere 
elevated into distinctly religious duties, resting 
upon the holiness which should characterize the 
people of a holy God (vers. 44, 45). These two 
facts can only be brought into harmony in view 
of the educational purpose of the law. The peo- 
ple, in their spiritual infancy, could only be 
taught purity by sensible symbols, and among 
these there was nothing which entered more tho- 
roughly into all the arrangements of daily life 
than the selection of food. By this, therefore, 
they were taught to keep themselves pure from 
all defilement which God had forbidden. 

II. The evil consequences attending a neglect 
of the precepts in this chapter are represented 
in a twofold aspect: First, there was sin in dis- 
obedience to these as to any other divine com- 
mands, and this is described as making your- 
selves abominable, (ver. 43). This phrase 
precisely is applied only to the eating of creep- 
ing things, but is implied in regard to the 
others (vers. 11, 13, 23). It carries with it the 
idea that he who offended in these matters put 
himself in that relation towards God in whioli 



CHAP. XI. 1-47. 



these things intended to stand towards man: — 
he had sinned by transgression, and thus made 
himself an abomination. The other aspect is 
that of the violation of the theocratic older, and 
here the penalty is very light. The kind of uii 
cleanness contracted in any of these instances 
found a sufficient purification in any case by the 
washing of the clothes and remaining unclean until, 
the evening. In cases of a secondary defilement 
of other things, they also must be similarly pu- 
rified, or be destroyed. Even the eating of a 
clean animal which had died a natural death re- 
quired no deeper purification. Here, then, the 
line is very distinctly drawn between ceiemouial 
defilement and moral sin, even when both were 
incurred by the same act. 

III. All commands to holiness, whether ex- 
pressed by symbolical act, or to be wrought out 
in the efforts of the spirit, rest upon the same 

ground. For I am the Lord your G-od 

I am holy. — This is the teaching alike of the 
Old and the New Testaments, and again brings 
out in a striking way the impossibility of any 
true communion between God and man except on 
the basis of man's restoration to holiness. This 
teaching has been already seen to be the object 
of the Levitical law in regard to sacrifices, and 
it is here none the less so when the law enters 
into the details of man's daily life. 

IV. While the unoleannesses here enumerated 
were purged simply and speedily if attended to 
at once, if neglected, they required (v. 2) the 
more serious expiation of the sin offering. Such 
is the nature of sin; like leaven, it is ever prone 
to spread and intensify its effects. 

v. " The cleanness of the animals for sacrifice 
and the purification of the saorifioer. Chaps, 
xi. — xvi." 

" Through sacrifice Isra 1 is made holy, i. e., 
they become in the fellowship of a personal God, 
a people of personal dignity belonging to God. 
The preliminary condition of sanctification by 
fire is the purification especially produced by 
water and blood. Only clean, or rather, purified 
men can serve as sacrificers in the presentation 
of clean animals." 

"Clean men must be circumcised, sanctified 
by the symbol of circumcision to the new birth 
under the power of Jehovah, and thus especially 
taken out from the confusion of the unclean 
world ; and so, too, the clean animals, as animals 
of civilization, form a contrast to the unclean 
creation, as the elite of domestic animals, some 
of which are too human, too sympathetic (horse, 
ass, and dog), while swine are too brutally un- 
clean to become domestic animals for the Is- 
raelites." 

" Cleanness is the negative side of holiness, and 
so purification is the negative side of sanctifica- 
tion." Lange, Dogmatik zum Lev. 

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL. 

The homiletical teaching of this chapter may 
be briefly summed up in the weighty words of 
the Apostolic proverb (1 Cor. xv. 33) " Evil onra- 
munications corrupt good manners." It is easy 
to deceive ourselves here. It is easy to work 
out plausible reasons why, particular divine com- 
mands may not be founded in the nature of 



things, and hence may not bo of binding force 
upon us. But all God's commands are binding, 
and he who chooses to violate them, however 
unimportant they may seem to him to be, incurs 
the risk of making himself an abomination. 

Sins in matters of little importance, intrinsi- 
cally and inadvertently committed, may, through 
the means which God has provided, be readily 
put away on repentance, and a true seeking of 
restored communion ; but if neglected, or passed 
over because they seem of little moment, they 
lead to a heavier guiltiness. 

The defiling effect of personal contact with 
that which is unclean is set forth in this chapter. 
Origen, in treating of it, calls attention to the 
corresponding effect of contact with that which 
is holy as illustrated by the restoration to life 
of the body of the man which touched the bones 
of Elisha (2 Kings xiii. 21), and of the womnn 
whose issue of blood was staunched when she 
had touched the hem of the Saviour's garment 
(Matt. ix. 20). Both serve to show the influence 
exerted upon us by our associations; the spiiic 
as surely as the body is defiled by contact with 
the unclean, and elevated by association with the 
pure. 

Certain moral qualities of men are commonly 
described by reference to the animal creation. 
As this is frequently done in the New Testament 
(Matt. vii. 15; x. 16; xxiii. 33; Luke xiii. 82; 
l?hil. iii. 2 ; 2 Pet. ii. 22, etc.), so it appears al- 
ways to have been common among mankind. 
Therefore, in the classification as clean, of those 
animals associated with excellent qualities, and 
as unclean of those associated with evil qualities, 
a praise of virtue and a condemnation of evil wag 
introduced into the domestic associations of the 
daily life. The neopssity of such teaching has 
passed away with the coming of the clearer light 
of the Gospel. 

Parting the hoof and chewing the cud are two 
marks of the clean animal which go together, 
and must both be found; though one maybe 
apparently possessed, yet if the other is wanting, 
the animal is unclean. This Origen applies to 
one who meditates upon and understands the 
Scriptures, but does not order his life in accord- 
ance with their teaching. So it may be applied 
to faith and works ; neither can truly exist with- 
out the other, and the semblance of either alone 
is unavailing. 

Positive Divine laws, simply as laws, and even 
without regard to their immediate object, have 
a high moral value from their educationary 
power. From the garden of Eden down, man 
has been always subjected to such laws. As 
disobedience to them has resulted in harm, and 
placed the transgressor in an attitude of opposi- 
tion to God; so has thefai'hful effort to obey 
them resulted in blessing, and brought those 
who have undertaken it into nearer relations 
to God. Whether the ground of the com- 
mand could be understood, or whether the 
act enjoined or forbidden might seem to man 
morally colorless, yet the simple habit of obe- 
dience has always had a most salutary effect. 
"A law, the fitness and utility of which we 
cannot discover by our natural reason, is more 
a test of the spirit of obedience than a moral rp- 
quirement that commends itself to our judgment 



96 



LEVITICUS. 



as good and proper ; because our compliance 
with the latter may be but a eompUment to our 
own iutelligence, and not at all an act of defer- 
ence to the divine authority." Hallam. The 
multitude of daily demands made upon the 
obedience of the Israelites offered to them a 
great opportunity of blessing, and is repeatedly 
declared to have been a test whether they had a 
heart to do God's will or no. Under the higher 



dispensation of the Gospel we are allowed to see 
moie clearly the grounds of the Divine com. 
uiundu; nevertheless, the opportunities of ren- 
diii'iag obedience, simply as obedience, without 
ueeiug the grounds upon which the command 
rests, is by no means entirely withdrawn from 
the Christian. Such opportunities improved are 
means of blessing, and become to us one of the 
many ways in which we " walk by faith and not 
by sight." 



SECOND SECTION. 

" The purification and cleanness of the human conditions of the offerers. The lying-in women. The 

leprosy in men^ in garments^ in houses. Sexual impurities andpurifica- 

tions. Chaps. XII. — XV" — Lange. 

Laws of Purification after Childbirth. 
Chapter XII. 
1, 2 And the Loeb spake unto Moses, saying. Speak unto the children of Israel, 
saying, If a woman have conceived' seed, and born a man child, then she shall be 
unclean seven days ; according to [as'] the days of the separation for her infirmity 

3 shall she be unclean. And in the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be cir- 

4 cumcised. And she shall then continue in' the blood of her purifying three and 
thirty days ; she shall touch no hallowed thing, nor come into the sanctuary, until 

5 the days of her purifying be fulfilled. But if she bear a maid child, then she shall 
be unclean two weeks, as in her separation : and she shall continue in the blood of 

6 her purifying threescore and six days. And when the days of her purifying are 
fulfilled, for a son, or for a daughter, she shall bring a lamb [sheep*] of the first 
year for a burnt ofiering, and a young pigeon, or a turtledove, for a sin ofiering, 

7 unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, unto the priest : who shall ofier 
it before the Loed, and 'make an atonement for her ; and she shall be cleansed 
from the issue of her blood. This is the law for her that hath born a male or a 

8 female. And if she be not able to bring a lamb [one of the flock'], then she shall 
bring two turtles, or two young pigeons ; the one for the burnt oflTering, and the 
other for a sin offering : and the priest shall make an atonement for her, and she 
shall be clean. 

TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL. 

> Ver. 2. ^■'IIP. ThB Sam. here has the Niphal. Comp. Gen. i. 11 for similar use of Hiphil. 

3 Yer. 2. ^D'*3- The text InBtitutea a comparison, saying that the one is the same as the other, rather than makes one 
the law for the other. 

8 Ver. 4. 7J?. There is no distinction in the A. V. between this and the preposition of the preceding verse. Two MS3. 
read here also ^0^^ as in ver. 4. 

« Ver. 6. bail. See Textual Note » on iii. 7. 

* Ver. 7. One MS., the Sam., LXX., and Syr., here supply the word priest, which is nereasarily understood from the 
connection. 

* Ver. 8. nty a di£ferent word from that in ver. 6, and used either of sheep or goats, but uccordmg to FUrt-t, only of the 
young of either. 

The previous chapter was addressed to Moses 
and Aaron conjointly, and so is the following, 
the latter part of ch. xiv. (beginning at ver. 88), 
and ch. xv. ; the present chapter and the earlier 
part of ch. xiv. are addressed to Moses alone. 
The reason of this difference seems to lie in the 
fact that the parts addressed to Moses alone are 
simple commands given to him as the legislator. 



EXEGETIOAL AND CRITICAL. 

Here begins a new parashah of the law extend- 
ing to xiii. 59; the parallel section of the pro- 
phets is 2 Kings iv. 42 — v. 19, a prominent sub- 
ject of which is the cleansing of Naaman from 
his leprosy. 



CHAP. XII. 1-8. 



97 



requiring no exercise of judgment in their appli- 
cation ; while those addressed to both called for 
more or less of a discrimination which was 
entrusted by the law to the priests. 

The previous chapter treated of unoleanness 
of men arising from the lower animals which, 
if attended to promptly, in no case required 
more for its purification than ablutions, and 
continued only until evening. This and the 
three following chapters treat of uncleanness 
arising from the human body, in most cases 
requiring expiatory sacrifices with various, and 
often prolonged, periods before the purification 
became complete. The various sources of this 
defilement are: child-bearing (xii.); leprosy 
(liii., xiv.) ; and certain secretions (xv.) ; to 
these is added in Num. xix. 11-16 the most in- 
tense of all defilements, that arising from con- 
tact with a human corpse. The omission of a 
vast mass of other sources of impurity, and 
restriction of rites of purification to these few, 
certainly indicates (as Keil has shown) that 
these are not simply regulations for the promo- 
tion of cleanliness, or of good morals and de- 
cency, but had a higher symbolical and educa- 
tional meaning. The defilement of child-bearing, 
which occupies the present chapter, is placed 
first not only because birth is the natural start- 
ing point for the treatment of all that concerns 
the human body, but also plainly to prevent any 
possible confusion between this defilement and 
those mentioned in ch. xv. 19-80. There is in- 
deed a certain degree of connection between the 
two, and this made it all the more necessary 
that this should be treated by itself, as being a 
different thing and resting upon different 
grounds. 

In regard to purifications in general, Ealisch 
says: "Next to sacrifices, purifications were 
the most important part of Hebrew rituals. 
Whenever both were prescribed together, the 
latter appeared indeed as merely preparatory to 
the former, since sacrifices were deemed the 
main agency of restored peace or holiness ; but 
purifications, like offerings, were frequently 
ordained as separate and independent acts of 
worship : closely entwined with the thoughts 
and habits of the Hebrews, they formed an 

essential part of their religious system 

The Hebrews ' purified,' or, as they understood 
the term, sanctified themselves, whenever they 
desired to rise to the Deity, that is, before 
solemn ceremonies and seasons, as sacrifices and 
festivals (Gen. xxxv. 2-4 ; 1 Sam. xvi. 6 ; oomp. 
2 Chron. XXX. 17) ; or whenever they expected 
the Deity to descend to them by some superna- 
tural manifestation, as a disclosure of heavenly 
wisdom, or a deed of miraculous power and help 
(Ex. xix. 10, 14, 15; Josh. iii. 5; vii. 13). 
Therefore, when in a state of impurity, they 
were forbidden to enter the sanctuary, to keep 
the Passover, and to partake of holy food, whe- 
ther of sacrificial meat, of sacred offerings and 
gifts, or of shew bread, because the clean only 
were fit to approach the holy God and all that 
appertains to Him (Lev. vii. 19-21 ; xxii. 3 ss. ; 
Num. ix. 6es. ; xviii. 11, 13; 1 Sam. xxi. 5)." 
Later he adds : " If compared with the purifica- 
tory laws of other nations, those of the Penta- 
teuch appear in a favorable light They 



exhibit no vestige of a dualism ; in every detail 
they are stamped by the monotheistic creed; 
God alone, the merciful, wise and omnipotent 
Buler, sends trials and diseases ; and no evil 
genius has the power of causing uncleanness. 
They are singular in the noble principles on 
which they are framed — the perfection and holi- 
ness of God ; and they are thereby raised above 
frivolity and unmeaning formalism. Moreover, 
it would be unjust to deny that they were un- 
derstood as symbols, or as means of sanctifica- 
tion ; to defile oneself and to sin, and also to 
cleanse and to hallow, are frequently used as 
equivalents. They must be pronounced simple 
if considered side by side with those of the Par- 
sees, the Hindoos, the Egyptians, or the Tal- 
mud." 

The connection here hinted at between un- 
cleanness and sin, between purity and holiness, 
is a very important one. It rests partly on a 
symbolism which finds place in all languages, 
and is abundantly recognized in the diction of 
the New Testament ; and partly upon that actual 
connection existing between the soul and the 
body (spoken of in the last chapter), whereby 
the one is deeply affected by the state and con- 
dition of the other. In both respects the edu- 
cational value of the Levitical laws of purity to 
a people in their spiritual infancy were of the 
utmost value. The importance of the symbolism 
was further enhanced by the broad distinction 
made between defilements arising from human 
and those from other sources, and connecting 
the sin offering only with the former. 

This chapter consists of two parts : vers. 1-5 
relate to the time of seclusion, vers. 6-8 to the 
means of purification. The following are Lange's 
Exegetical Notes on the chapter in full : 

" The origin of life makes man unclean in 
regard to his theocratic right of communion; 
just as death, or the touch of the dead, and no 
less that which impairs life — sickness, especially 
as it is represented by the leprosy, and so also 
every disturbance of the springs of life. But 
this surely does not mean that finite life itself 
was thought of as unclean, and that it must 
therefore be reconciled to the universal life 
(Bsehr II., p. 461, opposed to which Sommer 
and Keil) ; and it also does not mean that ori- 
ginal sin alone has produced all this darkening 
of life, although the natural condition appears 
here throughout laden with sinfulness; since 
we find directions for the purification of lying- 
in women among the most different nations (see 
Knobel, p. 466)." [The following brief sum- 
mary of some of these is given by Clark: " The 
Hindoo law pronounced the mother of a new- 
born child to be impure for forty days, required 
the father to bathe as soon as the birth had 
taken place, and debarred the whole family for 
a period from religious rites, while they were 
to 'confine themselves to an inward remem- 
brance of the Deity :' in a Brahmin family this 
rule extended to all relations within the fourth 
degree, for ten days, at the end of which they 
had to bathe. According to the Parsee law, the 
mother' and child were bathed, and the mother 
had to live in seclusion for forty days, after 
which she had to undergo other purifying rites. 
The Arabs are said by Burckhardt to regard 



98 



LEVITICUS. 



the mother as unclean for forty days. The 
ancient Greeks suffered neither child-birth nor 
death to take place within consecrated places : 
both mother and child were bathed, and the 
mother was not allowed to approach an altar 
for forty days. The term of forty days, it is 
evident, was generally regarded as a critical 
one for both the mother and the child. — The day 
on which the Romans gave the name to the 
child, the eighth day for a girl, and the ninth 
for a boy, was called lustricus diet, ' the day of 
purification,' because certain lustral rites in 
behalf of the child were performed on the occa- 
sion, and some sort of offering was made. The 
Amphidromia of the Greeks was a similar lustra- 
tion for the child, when the name was given, 
probably between the seventh and tenth days 
(Menu V. 62; Ayeen Akbery, Vol. II., p. 556; 
ZeudAvesta, ap. Bahr; Thucid. III. 104; Eurip. 
Iph. Taur. 382 ; Callim. Hym. ad Jov. 16, Hym. 
ad Del. 123 ; Censorin. De Die N'at. c. xi., p. 51 ; 
Celsus, II. 1 ; Festus, s. Lustrici Dies with the 
note in Lindemann, II. 480; Smith, Diet, of 
Aniiq. s. Amphidromia)." — F. G.]- — ^"But, in 
general, by this establishment of the unolean- 
ness of the natural processes of birth and death, 
the truth was expressed, that the ideal life of 
man was already a kind of immortal life, which 
had to raise itself above the natural conditions 
of human life — the natural side of his being — 
and set itself in opposition thereto." 

"If now any one says that all these regula- 
tions are not to be considered under the aspect 
of sanitary or dietetic, but only of typical or 
religious precepts, we must hold this antithesis 
to be thoroughly false; there are plain indica- 
tions that always, from the tree of knowledge 
down, especially from the circumcision, the one 
particular was joined with the other." 

" Ver. 2 ss. In regard to the uncleanness of 
lying-in women, in the first place there are two 
conditions to be distinguished: first, the time 
of their especial sickness; secondly, the time 
of their recovery through the blood (the issue 
of blood) of their purification. These times dif- 
fer according as she has borne a son or a daugh- 
ter. If the child be a boy, the time of her espe- 
cial sickness is fixed at seven days, exactly like 
the regulation in regard to the monthly courses. 
Then on the eighth day the circumcision of the 
boy was to follow, and from that time for thirty- 
three days — i-he eighth day reckoned in — she 
was to remain at home with the boy, engaged 
in a constant process of recovery and purifica- 
tion. But why are the seven days of her espe- 
cial uncleanness doubled to two weeks by the 
birth of a, girl t It is said that this has its 
foundation in the belief of antiquity that "the 
bloody and watery issues last longer after the 
birlh of a female than of a male " (see the cita- 
tions from Hippocrates [op. ed. Kiihn. i. p. 
893], Aristotle [Hist. anim. vi. 22; vii. 3], and 
Biirdach [Physiologie III., p. 34] in Keil). 
Whether this view formed a natural reason for 
the above regulation or not, there was certainly 
alsoatheocraticreaeonofimportanoe: theboy was 
circumcised— the girl was not; for thip ihe twice 
seven days might form an equivalent. The girl was 
BO far a Jewess, but not yet an Israelitess " \i. e. 
a descendant of Abraham after the flesh, but not 



yet incorporated with the chosen people. — F. 6.]. 
" It was now moreover the proper consequencs 
that the thirty-three days of recovery were 
doubled to sixty-six days, wherein, indeed, the 
law of circumcision is still more strongly re- 
flected. The totality of the forty days of purifi. 
cation at the birth of a boy corresponds to the 
former explanation of the forty days in the life 
of Moses and Elijah : it is the symbolical time 
of purification, of exclusion from the world, as 
it was extended for the whole people to forty 
years. And the doubling of the forty days in 
the case of the new-boru girl explains itself, if 
forty days are reckoned for the girl and forty 
for the mother ; a doubling which could not be 
applied to the circumcised boy. Moreover, the 
cooperation of the physical view, already noticed, 
may be also taken into consideration." [It is 
particularly to be noticed that the uncleanness 
continued only seven or fourteen days. During 
this time it appears from the analogy of xv. 19- 
24, the woman was unclean in the sense that 
every person and thing touched by her became 
itself unclean and capable of communicating de- 
filement. After this period, the woman was no 
longer unclean, but might perform at home all 
the ordinary duties of domestic life ; only she 
was forbidden to approach the sanctuary (t. e., 
the court of the tabernacle) until the time of her 
purification. The suggestion of Lange (which 
was also the opinion of Calvin) that the differ- 
ence in the length of time for the uncleanness 
and the purification at the birth of a boy or a 
girl was due to the fact of the boy's being for- 
mally received into the visible Church of God 
by circumcision, is a complete and satisfactory 
solution of a long-vexed question; but this so- 
lution necessarily carries with it the determina- 
tion that the law had respect to the child as well 
as to the mother. To this two objections are pro- 
posed : first, the case of still-born children; but 
tills was so exceptional that there was no occa- 
sion to provide for it in the law. When it did 
occur — if the principle above given is correct — 
there being no child for whom purification was 
required, the time would probably have been re- 
duced to that which was considered necessary 
for the mother alone. The other objection arises 
from the necessity of including the infant Jesus 
in the purification of the Virgin Mary, Lukeii. 
22 (where it is very observable that the Evange- 
list does not hesitate to say tow KaOapia/iov ai- 
rav*), but this is easily disposed of on the prin- 
ciple announced by Himself in regard to His 
baptism that " thus it becometh us to fulfil all 
righteousness" (Matt. jii. 15). This is the view 
taken by S. Augustine (Quaest. in Hept. L. III. 
40).— F. G.]. 

" Ver. 6. The equalization of girls with boys 
appears again in the appointed completing sacri- 
fice." [That is, in the time at which it was of- 
fered ; there was no distinction in the sacrifice 
itself —F. G.]. "And in this there is not first 
a sin offering brought, and then a burnt offering, 
as in the trespass offerings ; but first a costly 
burnt offering, as the expression of the conse- 
cration of the new life ; — namely, a year old 
lamb, and then a sin offering small in propor- 

* lo note on Luke ii, 22 the view taken by Ooateraee il 
that the plural refers to Mary aaJ Joseph. 



CHAP. XII. 1-8. 



99 



tion, a young pigeon, or a turtle-dore." [This 
order of the offerings is a remarkable deviation 
from the general principle that when the two of- 
ferings came together, the sin offering always 
preceded. The reason of this exception appears 
to lie in the fact that at the birth of a child feel- 
ings of joy and gratitude are naturally upper- 
most ; the thought of the child's heritage of Bin- 
fulness comes afterward. — F. G.]. "Only in 
case of necessity was the burnt offering reduced 
and made the same as in the sin offering." [This 
necessity seems to have be»n liberally interpre- 
ted by custom, and the smaller offering to have 
been allowed generally to the humbler classes 
of society. Comp. Luke ii. 22-24. The time of 
the offering also could not be before the fortieth 
or the eightieth day, but only a very strict con- 
struction of the law could forbid its being defer- 
red to a later period for those living at a distance 
from the sanctuary, as appears to have been 
done at the birth of Samuel, 1 Sam. i. 22-25. — 
F. G.]. "That bearing and being born, as well 
as being unclean through sickness and touching 
the dead, could not be thought of without human 
complicity in sin, or at least in guilt, was set 
forth by this law ; but how gently was this judg- 
ment expressed ! If it is now said of this saori- 
iioe from one point of view: for a son, for a 
daughter [ver. 6], and then again so she shall 
be clean [ver. 8], so again is the time, just as 
much as the sacrifice of purification, desiguated 
as common for mother and child. Keil is thus 
incorrect when he supposes that the woman did 
not require purification for the child, but only 
for herself. According to the fundamental prin- 
ciples of the Levitical law, it could not be con- 
ceived that a clean child lay on the breast of an 
unclean mother. In this very community of the 
Levitical uncleanness, this inner fellowship be- 
tween mother and child is raised above the sup- 
posed separation in their condition. It is evi- 
dent that the thing here treated of is indefinite 
sinfulness, but not " sins becoming known indi- 
rectly in the corporeal manifestation of them." 

" IJpon the laws of purity among other nations 
in regard to women in childbed, see Knobel, p. 
466, and so too on the circumcision, p. 467." 

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL. 

I. " The theocratic law is joined throughout 
with the sanitary law, without giving up its pre- 
dominating and symbolical Levitical signification. 
In the law of lying-in women there comes espe- 
cially into notice the connection or unity between 
mother and child, and the difference between 
the man-child and the woman-child. See the 
Exegetical." Lange. 

II. " The doctrine, echoed in a hundred 
creeds, that 'Purity is, next to life, the highest 
boon of man,' was among them also [the Isra- 
elites] a truth and a reality." Kalisch. 

III. " The fall oasts a shade of impenetrable 
darkness over the birth of a child of man. All 
that reason can say is, that this is another child 



of sin and heir of death. . . . The mother in Is- 
rael ia here taught that while there is impurity 
and guilt connected with the bearer and the born 
of the fallen race, yet there is a propitiation on 
which she may rely for herself and for her off- 
spring, and a purification which she has for her- 
self, and may confidently expect for her child, 
while she trains him up in the way he should 
go." Murphy. 

IV. This chapter shows clearly in the differ- 
ence between the times of uncleanness and of 
purification at the birth of a boy and of a girl, 
the difference in relation to the ancient church 
brought about by circumcision. The Christian 
church has taken the place of the Jewish, and 
baptism has taken the place of circumcision ; the 
same relation therefore may be expected to hold 
between these. 

V. Inasmuch as a sin offering was to be pre- 
sented conjointly for the mother and the new- 
born child, the doctrine of original sin is plainly 
taught in this law. Origen (Hom. viii. in Lev., 
^3) draws the same conclusion from the fact 
that baptism is appointed " for the remission of 
sins," and yet is administered to infanta. 

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL. 

As the primeval curse on sin fell, for the wo- 
man, on child-bearing, so in child-bearing she 
becomes by the law unclean, and must present 
for her purification a sin offering. That curse 
remaina and atill clinga to every child of sin 
coming into the world ; for purification resort 
must be had to that true Propitiation for sin 
of which the sin offering was a type. 

" As the mother and her child emerge out of 
the impurity, ahe learns to hope for the day when 
both will emerge out of the bondage and corrup- 
tion of sin ; as the child is circumcised on the 
eighth day, the confiding parents pray and wait 
and watch and work for the circumcision of the 
heart, which is hopefully foreshadowed by the 
outward rite ; as the mother offers her burnt 
sacrifice and sin sacrifice she rejoices in the 
knowledge that there is a propitiation that ia 
sufficient for her, and for her children, and for 
her children's children to all generations." 
Murphy. 

" The priestly people of God have always a war 
to wage with the defilements of the natural life. 
Even the uncleanness which belongs to the na- 
tural vigor of a lying-in woman, and to a new- 
born child, must be taken away and atoned for." 
Lange. 

In accordance with this law, " on the fortieth 
day after His birth from the Blessed Virgin's 
womb, Christ, the second Adam, our Emmanuel, 
was presented in the substance of our flesh ; and 
on the fortieth day after His resurrection, or 
birth from the grave (Col. i. 18 ; Rev. i. 5), He 
was presented in our flesh in the heavenly sanc- 
tuary, and we were presented in Him in the 
dress of a cleansed and glorified humanity," 
Wordsworth. 



100 



LEVITIcuisr 



THIRD SECTION. 

Laws Concerning Iieprosy 

Chaps. XIII., XIV. 



PRELIMINARY NOTE. 



The disease of leprosy has happily become so 
rare in modern times in the better known parts 
of the world that much obscurity rests upon its 
pathology. The attempt will only bo made here 
to point out those matters which may be consi- 
dered as fixed by common consent, but which 
will be found sufficient for the illustration of the 
more important poinis in the following chapters. 

In the first place, then, it appears indisputable 
that leprosy is a broad name covering several va- 
rieties of disease more or less related to one 
another. These are separable into two main 
classes, one covering the different forms of Ele- 
phantiam (tuberculated and anaesthetic) ; the 
other, (he Lepra vulgaris. Psoriasis, Syphilis, etc. 
It is the former class alone with which Leviticus 
has to do as a disease. At the present time the 
tuberculated variety is said to be the more com- 
mon in those countries in which leprosy still ex- 
ists to any considerable extent, while the anaas- 
thetic was probably more prevalent in the time 
of Moses. The latter is described by Celsus un- 
der the name of Tiehnj], and Keil maintains that 
the laws of Moses in regard to leprosy in man 
relate exclusively to this. Clark, however, has 
shown " that the two in a great number of oases 
work together, and as it did in the days of 
Moses, the disease appears occasionally in an 
ambiguous form." Wilson has recorded a num- 
ber of cases in detail, showing the interchange 
of the two forms in the same patient. The symp- 
toms of the dise ise intended by Moses sufficiently 
appear in the text itself, and if these symptoms 
cover what would now appear in medical no- 
menclature as different diseases, then all those 
diseases, classified under the general name of 
leprosy were intended to be included in the Le- 
vitioal legislation. 

Nothing whatever is said in the law either of 
the origin, the contagiousness, or the cure of 
the disease. In modern experience it seems to 
have been sufficiently proved that it is heredi- 
tary, but only to the extent of three or four gen- 
erations, when it gradually disappears; neither 
is it in all oases hereditary, the children of le- 
pers being sometimes entirely unaflFected by 
leprosy, and on the other hand the disease often 
appearing without any hereditary taint. In its 
first appearance it is now often marked only by 
some slight "spot" upon the skin, giving no 
pain or other inconvenience, but obstinately re- 
sisting all efi'orts at removal, and slowly but ir- 
resistibly spreading. Sometimes months, some- 
times years, even to the extent of twenty or 
thirty years, intervene between the first appear- 
ance of the " spots " and their development. It 



is not improbable that in the course of many 
centuries a considerable modification in the ra- 
pidity of its progress may have taken place in a 
disease which is found gradually to die out by 
hereditary transmission. The question of its 
contagiousness is still much mooted among the 
medical faculty. The better opinion seems to be 
that it is not immediately contagious, but is pro- 
pagated by prolonged and intimate intercourse 
in the case of susceptible persons. A( least it 
is certain that in all known instances of the pre- 
valence of the disease one of the most important 
of the means of control has been the segregation 
of the lepers, and where this precaution has 
been neglected, the disease has continued to pre- 
vail. After the leprosy has once acquired a cer- 
tain degree of development, there is no known 
means of cure. Everything hitherto attempted 
has been found to rather aggravate than miti- 
gate the disorder. It is asserted that it yields 
to medical treatment in its earliest stages when 
the "spots" first appear, and a number of dis- 
tinct cases of cure are recorded; but the doubt 
will always remain whether the disease which 
yields is really leprosy, or whether something 
else has not been confounded with an undevel- 
oped stage of the true disease. However this 
may be, it is certain that after it has once be- 
come developed to any considerable extent it is 
incurable by any remedies at present known, 
although spontaneous cures do sometimes occur. 
The reliance for its control is more upon diet, 
cleanliness, and general regimen, than upon spe- 
cific antidotes. 

Medical observations upon the disease in mo- 
dern times have been made in the island of Gua- 
daloupe, where it broke out about the middle of 
the last century, and was very carefully investi- 
gated by M. Peyssonel, a physician sent out by 
the French government for the purpose. An ac- 
count of the result of his examination, as well as 
of other investigations of English, French, and 
German physicians in other islands of the West 
Indies whither it had been imported from Africa, 
and in other parts of the world is given by Mi- 
ohaelis (Laws of Moses, Art 208, 210). Also of 
especial importance is a " Report on the leprosy 
in Norway by Dr. Danielssen, chief physician of 
the leper hospital at Bergen, and Prof. Boeok' 
(Paris, 1848). The subject of late years has 
considerably interested physicians, and the Lon- 
don " College of physicians " have published a 
report upon it, based upon a series of questions 
addressed to nearly all parts of the world where 
the disease now prevails. Many other authori- 
ties are cited by Clark in his preliminary not* 



PRELIMINARY NOTE ON LAWS CONCERNING LEPROSr. 



101 



,0 these chapters. A particularly valuable dis- 
mssion of the disease may be found in Wilson, 
Diseaiea of the akin, ch. xiii. (5th Am. Ed., pp. 
iOO-314 and 333-381). The disease appears to 
lave been more or less common in Western Eu- 
rope from the eighth century down, but received 
1 great extension at the time of the crusades. 
It one time a partial enumeration by Dugdale 
mentions eighty-five leper bouses in England 
ilone, six of which were in London, and it con- 
iinued to linger in Scotland until the middle of 
Lhe last century. It still exists to a considerable 
sxtent in Iceland and Norway, and in all the 
iountries bordering the Eastern shores of the 
Mediterranean, especially Syria and Egypt, 
irhere it has found a home in all ages, in some 
parts of Africa, Arabia, and India. 

The characteristics of the disease are the ex- 
seedingly slight symptoms at its first appear- 
inoe ; its insidious, and usually very slow pro- 
cess, the horribly repulsive features of its later 
stages when the face becomes shockingly disfi- 
gured, and often the separate joints of the body 
become mortified and drop off one by one ; and 
its usually sudden and unexpected termination 
it the last, when the leprosy reaches some vital 
organ, and gives rise to secondary disease, often 
lysentery, by which life is ended. Meanwhile, 
during the earlier stages, generally very pro- 
longed, there is no suffering, and the ordinary 
enjoyments of life are uninterrupted. 

Leprosy, with these characteristics, especially 
its hidden origin, and its insidious and resistless 
progress, has always seemed a mysterious dis- 
ease, and among the heathen as well as among 
the Jews, has been looked upon as an infliction 
especially coming from God. In fact in Hebrew 
history it was so often employed in Divine judg- 
ments, as in the case of Miriam, of Gehazi, and 
of Dzziah, and was also so often healed by mi- 
raculous interposition, as in the case of Miriam 
iIbo, and of Naaman, as to give some reason for 
;his belief; while the peculiar treatment it re- 
seived in the law tended still further to place 
eprosy in a position of alienation from the theo- 
;ratio state, and actually included the leper in 
hat " uncleanness " which was utterly excluded 
'rom approach to the sanctuary. The disease 
hus became a vivid symbolism of sin, and of the 
ipposition in which this stands to the holiness 
if Ood ; while at the same time its revolting as- 
)ect in its later stages made it such an image, 
md indeed a beginning, of death itself that it is 
iften most appropriately described by Jewish as 
cell as other writers as " a living death." Much 
if the association with death and the body in 
he corruption of death, thus attached to leprosy 
md the corruption at work in leprosy. It is not 
lecessary here to speak of the prevailing He- 
irew notion that all suffering was the conse- 
[uence of individual sin, and was proportioned 
n severity to the degree of that sin ; for how- 
ver deeply seated such ideas may have been in 
he minds of many of the Israelites, and however 
Mch they may have increased the popular dread 
nd abhorrence of leprosy, they find no shadow 
f encouragement whatever in the law. 
In regard to what is called "leprosy" in 
onses, in textile fabrics, and in leather, it is 
ot necessary to suppose that the name is in- 



tended to convey the idea of an organic disease 
in these inanimate things. Tbe law will still be 
BuflSciently clear if we look upon the name as 
merely applied in these oases to express a kind 
of disintegration or corruption, such as could ba 
most readily and popularly described, from cer- 
tain similarities in appearance, by the figurative 
use of the word. In the same way the terms out 
of joint, sick, and others have come among our- 
selves to be popularly used of inanimate things, 
and such words as blistered, bald, and rotten, have 
a technical figurative sense almost more common 
than their original literal one. These modes of 
disintegration have been often investigated with 
great learning and labor; but it is not surprising 
that at this distance of time, and after such pro- 
found changes in the arts and the habits of men, 
the result of all such investigations should re- 
main somewhat unsatisfactory. Just enough 
has been ascertained to show that inanimate 
things, of the classes here described, are sub- 
ject to processes of decay which might be aptly 
described by the word leprosy ; but precisely 
what the processes were to which the Levitical 
law had reference it is probably impossible now 
to ascertain definitely. The most satisfactory 
treatment of the subject from this point of view 
is to be found in Miohaelis {ubi supra. Art. 
211). He instances in regard to houses, the 
formation of saltpetre or other nitrous salts 
upon the walls to such an extent in some parts 
of Germany as to become an article of com- 
mercial importance, and to be periodically 
scraped off for the market. By others the exist- 
ence of iron pyrites in the dolomitic limestone 
used for building in Palestine has been suggested 
as leading in its decomposition to precisely the 
appearances described in the law — hollow streaks 
of the green ferrous sulphate and the red of fer- 
ric sulphate — upon the walls of the houses af- 
fected ; but proof is wanting of the existence in 
that stone of pyrites in sufficient abundance to 
produce the effects contemplated in the law. 
Both these explanations, however, are suggestive 
of methods of disintegration which might have 
occurred, but for the determination of which we 
have not sufficient data. It is the same with the 
explanation of Michaelis in regard to woolen 
fabrics, — that the wool itself is affected by dis- 
eases of the sheep upon which it has grown. 
The fact itself does not seem sufficiently well au- 
thenticated ; nor if it were, would it be applica- 
ble to garments of linen. Nevertheless, this is 
suggestive of defects in the materials, — which 
were in all cases of organic production — arising 
either from diseased growth, or from unskilful- 
ness in the art of their preparation, which would 
after a time manifest themselves in the product, 
much in the same way as old books now some- 
times become spotted over with a "leprosy" 
arising from an insufScient removal of the chemi- 
cals employed in the preparation of the paper 

But whatever the nature and origin of this sort 
of "leprosy," it is plainly regarded in the Levi- 
tical law as is no sense contagious, or in any way 
calculated to produce directly injurious effects 
upon man. It is provided for in the law, it 
would appear, partly on the general ground of 
the inculcation of cleanliness, and partly from 



102 



LEVITICUS. 



association with the human disease to which it 
bore an external resemblance, and to which the 
utmost repugnance was to be encouraged. Even 
the likeness and suggestion of leprosy was to be 
held unclean in the homes of Israel. 

No mention has thus far been made of a theory 
of this disease adopted by many physicians, and 
which, if established, might really assimilate the 
leprosy in houses and garments and skins to that 
in the human body, and explain the origin of all 
alike by the same cause. According to this 
theory, the disease is occasioned by vegetable 
spores, which find a suitable nidus for their de- 
velopment either in the human skin or in the 
other substances mentioned. If this theory 
should be accepted, the origin and effects of the 
disintegrating agencies would be the same in all 
cases. The late eminent physician, Dr. J. K. 
Mitchell, in hin work upon the origin of mala- 
rious and epidemic fevers {Mve Essays, p^ 94), 
after quoting the law in relation to leprosy, 
says : " There is here described a disease whose 
cause must have been of organic growth, capable 
of living in the human being, and of creating 
there a foul and painful disease of contagious 
character, while it could also live and reproduce 
itself in garments of wool, linen, or skin ; nay 
more, it could attach itself to the walls of a 
house, and there also effect its own reproduction. 
Animalcules, always capable of choice, would 
scarcely be found so transferable ; and we are 
therefore justified in supposing that green or red 
fungi so often seen in epidemic periods, were the 
protean disease of man, and his garment, and 
his house." He further quotes from Heoker 
statements corroboratory of his views in regard 
to the plagues of 786 and 959. This theory, how- 
ever, has not here been urged, partly because it 
yet needs further proof, partly because no theory 
at all is necessary to account for the Levitical 
legislation in view of the facts presented in the 
law. 

For the literature of the subject, besides the 
reference above given, see the art. by Hayman, 
Leper, Leprosy, in Smith's Bibl. Diet., and the 
Preliminary note on these chapters in Clark's 
Com. on Lev., together with the appended notes 
to the same. 

At the opening of his "Exegetical" Lange 
has the following, which may be appropriately 
placed here : " First of all, it must be made pro- 
minent that the leprosy, under the point of view 
taken, and the sentence of uncleanness, is placed 
as a companion to the uncleanness of birth, as 
the representative of all ways of death, of all 
sicknesses. It is unclean first in itseK, as a death 
element in the stream of life — in the blood — even 
as the source of life appears disturbed in the re- 
lations of birth ; but still more it is unclean as 
a sickness spreading by transmission and con- 
tagion. 

"Hence it appears also as a polluting element 
of physical corruption, not only in men, but also 
through the analogy of an evil diffusing iteelf, in 
human garments and dwellings. The analogous 
evils of these were, on this accotint, called lep- 
rosy. 

" In this extension over man and his whole 
sphere it is, in its characteristics, a speaking 
picture of sin and of evil the punishment of sin ; 



it is, Bo to speak, the plastic manifestation, the 
medical phantom or representation of all the 
misery of sin. 

" Accordingly the leprosy, and the contact 
with it, is the specific uncleanness which ex- 
cluded the bearer of it from the theocratic com- 
munity, BO that he, as the typically excommuni- 
cated person, must dwell without the camp. 

" Nothing is here said of the application of 
human means of healing in reference to this evil. 
The leper was left with his sickness to the mercy 
of God and to the wonderfully deep antithesis of 
recovery and death ; the more so, since leprosy 
in a peculiar sense is a chronic crisis, a progres- 
sive disease, continually secreting matter, whe- 
ther for life or for death. Mention is made of 
external count eraction only in regard to leprosy 
in garments and houses. Hence, from its na- 
ture, it is altogether placed under the supervi- 
sion of the priest. The priest knew the charac- 
teristics of the leprosy, and the course of its 
crises; he had accordingly to decide upon the 
exclusion and upon the restoration of the sick, 
and to express the latter by the performance of 
the sacrifice of purification brought for this pur- 
pose by the convalescent. 

"Thus in conformity to the spirit of Oriental 
antiquity, the priest here appears as the physi- 
cian also for bodily sicknesses, as a watchman 
over the public health. But for the cosmic evils 
he was still less a match than for those of the 
body ; against such the prophet must reveal mi- 
raculous helps, e. g., against the bitterness of 
the water, and against the bite of the fiery ser- 
pents. 

" The great contrast between the Old and the 
New Testaments is made prominent in the fact, 
that in the Old Testament the touch of the leper 
made unclean, — apparently even leprous; — while 
Christ by His touch of the lepers cleansed them 
from their leprosy. But it continued to be left 
to the priest, as the representative of the old co- 
venant, to pronounce the fact. See Comm. 8. 
Matt., p. 150." 

" The name Leprosy, n^]}X is derived from 
Jfyi to strike down, to strike to the ground; the 
leprosy is the stroke of God. Gesenius distin- 
guishes the leprosy in men, the leprosy in houses 
(probably the injury done by saltpetre), and the 
leprosy in garments (mould, mildew). On this 
chronic form of sickness, fully equal to the acute 
form of the plague, comp. the article Leprosy 
(Aussatz) in the dictionaries, especially in Her- 
zog's Real-encyclopddie, and in Winer. Four 
principal forms are distinguished, of which three 
are particularly described by Winer: 1) The 
white leprosy, Barras, levKi/. " This prevailed 
among the Hebrews (2 Kings v. 27, etc.) and has 
hence been called by physicians lepra Hfosaica. 
See the description in Winer, I. p. 114. 2) The 
Elephantiasis, lepra nodosa, or tuberculosa, tuber- 
cular leprosy, Egyptian boil, thus endemic in 
Egypt. " The sickness of Job was commonly 
considered in antiquity to have been this kind 
of leprosy." 3) The black leprosy or the dark 
Barras. Later medical researches (to which the 
articles in Bertheau's Conversations-lexicon, and 
Schenkel's Bibel-lexieon refer) show the differ- 
ences between the various kinds as less defined; 



CHAP. XIII. 1— XIV. 57. 108 



the contagious character is called in question by 
Furrer (in Schenkel). In this matter indeed, it 
is a question whether the rigid isolation of the 



leprous has not hindered, in a great degree, the 
examples of contagion." For a catalogue of 
the literature, see Knobel, p. 469 and beyond. 



A.— EXAMINATION AND ITS RESULT. 
Chapter XIII. 1-46. 



1, 2 And the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron, saying, When a man shall have 
in the skin of his flesh a rising, a scab, or bright spot, and it be in the skin of the 
flesh like the plague [a spot^] of leprosy ; then he shall be brought unto Aaron the 

3 priest, or unto one of his sons the priests : and the priest shall look on the plague 
[spot^] in the skin of the flesh : and when the hair in the plague [spot'] is turned' 
white, and the plague [spot'] in sight be deeper than the skin^ of his flesh, it is a 
plague [spot'] of leprosy : and the priest shall look on him, and pronounce him 

4 unclean. If the bright spot be white in the skin of his flesh, and in sight be not 
deeper than the skin, and the hair thereof be not turned' white ; then the priest 

5 shall shut up Mm thai hath the plague [shall bind up the spot*] seven days : and 
the priest shall look on him the seventh day : and, behold, if the plague [spot'] in 
his sight be at a stay, and the plague [spot'] spread not in the skin ; then the 

6 priest shall shut him up [shall bind it up*] seven days more : and the priest shall 
look on him again the seventh day : and, behold, if the plague be somewhat dark 
[spot' be somewhat faint^], and? the plague [spot'] spread not in the skin, the priest 
shall pronounce him clean : it is but a scab : and he shall wash his clothes, and be 

7 clean. But if the scab spread much abroad in the skin, after that he hath been 

8 seen of the priest for his cleansing, he shall be seen of the priest again : and if the 
priest see that, behold, the scab spreadeth in the skin, then the priest shall pro- 
nounce him unclean : it is a leprosy. 

9 When' the plague [spot'] of leprosy is in a man, then he shall be brought unto 
10 the priest ; and the priest shall see him : and, behold, if the rising be white in the 

TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL. 

Note. — K free tratislation of this chapter in terms of modern m edical science may be fourd in Wilson, p. 377. 

^ Ver. 2. yjj, a word of very frequent occnrrence in these two chapters where it is uniformly 'translated ia the A. V. 

(pxc^'pt xiii. 42, 43, sore) plague, as it is al^o in Gen. xii. 17 ; Ex. xi. 1 ; Deut. xxiv. 8 (in reference also to leprosy) ; 1 Kings 
viii. 37, 38 ; Ps. xci. 10. Elsewhere the renderings of the A. "V. are very various : sore, atrohe., stripe, wmmd. By far th > 
moBt comraon rendering in the LXX. i-t oLfi>7i=tactua, ictus. The idea of the word is a strohe or blow, and then the effect of 
this in a Motwid or ifpnt. CUrk t'lerefure would translate here stroke, which meets well enough the meaning of the word 
itself, but does not in all cases convey the sense in English. It is perhaps impoBtjible to find one word in English which 
(an be used in all cas^-s; but that which seems best adapted to Leviticu'i is thw one given by Horsley and Lee, and adopted 
here: spot. So Ke'l, Wilson and others. There is no a'-tic!e in the Ileb. 

3 Ver. 3. The senae is here undoubtedly the scarf shin (Clark), IM cut.icJe, in contradistinction to the cutis, the true skin 
below. So Wilson, who says: "This distinction in reality constirut s one of the most important points of diagnosis between 
real leprosy and affections of the skin otherwise resemlding l-^prosy." But as we have in Heb. only the one word ^ij; for 
both (except the ajr. Key. 'wi. Job xvi. 15), there does not seem to be warrant for changing the translation, especially aa 

in Baplish slein answers to either with the same indefiniteness. 

8 Ver. 4. The co struction in vers. 3, 4 and 10 is without a preposition ; in veiB. 16 and 17 it is with the preposition 

7, aa is expressed in the A. V, 

' Vers. 4, 6, etc. According to RosenmUller and Oesenins, ^J] is used by metonymy for the person upon whom it is. 

This view is adopted by Lange. It apnears in the Targ. of Onk. and in the Vulg., and has been followed by the A. V. Far 
batter ia the rendering of the Sam., LXX. and Syr. : the priest shall bind wp the spot, or sore. This is the exact translation of 
the Heb., and is advocated bv Horsley, Boothroyd, and many others. Fuerst does not recognize the sense by metonymy. 
Thi same change should perhaps also be made in v-r. 12. See Exegesis. In the case of shutting up the leprous house 
(xiv. 38) the word hotise is distinctly expressed in the Heb. 

' Ver. 6. 'nr\3=dim, pale, faint, weak, dying. The idea ia that of s.mething in the process of fading away, disappear- 
ing. LXX. afiavpd., Vulg. ohscurior. 

* Ter. 6. It does not appear why the coniunction in the A. V. should be printed in italics; it is, however wanting in 
18 MSS., the Sam., and LXX. 

' Ver. 9. The conjunction is wanting in the Heb., but is supplied in the Sam. and versions. 

^ Vers. 10 and 24. n^HO, ac-ordingto Roa^'Hrnuell-'r and Fuerst are indic/Yion, and this is the sense given in Targ., 
Onk, and the Syr., and apparently also in the Vulg. The LXX. renders airo toO u-yioOs t^s crapKos t^s ^uotj? ev ry ovKy, 



104 LEVITIv^uo. 



skin, and it have turned' the hair white, and there be quick [a mark oP] raw flesh 

11 in the rising ; it is an old leprosy in the skin of his flesh, and the priest shall pro- 
nounce him unclean, and shall not shut him up [bind it up*] : for he is unclean. 

12 And if a leprosy break out abroad in the skin, and the leprosy cover all the 
skin of him that hath the plague [spot^] from his head even to his foot, wheresoever 

13 the priest looketh ; then the priest shall consider : and, behold, if the leprosy have 
covered all his flesh, he shall pronounce him clean that hath the plague [pronounce 

14 the spot' clean*] : it [he'] is all turned white : he is clean. But when raw flesh 

15 appeareth in him, he shall be unclean. And the priest shall see the raw flesh, and 

16 pronounce him to be unclean : for the raw flesh is unclean : it is a leprosy. Or if 
the raw flesh turn [change'"] again, and be changed [be turned'"] unto white, he 

17 shall come unto the priest; and the priest shall see him: and, behold, i/" the plague 
[spot'] be turned into [unto"] white ; then the priest shall pronounce him clean 
that hath the plague [prononnce the spot' clean*] : he is clean. 

18 The flesh ^so, in which," even in the skin thereof, was a boil," and is healed, 

19 and in the place of the boil'* there be a white rising, or a bright spot, white, and 

20 somewhat reddish [and glistening'^], and it be shewed to the priest ; and if, when 
the priest seeth it, behold, it be in sight lower than the skin, and the hair thereof 
be turned white ; the priest shall pronounce him unclean : it is a plague [spot'] of 

21 leprosy broken out of the boil.'* But if the priest look on it, and, behold, there be 
no white hairs therein, and if it be not lower than the skin, but be somewhat dark 

22 [faint'] ; then the priest shall shut him up [shall bind it up*] seven days : and if 
it spread much abroad in the skin, then the priest shall pronounce him unclean : 

23 it is a plague [spot']. But if the bright spot stay in his place, and spread not, it 
is a burning boil [a scar of the boil'"] ; and the priest shall pronounce him clean. 

24 Or if there be any flesh, in the skin whereof there is a hot burning [a bum by 
fire'"], and the qaick flesh that bumeth [the mark of the burn'] have a white bright 

25 spot, somewhat reddish [glistening"], or white : then the priest shall look upon it : 
and, behold, if the hair in the bright spot be turned white, and it he in sight deeper 
than the skin ; it is a leprosy broken out of the burning : wherefore the priest shall 

26 pronounce him unclean : it is the plague [spot'] of leprosy. But if the priest look 
on it, and, behold, there be no white hair in the bright spot, and it be no lower than 
the other [omit other] skin, but be somewhat dark [faint'] ; then the priest shall 

27 shut him up [shall bind it up*] seven days : and the priest shall look upon him 
the seventh day ; and if it be spread much abroad in the skin, then the priest shall 

28 pronounce him unclean : it is the plague [spot'] of leprosy. And if the bright spot 
stay in his place, and spread not in the skin, but it be somewhat dark [faint^] : it 
is a rising of the burning, and the priest shall pronounce him clean : for it is an 
inflammation [a scar"] of the burning. 

taking the TD as a prepositioD, and nnderatanding it, ob the Babbins, of a spot of prond flesh in the midst of the cicatrice. 
The margin of the A. Y. is the guiokenijj^ of living JUish; scar would express the sense, but this is appropriated to nD'IX, 

V VT 

vera. 23, 28, and vtarh gives the exact rendering of the Hebrew, and meets the requirements of the context. 
• Ver. 13. The prononn should obviously refer to the man rather than the spot, 

10 Ver. 16. IjSnj. This being the same verb as is used in vers. 3, 4, 17, in the same sense, the rendering shonld cer- 
tainly be the same. The alteration in the A. V. was evidently on account of the previous translation of ^VO^ by hiro. 

T 

It is better to put the new word there. 

11 Ver. 17. The preposition is the same as In the previous ver.s6, and the change in the A. V. may have been simply 
accidental. 

1* Ver. 18. The word 1^ seems redundant, and is wanting in 4 MSS. and the Sam. 

» Ver. 19. nO^DlN. The reduplication of the letters in Heb. always intensifies the meaning (see Bochart, BSerm. Pt. 

n., lib. v., c. vi., Ed. Rosen, m., p. 612 88.); if therefbre this be translated red at all, it must be very red, which would be 
inconsistent with tV'e previous white. This obvious inconsistency has led the ancient versions into translations represented 
by tho somewhat reddiah of the A. V., and frequently to rendering the previous conjunction or. But ae there is no conjunc- 
tion at all in the Heb., it seems better to follow the suggestion of Pool, Patrick and others, and understand the word as 
meaning very bright, shining, glistening. Comp. the description of leprosy, Ex. iv. 6 ; Num. xii. 10 ; 2 Kings v. 27. 

w Vers. 18 (fcis), 20, 23. rHK/, burning ulcer, would perhaps be a better, because a more general word; but boU was 
probably understood with sufiQcient latitude. 

^ Vers, 23 and 28. [TIK'n fl^lS, niDBil 'S, Kosenmneller, cicatrix ukerie. So all tho ancient versions, and so 
Gesenius. So also Ooverdale and Oranmer, and so Kigjrs. Fuerst, however, injlammation. 

1' Ver. 24. The margin of the A. V. is better than the text. This paragraph (vers. 24-28) is plainly in relation to lep- 
rosy developing from a burn on the skin. So Qesen, Fuerst, Pool, Patrick, etc. So the LXX. and Vulg. 



CHAP. XIII. 1— XIV. 57. 108 



29, 30 If a man or woman have a plague [spot'] upon the head or the beard ; then 
the priest shall see the plague [spot'] : and, behold, if it he in sight deeper than the 
skin ; and there be in it a [omit a] yellow thin hair ; then the priest shall pronounce 

31 him unclean : it is a dry scall, even a leprosy upon the head or beard. And if the 
priest look on the plague [spot'] of the scall, and, behold, it ie not in sight deeper 
than the skin, and that there is no black" hair in it ; then the priest shall shut up 
him that hath the plague of the scall [shall bind up* the spot' of the scall] seven 

32 days : and in the seventh day the priest shall look on the plague"* [spot] ; and, be- 
hold, if the scall spread not, and there be iu it no yellow hair, and the scall be not in 

33 sight deeper than the skin ; he shall be shaven, but the scall shall he not shave ; 
and the priest shall shut up him that hath the scall [shall bind up the scall*] seven 

34 days more : and in the seventh day the priest shall look on the scall : and, behold, 
if the scall be not spread in the skin, nor be in sight deeper than the skin ; then 
the priest shall pronounce him clean : and he shall wash his clothes, and be clean. 

35, 36 But if the scall spread much in the skin after his cleansing ; then the priest 
shall look on him : and, behold, if the scall be spread in the skin, the priest shall 

37 not seek for yellow hair ; he is unclean. But if the scall be in his sight at a stay 
and that there is black hair grown up therein ; the scall is healed, he is clean : and 
the priest shall pronounce him clean. 

38 If a man also or a woman have in the skin of their flesh bright spots, even white 

39 bright spots ; then the priest shall look : and, behold, if the bright spots in the 
skin of their flesh be darkish [faint^] white ; it zs a freckled spot" that groweth iu 
the skin ; he is clean. 

40 And the man whose hair is fallen ofl" his head, he is bald f yet is he clean. 

41 And he that hath his hair fallen off from the part of his head toward his face, he 

42 is forehead bald : yet is he clean. And if there be in the bald head, or bald fore- 
head, a white reddish sore [glistening" spot'] ; it is a leprosy sprung up in his bald 

43 head, or his bald forehead. Then the priest shall look upon it : and, behold, if 
the rising of the sore [spot'] be white reddish [glistening"] in his bald head, or in 

44 his bald forehead, as the leprosy appeareth in the skin of the flesh ; he is a leprous 
man, he is unclean : the priest shall pronounce him utterly unclean ; his plague 
[spot'] is Lq his head. 

45 And the leper in whom the plague [spot'] is, his clothes shall be rent, and his 
head bare," and he shall put a covering upon his upper lip [his mouthy, and shall 

46 cry. Unclean, unclean. All the days wherein the plague [spot'] shall be in him he 
shall be defiled : he is unclean : he shall dwell alone [apart'^] ; without the camp 
shaU his habitation be. 

B.— LEPROSY IN CLOTHING AND LEATHER. 
Chaptee XIII. 47-59. 

47 The garment also that the plague [spot'] of leprosy is in, whether it be a woollen 

48 garment, or a linen garment; whether it be in the warp, or woof; of linen, or of 

" Ver. 81. The meaning of iflE'— WacJ iB established. The LXX., yeVmi!, can therefore only be considered as an 
emendation of the text, substituting^ahS, and this is followed by Luther, Knobel, Keil, Murphy and others; it is, how- 
ever, sustained by no other ancient version nor by any MS., and the change in the LXX. must be considered as simply an 
effort to avoid a difBoulty. Keil and Clark propose, as a less desirable alternative, the omission of the negative particle. 
There is, however, no real difficulty in the text as it stands. See Ilxegesis. 

« Ver. 32. The Sam. here substitutes pjlj, scall, for j;j3, spofc 

« Ver. 39. pna, a word oir. \4y. according to Gesen. a harmless eruption of a whitish color which appears on ths 

dark skin of the Arabs, and is still called by the same name. 

» Ver. 40. nip, used here apparently for the back of the head in contradistinction to n3J> the frm', which occurs 

only here (but its derivative, nn3il. is found Ters. 42 Wt, 43 and 55). niB, however, is elsewhere baldness in general. 

Comp. Deut. xiv. 1. 

" Ver. 45. Comp. Textual Note 6 on x. 6. 

^ Ver. 45. Dijfc^. There is some doubt as to the true meaning. It is translated leard in the A. V., 2 Sam. xix. 24 
(25), and so Fuerst^and Gesenius would render it hero, guided by the etymology. All the ancient versions, however, trans- 
late it either mmA or lipe, and a word etymologlcally signifying Imri (or rather the tprcmting place of haw) wouia easuy 
come to have this sense in use. It is a different word from the |pT=6mrd of ver. 29. 

« Ver. 46. nn3. The aUme of the A. V. would ordinarily be a good enough translation, but is liable to be misundep 
rtood. The leper was simply to dwell apart from the clean Israelites, but might and did live with other lepers. 
22 



106 LEVITICUS. 



49 woollen ; whether in a skin, or in anything made of skin ; and if the plague [spot'] 
be greenish or reddish [very green or very red"*] in the garment, or in the skin, 
either in the warp, or in the woof, or in anything of skin ; it ts a plague [spot'] of 

50 leprosy, and shall be shewed unto the priest : and the priest shall look upon the 
plague, and shut up it that hath the plague [spot,' and bind up* the spot'] seven 

51 days : and he shall look on the plague [spot'] on the seventh day : if the plague 
[spot'] be spread in the garment, either in the warp, or in the woof, or in a skm, 
or in any work that is made of skin ; the plague [spot'] is a fretting leprosy ; it is 

52 unclean. He shall therefore burn that garment, whether warp or woof^ in woollen 
or in linen, or anything of skin, wherein the plague [spot'] is : for it is a fretting 

53 leprosy ; it shall be burnt in the fire. And if the priest shall look, and, behold, 
the plague [spot'] be not spread in the garment, either in the warp, or in the woof, 

54 or in anything of skin ; then the priest shall command that they wash the thing 

55 wherein the plague [spot'] is, and he shall shut [bind*] it up seven days more: and 
the priest shall look on the plague [spot'], after that it is washed : and, behold, if 
the plague [spot'] have not changed his color, and the plague [spot'] be not spread; 
it is unclean ; thou shalt burn it in the fire ; it is fret inward, whether it be bare 

56 within or without.'® And if the priest look, and, behold, the plague be somewhat 
dark [the spot' be somewhat faint'] after the washing of it; then he shall rend it 

57 out of the garment, or out of the skin, or out of the warp, or out of the woof: and 
if it appear still in the garment, either in the warp, or in the woof, or in anything 
of skin ; it is a spreading /iZaf^we [omit a and plaguel ; thou shalt bum that wherein 

58 the plague [spot'] is, with fire. And the garment, either warp, or woof, or what- 
soever thing of skin it he, which thou shalt wash, if the plague [spot'] be departed 
from them, then it shall be washed the second time, and shall be clean. 

59 This is the law of the plague [spot'] of leprosy in a garment of woollen or linen, 
either in the warp, or woof, or anything of skins, to pronounce it clean, or to pro- 
nounce it unclean. 

C— CLEANSING AND EESTOEATION OF A LEPER. 

Chapter XIV. 1-32. 

1, 2 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, This shall be the law of the 

3 leper in the day of his cleansing: He shall be brought unto the priest: and 
the priest shall go forth out of the camp; and the priest shall look, and, behold, if 

4 the plague [spot'] of leprosy be healed in the leper ; then shall the priest command 
to take™ for him that is to be cleansed two birds'" alive and clean, and cedar wood 

5 and scarlet, and hyssop : and the priest shall command that on« of the birds be 

6 killed in an earthen vessel over running [living^] water : as for'' the living bird, 
he shall take it, and the cedar wood, and the scarlet, and the hyssop, and shall dip 
them and the living bird in the blood of the bird thai was killed over the running 

7 [living^] water : and he shall sprinkle upon him that is to be cleansed from the 
leprosy seven times, and shall pronounce him clean, and shall let the living bird 

8 loose into the open fields. And he that is to be cleansed shall wash his clothes, 
and shave off all his hair, and wash [bathe™] himself in water, that he may be 

M Ver. 49. piniV The reduplication of the letters intensifies the meaning. Comp. note « on ver. 19. nOTmN, 

too, as noted above, may here mean either very red, or, as before, glistening. There is so little knowledge abont the fact 
that neither of them can be certainly decided upon; but as in this case we have the di^unctive (as also in xiv. 37), it seeiM 
more probable that two distinct colors were intended. 

25 Ver 66. The margin of the A. T. gives the literal rendering of the Heb. baU in the head thereof, or tn the forelmd 
thereof, andHthere can be no donbt that these are terms figuratively applied to the cloth or skin for the right and wrong 
side, as in the text. 

2» Chap. XIV. Ver. 4. The Sam,, LXX. and Syr. here read the verb in the plnral, expressing the Miillment of tkB 
command. 

w Ver. 4. The margin of the A. V. reads sparrima, for which there seems to be no other authority than the Tulg. The 
Heb. does not define the kind of bird at all. 

28 Ver. 6. Better, living water, which is the exact rendering of the Heb. Ordinarily living water is a figure for running 
water; but here the water is contained in a vessel, and had therefore simply been filled from a spring or running stream. 

29 Ver. 6. nS. The conjunction which seems to be needed at the beginning of this verse is supplied in the Sam. and 

* ^^' ''"'"' '° """■'"I! '" Heb. answering to the aefor of the A. V. 

«> Ver. 8. I'nT is applied only to the washing of the surface of objects which water will not penetrate. Comp.l.9| 

13 ; ix. 14, etc. It is a different word from 033 of the previous clause, which is used of a more thorough washing or fi^ 



CHAP. XIII. 1— XIV. 57. 107 



clean : and after that he shall come into the camp, and shall tarry abroad out of 

his tent seven days. 
9 But it shall be on the seventh day, that he shall shave all his hair oif his head 
• and his beard and his eyebrows, even all his hair he shall shave off: and he shall 

■wash his clothes, also he shall wash [bathe™] his flesh in water, and he shall be 

clean. 

10 And on the eighth day he shall take two he lambs [two young rams'^] without 
blemish, and one ewe lamb of the first year without blemish, and three tenth deals 
of fine flour /or a meat offering [an oblation'^], mingled with oil, and one log of oil. 

11 And the priest that maketh him clean shall present the man that is to be made 
clean, and those things, before the Lord, at the door of the tabernacle of the con- 

12 gregation : and the priest shall take one he lamb [ram"], and offer him for a tres- 
pass offering, and the log of oil, and wave them /or a wave offering before the Loed : 

13 and he'' shall slay the lamb [ram"] in the place where he'' shall kill the. sin offer- 
ing and the burnt offering, in the holy place: for as the sin offering is. the priest's, 

11 so is"* the trespass offering: it is most holy: and the priest shall take smne of the 
blood of the trespass offering, and the priest shall put it upon the tip of the right 
ear of him that is to be cleansed, and upon the thumb of his right hand, and upon 

15 the great toe of his right foot : and the priest shall take some of the log of oil, and 

16 pour it into the palm of his own left hand : and the priest shall dip his right finger 
in the oil that is Ln his left hand, and shall sprinkle of the oil with his finger seven 

17 times before the Loed : and of the rest of the oil that is in his hand shall the priest 
put upon the tip of the right ear of him that is to be cleansed, and upon the thumb 
of his right hand, and upon the great toe of his right foot, upon the blood'' of the 

18 trespass offering: and the remnant of" the oil that is in the priest's hand he shall 
pour [put"] upon the head of him that is to be cleansed : and the priest shall make 

19 an atonement for him before the Lord. And the priest shall offer the sin offering, 
and make an atonement for him that is to be cleansed from his uncleauness ; and 

20 afterward he shall kill the burnt offering : and the priest shall offer the burnt 
offering and the meat offering [oblation'^] upon the altar :" and the priest shall 
make an atonement for him, and he shall be clean. 

21 And if he he poor, and cannot get so much : then he shall take one lamb [ram"] 
jar a trespass offering to be waved, to make an atonement for him, and one tenth 

22 deal of fine flour mingled with oil for a meat offering, and a log of oil ; and two 
turtle doves, or two young pigeons, such as he is able to get ; and the one shall be 

23 a sin offering, and the other a burnt offering. And he shall bring them on the 
eighth day for [of] his cleansing unto the priest, unto the door of the tabernacle 

24 of the congregation, before the Lord. And the priest shall take the lamb [ram"] 
of the trespass offering, and the log of oil, and the priest shall wave them for a 

25 wave offering before the Lord : and he shall kill the lamb [ram"] of the trespass 
offering, and the priest shall take some of the blood of the trespass offering, and 
put it upon the tip of the right ear of him that is to be cleansed, and upon the 

ing. The English is unable in all cases to preserve the distinction ; but it should be done as &.r as possible, and yXV^ is 
frequently translated bathr. in the following chapter (xv. S, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 13, 18, 21, 22, 27) and elsewhere. 

31 Ver. 10. D^ty33~''Jty. See Textual Note 6 on ill. 7. The age is not exactly specified in the Heb.; but the Sam. 

and LXX. add ofihefirfit year, as in the following clause. 
» Ver. 10. See Textual Note ' on il. 1. 

" Ver. 12. The Sam. and LXX. have the plural. Probably the sing, of the Heb. is not intended to have the priest for 
its DominatiTe, but to be impersonal. 

" Ver. 13. One MS., the Sam , LXX. and Vulg. supply the particle of comparison, 3. 

" Ver. 17. Two MSS., the LXX. and Vulg. here resid, as the Heb. in ver. 28, upon the plaee of the blood. 

" Ver 18. For }DE?3 three MSS. and the Syr. read jaEJrTJO, as in ver. 16. On this use of 2, however, see Puerst, 
Lex. -3, 3, 6. y. Qe'se'n. Lex. A. 2. 

" Ver. 18. [fl' is better translated put, both as more agreeable to the meaning of the word itself; and because the oil 
remaining in the left hand could hardly eulHce for pouring. 

" Ver. 20. The Sam. and LXX. add 6c/ore the Lord. 

" Ter. 23. The preposition is here so liable to be misunderstood that it is better to change it. It has roference to the 
eighth day appointed for his cleansing (as the Vulg.), not to the sacrifices for his cleansing (as the LXX). So Geddes and 
Boothroyd. In ver. 10 the diflBculty does not occur. 



108 LEVITICUS. 



■26 thuinb of his right hand, and upon the great toe of his right foot: and the priest 

27 shall pour of the oil into the palm of his own*" left hand : and the priest shall 
sprinkle with his right finger some of the oil that ,is in his left hand seven times 

28 before the Loed: and the priest shall put of the oil that m in his hand upon the 
tip of the right ear of him that is to be cleansed, and upon the thumb of his right 
hand, and upon the great toe of his right foot, upon the place of the blood of the 

29 trespass offering : and the rest of" the oil that is in the priest's hand he shall put 
upon the head of him that is to be cleansed, to make an atonement for him before 

30 the Lord. And he shall offer the one of the turtle doves, or of the young pigeons, 
51 such as he can get ; even such as he is able to get, the one for a sin offering, and 

the other Jar a burnt offering, with the meat offering : and the priest shaU make 
an atonement for him that is to be cleansed before the Lokd 
32 This is the law of him in whom is the plague [spot'] of leprosy, whose hand is 
not able to get that which pertaineth to his cleansing. 

D.— LEPROSY IN A HOUSE. 
Chapter XIV. 33-53. 

33, 34 And the Loed spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying. When ye be come 
into the land of Canaan, which I give to you for a possession, and I put the plague 

35 fspof] of leprosy in a house of the land of your possession ; and he that owneth 
the house shall come and tell the priest, saying. It seemeth to me there is as it were 

36 a plague [spot'] in the house : then the priest shall command that they empty the 
house, before the priest go into it to see the plague [spot'], that all that is in the 
house be not made unclean : and afterward the priest shall go in to see the house : 

37 and he shall look on the plague [spot'], and, behold, if the plague [spot'] be in the 
walls of the house with hollow strakes,^^ greenish or reddish [very green or very 

38 red**], which in sight are lower than the wall ; then the priest shall go out of the 

39 house to the door of the house, and shut up the house seven days : and the priest 
shall come again the seventh day, and shall look : and, behold, if the plague [spot'] 

40 be spread in the walls of the house ; then the priest shall command that they take 
away the stones in which the plague [spot'] is, and they shall cast them into an 

41 unclean place without the city : and he" shall cause the house to be scraped within 
round about, and they shall pour out the dust that they scrape off without the city 

42 into an unclean place : and they shall take other stones, and put them in the place 
of those stones ; and he^ shall take other mortar, and shall plaister the house. 

43 And if the plague [spot'] come again, and break out in the house, after that he** 
hath taken away the stones, and after he hath scraped the house, and after it is 

44 plaistered ; then the priest shall come and look, and, behold, if the plague [spot'] 

45 be spread in the house, it is a fretting leprosy in the house : it is unclean. And 
he" shall break down the house, the stones of it, and the timber thereof, and all 
the mortar of the house ; and he" shall carry them forth out of the city into an 

46 unclean place. Moreover he that goeth into the house all the while that it is shut 

47 up shall be unclean until the even. And he that lieth in the house shall wash his 
clothes ; and he that eateth in the house shall wash his clothes.''* 

48 And if the priest shall come in, and look upon it, and, behold, the plague [spot'] 
hath not spread in the house, after the house was plaistered : then the priest shall 

49 pronounce the house clean, because the plague [spot'] is healed. And he shall take 
60 to cleanse the house two birds, and cedar wood, and scarlet, and hyssop : and he 

*> Ver. 26. |n2n ^3~7i^. an expression understood by Houbigant to mean tbat one priest Bhonld pour into the 
hand of another; the sense given in the A. V. following the Vulg. is, however, doubtless correct. 

« Ver. 29. The Sam. here reverses its change of reading in ver. 18, and has 3 for TO- 

•2 Ver. 36. n'in|>ptjf, a word iir. k^y., but its meaning sufBoientlywell ascertained. The A. T. follows the IXX, 
Chald. and Vulg., and the same sense is given by Rosenm., Fuerst and Qesen, though by each with a different etymology. 

ffl Ver. 3T. See Notes is on xiii. 19, and !» on ver. 49. 

« Ver. 41. All the ancient versions except the Yulg. chanee the causative form of the verb to the plural, as the fbllow- 
Ing verb is plural. Also in vers. 42, 43, 45, 49, thoy have the plural. 

^ Ver. 47. The LXX. here adds, what is of course implied, and be unclean until the even. 



CHAP. XIII. 1— XIV. 57. 



lOft 



51 shall kill the one of the birds in an earthen vessel over running water : and he shall 
take the cedar wood, and the hyssop, and the scarlet, and the living bird, and dip 
them in the blood of the slain bird, and*' in the running [living'*] water, and sprin- 

52 kle the house seven times : and he shall cleanse the house with the blood of the bird„ 
and with the running [living"] water, and with the living bird, and with the cedar 

53 wood, and with the hyssop, and with the scarlet: but he shall let go the living bird 
out of the city into the open fields, and make an atonement for tha house: and it, 
shall be clean. 

E. — CONCLUSION. 
Chap. XIV. 54-57. 

54, 55 This is the law for all manner of plague [spot^] of leprosy, and scall, and for 

56 the leprosy of a garment, and of a house, and for a rising, and for a scab, and for a. 

57 bright spot : to teach when it is unclean, and when it is clean : this i& the law of 
leprosy. 

^ Ter. 51. The LXX. has dip (hem in the blood of the bird that has been MUed over the living waiep'^ and tbds^ ia- doubtless; 
the semie of the text. 



EXEQETICAL AND CRITICAL. 

A. The Examination and its result. 

The indications of the disease. Vers. 1-8. 

Ver. 1. This commuuieatiou is addressed to 
Moses and Aaron conjointly because it requires 
examinations and determinations entrusted to the 
priests. 

Vers. 2-8. The first case, of symptoms like lep- 
rosy. Ver. 2. Man is of course used generically 
for a person of either sex. No stress is to be 
laid upon the fact that the expression skin of 
his flesh is found only in this chapter ; for the 
word skin occurs here nearly as often as in all 
the rest of the Scripture put together, and very 
similar expressions do occur elsewhere, e. g. Ex. 
xxxiv. 29, 30, 35, " the skin of his face," and 
the skin is often spoken of as covering the flesh, 
t. g. Ezek. xxxvii. 6, 8, etc. — A rising, a scab, 
or a bright spot, are different indications of 
incipient leprosy; the disease itself was more 
deeply seated, but it betrayed itself, as it does 
still, by these marks. The last two terms are 
only used in connection with this disease, and 
the first is only elsewhere used figuratively of 
dignity or excellency. " The name leprosy 
^IJJ^X is derived from i'^S = to strike down, to 
itrike to the ground: the leper is he who has been 
smitten by God." Lange. For the examination 
of the leper one of the ordinary priests was suf- 
ficient as well as the high-priest ; the Talmudists 
assert that priests debarred by physical imper- 
fection from ministering at the altar were com- 
petent to the examination of lepers. The priests 
were expected, if occasion required, to consult 
with experts, but the formal sentence rested with 
them alone. 

Ver. 3. These marks, however, might exist 
without having been caused by leprosy. Two 
distinguishing characteristics are now men- 
tioned, and if both these concurred, there could 
be no doubt about the case — the priest was at 
once to pronounce him unclean ; (a) if the 
hair growing upon the spot had turned white. 
The hair of the Israelites was normally black ; 
if it had turned -white upon the spot it be- 
trayed a cause at work beneath the surface of 



the skin, (b) If the spot was in appearance' 
deeper than the skin. " These signs are re- 
cognized by modern observers (e. g: Hensler) j 
and among the Arabs leprosy is regarded as cu- 
rable if the hair remains black upon the whita 
spots, but incurable if it becomes whitish in co- 
lor." Keil. Judgment was of course required in 
the application of the second test ; but if the in- 
dications were clear, the case was decided, and. 
the duty of the priest was to declare the exist- 
ing fact. 

Vers. 4r-8. The determination of cases in which 
the indications are not decisive. First, vers. 4- 
6, the case in which the suspicion of leprosy 
should prove unfounded. If there were suspi- 
cious looking spots, but yet they appeared on, 
examination to be merely superficial, and thera 
was no change in the color of the hair growing 
in them, either of two things might be possible : 
the spots might be the effect of true leprosy not 
yet sufficiently developed to give decisive indi- 
cations : or they might be a mere eruption upon 
the skin, of no importance. To ascertain which 
of these was the fact, the priest was to bind up 
the spot seven days. — At the end of that time 
a second examination was to be made ; if then 
the indications were favorable, the same process 
was to be repeated. If at the end of this time 
the indications were still favorable, and espe- 
cially if the suspicious spot had become faint, 
tending to disappear, the priest was to pro- 
nounce the man clean. Yet still the very suspi- 
cion, unfounded as it proved to be, had brought 
some semblance of a taint upon the man, and he 
must wash his clothes. These two periods 
of seven days each are usually looked upon as 
periods of a sort of quarantine, during which the 
man himself was to be secluded, and this view 
has been incorporated into the A. V. here and 
throughout these chapters. It is not, however, 
required by the Hebrew, and in view of the great 
hardship it would impose upon those who were 
in reality entirely free from the disease, it seems 
more likely that the simple rendering of the He- 
brew gives the true sense. The extreme slow- 
ness with which leprosy is oftentimes developed 
has been considered a difficulty in the way of a 
determination in reality, in so short a time ; 



110 



liEVITICUS. 



howeyer, the two things are not at all incompa- 
tible. A fortnight was quite long enough to de- 
termine the character of any ordinary eruption ; 
if it was none of these, and yet possessed the 
characteristics of leprosy, then it must be de- 
cided to be leprosy, although months or years 
might pass before the disease showed much fur- 
ther progress. Vers. 7, 8, however, show that 
even the leprous spots themselves did not re- 
main quite unchanged during this time. On the 
second exairinatioa the priest could ascertain if 
the spots had begun to spread. If not, the dis- 
ease, although it might possibly already exist, 
was not pronounced ; but if they had spread, all 
doubt iwas at an end; the priest shall pro- 
nouHce him unclean. Anoiher view is taken 
of ver. 7. Rosenmiiller says that in the word 

imnt37 the 7 is to be taken for poaiguam as in 

tt:t: : 

Ex. xix. 1 ; Num. i. 1 ; 1 Kings iii. 18 ; this 

sense is followed in the Vulg. and Luther, and 
adopted by Vatablus, Patrick, and other com- 
mentators. According to this the law would re- 
late to the breaking out of the leprosy afresh at 
some time after he had been pronounced clean 
by the priest. The translation of the A. V., 
however, which is here followed, seems more ex- 
actly the sense of the Hebrew. 

Vers. 9-11. The second case is one in which 
ulceration has already begun. Either it is a 
long-standing case in which the command for 
inspection has been neglected, or else one in 
which sentence of cleanness has been pronounced 
on insufficient grounds. With the appearance 
of a mark of raw flesh in the rising, in com- 
bination with the other indications, all doubt 
was removed ; it must be an old leprosy, and 
the priest shall at once pronounce him un- 
clean. 

Vers. 12-17. The third case is looked upon ac- 
cording to differing medical views, either as a 
different disease, the lepra vulgaris, which 
"scarcely affects the general health, and for the 
most part disappears of itself, though it often 
lasts foryears " (Clark) ; or as a case of the true 
leprosy in which " the breaking out of the lep- 
rous matter in this complete and rapid way upon 
the surface of the whole body was the crisis of 
the disease ; the diseased matter turned into a 
scurf, which died away and then fell off" (Keil). 
Patrick compares it to the eruptions in measles 
and small pox, when there is safety in their full 
development. The suspected person thus either 
had a harmless disease, or he had had the leprosy 
and was cured. In either case sentence of clean- 
ness was to be pronounced. But (vers. 14, 15) 
if ulceration appeared (it would seem either at 
the moment or afterwards) he was at once to be 
declared unclean. This ulceration, however, 
might proceed from some other cause ; therefore, 
although the man must be declared unclean in 
view of so suspicious an indication, yet if it af- 
terwards passed away, the sentence might be 
reversed, and the man pronounced clean without 
further investigation. 

Vers. 18-23. The fourth case is that of a sus- 
pected leprosy arising from an abscess or boil 
which had been healed. Such disturbed condi- 
tions of the surface were peculiarly apt to be- 
come the seat of disease. The indications are 



much the same as in the other cases, the tertnrj 
first mentioned here being equally applicable to 
the others. Reliance is again placed (ver. 20) 
upon the depth of the spot and the change in tlie 
color of the hair. If these indications were clear, 
as in ver. 8, the priest should at once pronounce 
the man unclean ; if they were doubtful, he was 
to proceed as in ver. 4, and be guided by the re- 
sult of a second examination at the end of seven 
days. In such a case a single interval of a week 
appears to have been sufficient, and no further 
examination is provided for. After one week it 
could be certainly determined whether it was 
merely the soar of the ulcer, or whether leprosy 
had really broken out in it. 

Vers. 24-28. The fifth case is that of suspected 
leprosy developing from a burn, another of those 
injuries favorable for the development of the 
disease. The indications and the procedure are 
precisely the same as before. In ver. 26 the A. 
V. has inserted the word other unfortunately. 

Vers. 29-37. The case of leprosy suspected in 
an eruption upon the hairy part of the head, or 
upon the beard. Although this is spoken ex- 
pressly in regard to both men and women, yet 
the indications are so dependent upon hair th.it 
it is not proper to substitute here chin for beard, 
as is done by Keil. The word used [pi is a dif- 
ferent one from the OSW of ver. 45, which is 

T T 

often translated beard; the Ancient Versions, 
however, give beardhere, and either mouth or Upi 
there. Pliny (JVat. Hist. lib. xxvi. 1) speaks of 
such a disease imported into Italy from Asia in 
the reign of Tiberius, neither painful nor fatal, 
" yet any death preferable to it." In ver. 30 
the A. V. has unnecessarily modified the symp- 
toms by inserting the indefinite article before 
yellOTW thin hair. The word 1J>^ is collec- 
tive, as in ver. 3, and freq. In this form of the 
disease the natural hair seems to have been sup- 
planted by thin, yellcw (in^ ^golden, shining) 
hair. This is declared to be pHJ, translated in 
the A. V. dry scall, and immediately explained 
as a leprosy upon the head or beard. The 
word occurs only in these chapters. The indi- 
cations given in vers. 29, 30, were not absolutely 
decisive. It would seem from ver. 31, that in 
the coming on, of true leprosy the effect upon the 
hair was only gradually produced, part of the 
hair remaining for a time of its natural color ; 
while in the case of other harmless cutaneous 
eruptions, of more rapid progress, all the hair 
on the affected spot was speedily changed. Hence 
the entire absence of black hair at the first was 
a favorable symptom. In this view the text is 
consistent enough with itself as it stands, and 
Keil is wrong in saying " there is certainly an 
error in the text." In case of this favorable 
symptom the priest should bind up the spot for 
two periods of a week, making a further exami- 
nation at the end of each of them. The favo- 
rable indications were that the spot did not 
spread, did not appear to be deep-seated, and the 
yellow hair disappeared. If this was the case 
at the eud of the first period, the person was to 
be shaven with the exception of the spot, and at 
the end of the second pronounced clean, and to 
wash his clothes.— If, however, (vers. 36, 36) 



CHAP. Xlir. 1— XIV. 57. 



Ill 



the trouble afterwards spread, the person was to 
be again examined by the priest, and being sa- 
tisfied of this single fact, the priest must pro- 
nounoe him unclean. Tet if this spreading was 
only temporary, he might finally be pronounced 
clean (ver. 37) provided the natural hair grew 
again in the spot. 

Vers. 38, 39. This is the case of a harmless 
eruption in the skin termed pri3, LXX. d^^df. 
It is still known among the Arabs and called by 
the same name, bohak. " It is an eruption upon 
the skin, appearing in somewhat elevated spots 
or rings of unequal sizes and a pale white color, 
which do not change the hair; it causes no in- 
convenience, and lasts from two months to two 
years." Keil. It is placed here, because it 
might be, without proper examination, mistaken 
for leprosy, and its appearance was probably 
most nearly assimilated to the symptoms last 
mentioned. The sufi'erer by it was at once dis- 
charged as clean, without further ceremony. 

Vers. 40-44. The baldness of the head, whether 
on the front or back, constitutes no uncleanness ; 
yet leprosy might be developed in the bald parts, 
and then was to be dealt with as in other cases. 
The reason for speaking of baldness at all in this 
eonneotiou is probably that the color of the hair 
has been made of so much importance in deter- 
mining the symptoms of leprosy, that the legis- 
lator would cut off all opportunity for cavil in 
suspected cases. 

Vers. 45, 46. The law for the pronounced 
leper. The leper was in the first place to put on 
the signs of mourning (comp. Ezek. xxiv. 17, 22), 
some say "for himself as one over whom death 
had already gained the victory " (Clark) ; but it 
may have been merely as a mark of great afflic- 
tion, and some of the signs were also signs of 
shame (comp. Mic. iii. 7). And shall cry. 
Unclean, unclean, as a warning to any passers 
by. This command is not, as sometimes asserted, 
to guard against the danger of communicating 
the disease ; but rather to avoid making others 
ceremonially unclean by contact with a leper. 
The Kabbins carried this sort of defilement so 
far as to assert that " by merely entering a 
house, a leper polluted everything without it." 
(Mkhna, Kelim i. 4; Negaim xiii. 11, as cited by 
Keil). All the days. — The law constantly 
keeps in view the possibility of the recovery of 
the leper; but it is uncertain whether this indi- 
cates that the true leprosy was then less incura- 
ble than now, or whether it has regard to the 
possibility of error in the determination of the 
disease. In either case, while the symptoms 
continued for which he had been pronounced 
uncleao, and until by the same authority he was 
again formally declared clean (xiv. 1-32), he 
was to dwell apart ; without the camp. 
Comp. Num. v. 2-4; xii. 14, 15; 2 Ki. xv. 5; 
Lk. xvii. 12. The Jews say that there were three 
camps from all of which the leper was excluded : 
that of God (the tabernacle), that of the Levites, 
and that of Israel. After the settlement in the 
Holy Laud the camp was considered in this, as 
in other commands, to be represented by the 
walled city. Yet after the erection of syna- 
gogues lepers were allowed to enter a particular 
part of them set apart for their use, (Mishna 
itbi tupra). 



B. Leprosy in clothing and Leather, xiii. 
47-69. 

Only three materials for clothing are here 
mentioned: wool, linen, and skins. The two 
former were the usual materials among the an- 
cient Egyptians and Greeks, and only these are 
mentioned Deut. xxii. 11; Prov. xxxi. 13; Hos. 
ii. 9. It is a dispute among the Talmudisis 
whether garments of camel's hair are included 
or not. Woolen and linen were forbidden by the 
law (xix. 19) to be mixed in the same garment. 
On the nature of the leprosy here described, 
see the preliminary note to this chapter. 
Ver. 48. Whether it be in the warp or 
woof has occasioned much unnecessary per- 
plexity on account of the supposed difficulty in 
one of these remaining unaffected in the cloth 
by any disintegration occurring in the other; 
and Keil would translate " the flax and the wool ;" 
Clark, De Wette, Knobel and others, (with whom 
Keil also seems to concur) explain it of i/arn 
prepared for warp and j/arn prepared for woof. 
There is really however, no difficulty in the mat- 
ter, if the trouble is supposed to arise from some 
original fault in the material or in the processes 
of its preparation. Whichever was made of such 
material would first show the defect, and it could 
be seen in the cloth that the trouble arose from 
either the warp or the woof, a,i the case might 
be. The same sort of thing is sometimes ob- 
served in cloth now when the proper proportion 
has not been observed between the strength of 
the two kinds of thread, so that the cloth will 
tear with undue ease in one direction but not in 
the other ; or when, in cloth woven of different 
colors, one set of threads has been injured in the 
dyeing. A distinction is made between a skin 
and any thing made of skin. The former 
were whole skins, as sheep skins dressed with 
the wool on for a sort of cloak for the poor, or 
for mats, etc., and also made into leather for 
bottles and other uses; the latter the endless 
variety of smaller articles made of leather. Ver. 
49. A strong green or red spot was prima facie 
evidence of leprosy, and subjected that in which 
it appeared to priestly examination. According 
to Maimonides (cited by Patrick) the spot must 
be " as broad as a bean," and if smaller than 
this was of no consequence. Ver. 50. Bind up 
the spot. — Here as in ver. 4, etc., the usual in- 
terpretation is that of the A. V., shut up it that 
hath the spot; but the Hebrew in all these places 
only means necessarily the binding up of the 
spot itself, not a sort of quarantine upon the 
person or thing on which it is. See Textual note 
4. In this case there is not the same hardship 
involved in the other rendering as in the case 
of the human subject; but still the rendering is 
objectionable as implying much more strongly 
than the law itself the idea of contagiousness. 
Vers. 51-58 describe the appearances by which 
the priest must determine whether the suspicious 
spots were really leprosy or not. These turn 
upon whether the spot increased. If it did, then 
he was at once to burn that garment. The 
expresssion in vers. 52, and 58, whether vyarp 
or woof, ami in ver. 56 out of the warp or 
out of the Tvoof is to be understood of the: 
cloth in whichtbe disease has appeared in either- 
the warp or the woof. Fretting, vers. 53, 5i 



112 



LEVITICUS. 



(Bochart, lepra exasperata), is equivalent to cor- 
roding. If however, the spot had not increased 
at the examination made at the end of a week, 
the suspected article was to be washed and the 
process repeated. If at the end of another week 
after the washing there was no change in the 
color of the spot, the thing was to be condemned 
and burned, although there was no apparent 
spreading. In such case it is fret in^ward, 
i. e., the material itself was faulty and unfit for 
use. Whether it be bare within or -with- 
out; lit. bald in the head thereof, or in the 
forehead thereof, (Margin A. V. See Texual 
note 20). As the disease itself is figuratively 
named from its resemblance to the human lep- 
rosy, so these terms are used in the same way, 
and are generally considered to mean the right 
or the wrong side of the cloth or skin. On the 
other hand, if at the end of the week after the 
washing the spot had become less distinct (ver. 
56), it was to be torn out of the garment or skin. 
If it reappeared (ver. 57) the thing was to be 
burned ; but otherwise (ver. 58) to be washed a 
second time and then pronounced clean. Ver. 
59 is simply the usual conclusion, stating that 
the forpgoing is the law for the cases specified. 

C. Cleansing and restoration of the leper, 
xiv. 1-32. 

This communication was addressed to Moses 
alone, because there were no questions to be 
determined by priestly examination ; it simply 
directs what is to be dene in the case of a per- 
son already pronounced clean by the priest. 
Vers. 1-20 prescribe the normal course, vers. 
21-31 allow certain modifications for the poor, 
and ver. 82 is the conclusion. 

A new Proper Lesson of the law begins here, 
and extends to the close of the following chap- 
ter; the parallel lesson from the prophets is 
2 Ki. vii. 3-20, containing the account brought 
into Samaria by the four lepers of the flight of 
the besieging army of the Syrians. 

Lange : " o. The theooratico-political atone- 
ment, or the taking again of the person pro- 
nounced clean into the camp, i. e., into the con- 
gregation of the people. Hence this first act 
of atonement took place without the camp (later, 
before the gate of the city). The leper was to 
be represented by two birds, living and clean. 
They must be wild birds, since the tame turtle 
doves or the young pigeons would not have flown 
away when released. Since these birds repre- 
sent the maximum of free motion, we may cer- 
tainly find this thought indicated : want of free 
motion was a chief cause of the leprosy." [This 
inference, however, it is to be remembered, is 
only an inference, not a, part of the law which 
carefully abstains from any mention of the 
causes]. "One of these birds was slain over a 
vessel in which there was already some fresh 
spring or river water. It is not to be understood 
that in this the purification by water was indi- 
cated together with the atoning blood, since the 
washing follows farther on ; on the contrary, in 
the fresh water the thought of living motion is 
again brought out. The blood of the slain bird 
dropped into this water ; the few drops of blood, 
in and of themselves, would not suffice for the 
sprinkling. Nevertheless also, the blood of the 
slain bird considered as typically sick, through 



death became fresh again in its signification. 
The living bird, which was to remain alive, was 
dipped in the augmented blood of the dead bird. 
But very note-worthy are the allegorical accom- 
paniments which jointly serve to illustrate the 
living bird, and were therefore dipped with it in 
the blood ; a piece of cedar wood, as a symbol 
of the endurance of life ; a piece of scarlet, as a 
symbol of the frrshness of life; some hyssop, as a 
symbol of the purity of life through constant puri- 
fications of life." (See Keil, p. 106, [trans., p. 
385 ».]). After the living bird with these accom- 
paniments had been dipped in the blood, the 
person to be cleansed was sprinkled seven times 
with this blood. No further mention is made of 
the dead bird, since its flesh was not a sacrifice; 
but the living bird, hallowed by the blood of the 
dead, is set free. We may rightly see in the 
two birds the double position of the leper in his 
leprosy; in the slain bird he appears as he had 
fallen into death ; in the one that is set free, 
on the contrary, he appears as by God's mercy 
he is recovered to unrestrained motion. But we 
might also in this contrast find the thought, that 
the leprosy, as it falls upon one part of the com- 
munity, keeps the other part all the more free ; 
or, that health and disease are separated as 
opposite poles in regard to the comoQon national 
life. In any case, it is a fact that, in regions 
where Cretinism prevails, which is analogous to 
leprosy, the freshest and strongest forms occur 
near the sick. Meanwhile, the person sprinkled 
with the blood must complete this purification in 
several ways: first, by washing his clothes; 
secondly, by cutting oflF all his hair from his 
whole body, (whether also his eyebrows and 
eyelashes ?) ; thirdly, by bathing himself. Then 
he might go into the camp, but must yet add 
seven days more on the outside of his tent. 
Why ? Keil answers with the Ohaldee et tion 
accedat ad latus uxorvs suse. But the law would 
not have been too modest to say so. With this 
is to be noticed that this same direction is 
applied to several analogous cases. He who is 
healed of a running issue, must wait seven days 
after the recognition of his healing before he can 
bring his sacrifice (xv. 13). The same applies 
to the woman with an issue of blood (i6. 28). So 
too, for the Nazarite in whose presence a man 
had died (Num. vi. 10). Particularly weighty 
is the direction of the seven days' waiting 
which, according to viii. 36, must introduce the 
final consecration of the priests. We cannot say 
that during these seven days the priest was yet 
unclean; but he had not indeed become fully 
clean for the service of the priesthood. When 
we look back at the ordinance of the second 
seven days in reference to one who has been 
recognijed as clean — the leprous man, or gar- 
ment, or house, — there appears a distinction of 
cleanness of a first and second grade, a negative 
and a positive cleanness, which latter was a kind 
of priestly consecration. Every Israelite, in his 
degree should have this priestly consecration ; 
but espeeially near to it stood the Nazarite, and 
next to him we place the cleansed leper. In tUo 
new covenant, the highly favored sinner sti-nd-s 
higher than the Christian of less experience of 
salvation ; the son, who was lost and found, 
higher than tlie elder brother ; Mary Magdalene 



CHAP. XIII. 1— XIV. 57. 



118 



Higher than a, oommon maiden." [It must be 
always borne in mind, however, that this supe- 
riority does not rest upon any advantage in 
having sinned, but upon the earnestness of love 
on the part of him who has been forgiven. See 
Lk. vii. 47. F. G.]. "This fact appears to have 
been typically represented in the Old Testament 
by the restoration of the cleansed leper to the 
worship of the congregation." [It was repre- 
sented, that is to say, in the very full ceremonies 
and sacrifices accompanying the restoration, but 
not in any higher position of the cleansed leper 
after his restoration was accomplished. — F. 6.]. 

" 4. The theooratico-religious atonement. The 
offering obligatory upon the leper was very ex- 
tensive ; two he-lambs, one ewe-lamb, three tenth 
parts of wheaten flour mingled with oil, and a 
log of oil. The trespass offering formed the be- 
ginning of the offering, for the leper has by the 
connection with his people come into its guilt." 
[Nevertheless, it is hard to see how this could 
nave been the reason, when the leper had been 
absolutely separated from his people, and was 
now to be restored to his connection with them. 
But see under ver. 12.— F. G.]. " The blood of 
this trespass offering was first treated like the 
blood of the trespass offering of the priest; it 
was put on the tip of the right ear, on the thumb 
of the right hand, and on the thumb or great toe 
of the right foot, all with the same meaning as 
in the consecration of the priests. In addition 
to this, the oil comes into use, which indeed, as 
being common oil, is different from the anointing 
oil of the priests, but is still a symbol of the 
Spiritual life. With this oil in minute measure, 
the priest, with a finger of his right hand dipped 
in the oil which had been poured into the hollow 
of the left, executed a seven-fold sprinkling be- 
fore the Lord, i. e., towards the sanctuary. Then, 
with the rest of the oil, the three parts of the 
body were anointed which had been smeared 
with the blood of the trespass offering. The 
blood baptism preceded, as the negative conse- 
cration ; the oil baptism must follow, as the po- 
sitive atonement. The head of the leper was 
also anointed with the oil. He was thus to be 
made a man of the Spirit in each way, by his 
tribulation, and his deliverance. Then followed 
the sin offering, for which, in accordance with 
iv. 28, 32, the ewe-lamb was to be used. In this 
place the addition is made : he shall make an 
atonement for him that is to be cleansed 
[xiv. 31]. Plainly his sin is assumed in this to 
be individual guilt, in contradistinction from his 
share in the common guilt. It is rightly pre- 
supposed that the leprosy in each one stands in 
connection with his individual sinfulness; how- 
ever light, it has for its result, sins of ill-will, 
of bitterness, of impatience, of self-forgetfulness, 
of prejudice toward the community. Now first can 
the presentation of the burnt offering follow, with 
the other he-lamb, and with the meat offering." 

" The ordinance may be modified in case the 
person to be purified is poor. The direction for 
the sacrifice itself is indeed almost analogous to 
the direction in the case of the poor woman in 
child-birth; only here the lamb for the trespass 
offering, the tenth deal of wheaten flour sprin- 
kled with oil for a meat offering, and the log of 
oil for anointing, could not be dispensed with by 



the bringing of two doves or young pigeons. 
Moreover, the trespass offering, as well as the 
oil, is directed to be made a wave-offering before 
Jehovah. It is the same ritual as the wave or 
the consecration offering at the consecration of 
the priests (viii. 22, 27). Thus this waving here 
also can only signify a peculiar consecration of 
the leper, which is more strongly expressed in 
the case of the poor leper who must be shaken 
free with his gift, must be brought to a swinging 
up, or heave offering (Aufsohwung)." 

Some points in the above will be found differ- 
ently treated below. 

Vers. 1-3. The starting point for the following 
directions is the priestly inspection of the leper 
supposed to be healed. This must take place 
without the camp, and if it resulted favorably, 
then the following directions were to be observed. 
(The expression |D i<B1J, as Eeil notes, is a 
" const, prsegnans, healed away from, i. e., healed 
and gone away from "). 

Vers. 4-8. The restoration to the camp. This 
was formally accomplished by a very full and 
significant ritual, proportioned to the abhorrence 
in which leprosy was to be held, and the rigid- 
ness of the exclusion of the leper from the so- 
ciety of his people. There was no sacrifice, since 
the person to be cleansed was not yet in a con- 
dition to offer sacrifice, nor was anything offered, 
or even brought by him, nor was anything placed 
upon the altar. The ceremony was, however, a 
purification which is always related to sacrifice 
as a symbolic step towards a restoration to fel- 
lowship with God. 

For the significance of the things used in this 
ceremony, Abarbanel is quoted by Patrick to the 
following effect : the living birds signify that the 
leper's dead flesh was restored to life and vigor ; 
the cedar wood restoration from putrefaction ; the 
scarlet (wool, or thread, or a bit of cloth) resto- 
ration of the color of health to the complexion ; 
the hyssop (which was fragrant) restoration from 
the exceedingly ill odor of the disease. 

An earthen vessel was taken — probably 
that after this use it might be broken up and de- 
stroyed — and partly filled with water from a 
spring or brook, and one of the birds killed over 
it in such a way that its blood should fall into 
and be mingled with the water. In this the 
living bird was to be dipped with the other 
things, and then the person to be cleansed was 
sprinkled with it with that sevenfold sprinkling 
prescribed on occasions of peculiar solemnity 
(see iv. 6) ; and the person was then to be pro- 
nounced clean. After this the living bird was 
let loose into the open field. In attempting 
to estimate the significance of this rite, it is to 
be remembered that precisely the same ritual is 
prescribed for the cleansing of the leprous house 
(vers. 49-53), and the cedar, scarlet and hyssop, 
were also burned with the red heifer, whose 
ashes, placed in water, were to be used for pu- 
rifications (Num. xix. 6). The water, the blood, 
the cedar and the scarlet are mentioned in the 
Ep. to the Heb. (ix. 19, 20) as having been used 
by Moses in sprinkling the Book of the Covenant 
and the people (see Ex. xxiv. 6-8), and generally 
hyssop was used in various forms of sprinkling. 
Except therefore in regard to the birds, no sig- 
nificance can be attributed to these things which 



114 



LEVITICUS. 



is not common to other purifications besides 
those of the leper, and even in regard to the 
birds, none which is not common to the cleansing 
of the leprous man and the leprous house (ver. 
53). In view of this, and of the analogy of the 
scapegoat (xvi. 21, 22), the living bird let loose 
must be considered as bearing away the unolean- 
ness of the leper (Von Gerlach), and not as sig- 
nifying the social resurrection of the leper in bis 
restoration to the congregation. Of this last, 
the bird flying away to return no more could 
hardly have been a symbol. On the natural his- 
tory of the cedar (Juniperus oxycedrus), and the 
hyssop, see Clarke. The scarlet is said in the 
Mishna to have been used for tying the other 
things to the living bird when they were dipped 
together in the water mingled with blood. No- 
thing is said of the disposal of all these things 
after they had fulfilled their purpose. After this 
ceremonial, the symbolical cleansing was still 
further set forth (ver. 8) by the leper's was.'iing 
his clothes, and shaving off all his hair, and 
bathing himself He oaight then enter the camp, 
but not yet his own tent. This remaining re- 
striction seems designed to still further impress 
upon the mind the fearful character of the dis- 
ease from which the leper had recovered ; and still 
more, to postpone the full restoration of the leper 
to his family until he had first, by the prescribed 
sacrifices, been restored to fellowship with God. 

Ver. 9. After an interval of a week, the re- 
stored person was to be again shaved com- 
pletely, to again wash his clothes, and again 
bathe himself. He was now prepared to offer 
the prescribed sacrifices on the following day ; 
for he was now clean. 

Vers. 10-20. The restoration to fellowship 
with God, and admission to the sanctuary. Now 
for the first time the cleansed leper brings him- 
self the things necessary for the completion of 
his cleansing. Three victims are to be offered ; 
for a trespass, for a sin, and for a burnt offering. 
With these also be brought the prescribed obla- 
tion and the oil for his anointing; the oil was to 
be waved with the trespass offering (ver. 12) as 
its consecration to God, and the whole oblation 
(although three tenth d,,'als seem to be required 
■with reference to the three sacrifices) was to be 
offered upon the altar with the burnt offering 
(ver. 20). The flour amounted to nearly six 
quarts, the separate oil to about half a pint. 
Ver. 12. Offer him for a trespass ofiering. — 
The offering thus designated was not required 
to be of a definite value, as in the ordinary tres- 
pass offerings, and it was altogether peculiar in 
its ritual, being waved with the oil for a ^7ave 
offering before the Lord. — This was never 
done with any part of the ordinary trespass of- 
fering (v. 14-vi. 7) ; only in the sacrifice of xxiii. 20 
was the whole victim ever waved ; as still another 
peculiarity, the wave offering was placed in this 
case, not in the hands of the offerer, but in those 
of the priest. What then was here the signifi- 
cance of the waving ? Keil, Clark, and others, 
consider it as a consecration of the cleansed le- 
per represented by the victim. It is true that 
there was, in the ritual as a whole, a kind of 
consecration of the person to his restored posi- 
tion as one of the people of the Lord ; but this 
can scarcely have been the meaning of this par- 



ticular ceremony. When the Leviles were con- 
secrated to the service of the Lord by a wave 
offering, they were themselves waved (Num. viii. 
11 ; Heb. A. V. marg.) ; when the priests were 
consecrated, the wave offering was placed in 
their hands, and consisted of certain parts, not 
of a trespass offering, but of their "ram of con- 
secration " (viii. 25-28) ; when portions of the 
ordinary peace offerings were consecrated by 
waving, they were always placed in the handa 
of the offerer. From all these the waving of the 
whole ram of the leper's trespass offering essen- 
tially differs ; nor does it seem possible that it 
could signify his consecration, unless it were in 
some way placed in his own hands. More pro- 
bably, this part of the ritual was simply de- 
signed to distinguish the leper's from the ordi- 
nary trespass offering ; that while it was still to 
be classed generically with that offering, it was 
yet specifically distinct from it. A consideration 
of this fact will remove, partially at least, the 
difficulty of understanding why a trespass offer- 
ing should have been required of the cleansed 
leper. The reason given by Oehler and others, 
that it was a kind of fine, or satisfaction ren- 
dered for the fact, that during the whole period 
of his sickness, in consequence of his exclusion 
from the camp, the leper had failed to per- 
form his theocratic duties, is shown by Keil 
to be entirely untenable, since no such offer- 
ing was required in parallel cases of persons 
excluded from the sanctuary when affected with 
diseased secretions ; to this it may be added, 
that no penalty was required, as in the case of 
trespass offerings for such offences. Nor is the 
reason above given by Lange quite satisfactory. 
The true idea in this offering seems to be that 
the leper, by his very sickness, had been in the 
condition of an offender against the theocratic 
law of purity ; yet that this was, in bis case, not 
an actual, but only a quasi trespass, is shown by 
the omission to require it to be of definite value 
and by the ritual directing it to be made also 
into a wave offering. The leper had not merely 
failed to present his required offerings in conse- 
quence of his exclusion from the camp, but he 
had actually lived in a condition of extremest 
theocratic uncleanness (far more so than in 
the case of the secretions), and consequently in 
symbolic opposition to the Head of the theocracy. 
He must therefore present a trespass offering; 
but as all this had been done not only involun- 
tarily, but most unwillingly, the offering was 
distinguished by being waved. Ver. 13. For as 
the sin offering Is the priest's, so is the 
trespass offering. — This, already known as 
the general law (vii. 7), is here repeated, be- 
cause otherwise the peculiarity of this trespass 
offering might seem to make it an exception. 
It is most holy. See on ii. 3. 

In regard to the order of the various offerings: 
here the sin offering (ver. 19) precedes the burnt 
offering according to the general rule; but the 
trespass offering comes before them both. The 
reason above given why the trespass offering 
should have been offered at all, explains also 
why it should have been offered first. In the 
case of the reconsecration of tho defiled Nazarite 
(Num. vi. 11, 12), the condition of the offerer 
was different ; he was already in full standing 



CHAP. xm. 1— XIV. 57. 



llfi 



as a member of the theocracy, and offered the 
sin-offeriDg first, and then the trespass offering. 
Here the healed leper must present the trespass 
offering first, as the mark of his restoration to the 
privileges of the theocratic community, before 
he offers any other sacrifice. 

The restored leper was touched with the bleed 
of the victim (ver. 14) in the same way as the 
priests with the blood of (he ram of consecration 
(viii. 23), and doubtless with the same general 
symbolical meaning. Next comes the use of the 
oil. It was first employed in a sevenfold sprink- 
ling towards the sanctuary (ver. 16), and then 
touched with the finger of the priest upon all the 
points which had already been touched with the 
blood of the victim, " which seems to have been 
a token of forgiveness by the blood, and of heal- 
ing by the oil." Patrick. With the remnant of 
the oil in his hand, the priest was to anoint the 
head of him that is to be cleansed. In all 
this then there appears with sufficient plainness, 
a kind of consecration ; but it was a consecra- 
tion, not to any peculiar position or privilege, 
but simply to his becoming again one of the 
chosen people — the nation who were by their 
calling " a kingdom of priests," — from whom he 
had been temporarily excluded. This is suffi- 
ciently shown by the following clause, to make 
an atonement for him before the LORD. 
The unction was not as a propitiation for his 
sin, in the ordinary sense of the word — that is 
provided for by the same expression in connec- 
tion with the sin offering in the following verse 
(ver. 19); but it was to cover over the gulf by 
which he had been separated, to make an at-one- 
meni for him who had been alienated and sepa- 
rated by his leprosy. Then follows the sin 
offering with its proper atonement. There need 
be no question here of the propriety of the sin 
offering; it was always in place for sinful man, 
but especially for one who had been so long 
debarred from bringing it to the altar. Lastly, 
came also (ver. 20) the burnt offering with its 
atonement. With the last was offered a three- 
fold oblation; for although the oblation might 
not be offered with the trespass and sin offering, 
yet in this case these were so peculiar in their 
use that they were able each to pass on an addi- 
tional oblation, as it were, to the burnt offering. 

Vers 21-31. The alternative offering of the 
poor leper. In this case all things proceed as 
before with the same offerings and the same 
ritual, except that for the sin and burnt offerings, 
turtle doves or young pigeons are allowed, and 
the oblation is reduced to the normal oblation 
• for the burnt offering (Num. xv. 4) of one tenth 
deal of fine flour mingled with oil. 

It will be seen that the restoration of the 
healed leper thus consisted of several stages. 
First, he was examined by the priest, and satis- 
factory evidence being found that the disease 
was cured, he was then purified without the camp 
by a solemn and significant ceremonial, which 
yet was not a sacrifice. After this he was ad- 
mitted to the camp, but must still remain a week 
without entering either his own tent or the sanc- 
tuary. At the end of this time he offered a sin- 
gularly full and solemn sacrifice, consisting of a 
modified trespass offering, together with a sin 
and burnt offering. He was touched with the 



blood of his offering and anointed with oil. 
Each stage of his restoration was marked by 
lustrations. Thus at last was he once more re- 
stored to full communion with God and full fel- 
lowship with the covenant people. 

D. Leprosy in a house. Vers. 33-53. 

The communication on this subject is again 
addressed to Moses and Aaron conjointly, since 
here again the exercise of the priestly functions 
of examination and determination is called into 
play (ver. 33), and it all looks forward distinctly 
to the future, V7hen ye be come into the 
land of Canaan (ver. 34), for in the wilder- 
ness, of course, they had no houses. The wholly 
prospective character of this part of the law 
explains why it is placed last of all. 

" This regulation is plainly concerning keep- 
ing the houses clean, — the sanitary police as re- 
gards the houses; — -just as the Jewish poor-law 
(see Winer, Art. Artne etc.) is a striking proof 
of the humanity of the Mosaic legislation. One 
may well say : — the tender care for the superin- 
tendence of health and of the poor, which here 
appears in Israel in typical and legal form, still 
in the Christian commonwealth comes far short 
of the true spiritual realization. Trouble of 
dwellings and poor troubles, bad dwellings and 
faulty superintendence of the poor, are a chapter 
which our time has first taken into the circle of 
its activity." Lange. That the "leprous" houses 
were unhealthy, does not yet seem established 
on sufficient proof; so far as this law is con- 
cerned, it may be that the legislation rests en- 
tirely on other grounds. At the same time, the 
view of Lange may be true. 

Ver. 34. I put the spot of leprosy in a 
house. — " Thus also these evil conditions in 
houses are decrees of Jehovah. As the house is 
the enlarged human family, so the decree upon 
the house is an enlargement of the decree upon 
man." Lange. "Jehovah here speaks as the 
Lord of all created things, determining their 
decay and destruction, as well as their produc- 
tion ; comp. Isa. xlv. 7." Clark. Abundant quo- 
tations from Jewish authorities are cited by 
Patrick, showing that they looked upon this 
infliction (from which, however, they considered 
.Jerusalem to be exempted) as a, special and 
direct divine judgment. Certainly, as Keil notes 
in opposition to Knobel, the expression here 
excludes the idea that the leprosy was commu- 
nicated to houses by infection from man; and 
this becomes still more certain from the fact 
that the people who had been in the house are 
regarded as clean. 

When notice had been sent to the priest (ver. 
3.5) of a suspicious appearance in the house, he 
was first to order it to be "cleared (ver. 36), 
lest everything in it should become unclean. 
Consequently, as what was in the house became 
unclean only when the priest had declared the 
house affected with leprosy, the reason for the 
defilement is not to be sought for in physical 
infection, but must have been of an ideal or 
symbolical kind." Keil. The rules guiding the 
priestly examination, and the course to be pur- 
sued in consequence of his decision (vers. 37-47), 
are as nearly as possible like those given in the 
case of cloth and of skin. First : If on the pre- 
liminary examination there seemed to be good 



116 



LEVITICUS. 



gi-ound for suspicion, tlie house was to be shut 
up for a week (ver, 88) ; it was then re-examined, 
and if the grounds of suspicion were confirmed 
by the spread of the trouble, the affected stones 
were to be taken out, the inside of the house 
scraped, and the stones and dirt to be carried 
■without the city unto an unclean place. 
Then other stones were to be put in their place, 
and the house plastered with other movtar, 
(ver. 42). This ended the niatter, if no fresh 
ground of suspicion arose. But if the trouble 
reappeared, the priest must examine the house 
once more, and if he found that the leprosy had 
broken out afresh, he must command the entire 
demolition of the house, and the carrying forth 
of its material to an unclean place (ver. 45). 
Any one entering the house while shut up became 
unclean till evening ; and if he ate or slept in 
the house, he must also wash his clothes (vers. 
46, 47). From what has been said before, it is 
clear that the ground of this provision was not 
any supposed danger of infection, but to pre- 
vent the contraction of symbolical uncleanness. 

Vers. 48-53. The ceremony of purification. 
In case the leprosy did not spread in the house 
afterjthe means used for its cure, the priest was to 
pronounce it clean, and then to perform purifi- 
catory rites exactly like those used for the leper 
without the camp. In reference to the views 
expressed there, Lange says, here "One may 
indeed ask whether the allegorizing there spoken 
of would also be proper here. The contrast 
between the living bird, which flies free, and the 
dead bird, seems here to illustrate the contrast 
between the healthy sojourn under God's free 
heaven, and the harmful sojourn in musty, dis- 
eased houses. Bat the fact is also here well 
worthy of note, that there is not the least men- 
tion made of any atoning worship." In ver 53 
it is said that the priest shall make an atone- 
ment for the house. This is often spoken of 
as figurative; but iu fact it is better to take it 
quite literally. According to the primary mean- 
ing of the Hebrew word " he shall cover," i. e., 
he shall, by this ceremony, put out of sight the 
uncleanness of the house ; or in its derived and 
customary sense, he shall make an at-one-ment, 
i. e., he shall restore the house from its tainted 
character, shut up and forbidden to be used, to 
its proper relations and purposes. On leprosy in 
garments and houses, see preliminary note. 

E. Conclusion, Vers. 54-67. 

These verses simply form the conclusion of 
the whole law of leprosy contained in chapters 
xiii. and xiv. Although these chapters are 
made up of no less than three separate divine 
communications (xiii. 1 ; xiv. 1 ; 33), yet they 
constitute altogether but one closely connected 
series of laws. The summary is in the usual 
form ; but in ver. 56 the names of the symptoms 
of various forms of leprosy are repeated from 
xiii. 2. 



DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL. 

I On leprosy in clothes: "The alternative, 
according ta which the Levitioal regulations are 
to have either a religious typical meaning alone, 
or a dietetic sanitary purpose alone, is here 
(|howu with especial clearness to be incorrect. 



The typical point, indeed, is not to be mistaken; 
even the attire of men was not to be infected 
with plague spots of sinful corruption. But not 
less prominently, the point of the moral duty of 
cleanliness is brought forward upon a religious 
basis." Lange, Exeg. 

II. On leprosy in man : " We must distinguish 
between the horror of death of the Grecian spi- 
rit, and the theocratic antipathy against the signs 
of death in life, and the remains of the living in 
the corpse. The act of dying was ethical for the 
Hebrews in a bad, or in a good sense. Even the 
Old Testament knows an ethical Euthanasia op- 
posed to the death of despair. But in a sphere 
where all is founded upon immortal life, a being 
for life and not for death, all signs of decay must 
be put aside." Lange, Exeg. 

III. The peculiar defilement of leprosy, lead- 
ing to exclusion from the camp, or in other 
words, to excommunication from the ancient 
church, evidently has its foundation in the pe- 
culiar character of the disease. It was espe- 
cially associated with death, usually ultimately 
resulting in death, and being in its later stages, 
a sort of living death — a death already begun in 
the members — and presenting a fearful image of 
death. But death was the sentence upon sin, 
and hence leprosy and its treatment have always 
been understood as symbolizing sin and its treat- 
ment, both by Jewish and Christian commenta- 
tors. 

IV. The examination and determination of 
leprosy was intrusted to the priests, not on ac- 
count of their being supposed to possess superior 
medical knowledge, but only in view of its theo- 
cratic relations. Any other treatment of the 
leper might properly be undertaken by physi- 
cians when any were to be had ; but the exclu- 
sion of the leper from, or his restoration to the 
commonwealth of Israel, the communion of the 
church of God, was properly a priestly act. It 
is to this alone that the law applies. This was 
indeed, in strictness the province of God Him- 
self; but as He committed the administration of 
His church in general to human hands, so also 
particularly in this matter. The sentence of the 
priests was final, and admitted of no appeal ; the 
authority had been Divinely committed to them, 
and although they might perhaps sometimes de- 
cide wrongly, there was no other redress than 
a further examination when there seemed to he 
occasion for it, by the same authority. Thus 
was the priestly authority to bind and loose in, 
the ancient church confirmed in heaven.' Of 
course their decrees of exclusion from the earthly 
church did not determine anything concerning i i t 
the leper's salvation. 

V. By the extension of the term leprosy to gar- 
ments and houses, and the similar treatment of 
them when thus affected, it seems to be taught 
that there is not merely an analogy, but a cer- 
tain sympathy between man and the inanimate 
things by which he is surrounded. (Comp. Rom. 
viii. 22). They are to be associated in his mind 
with his own state and condition, and are to be 
so treated as to bring home to him in a lively 
way the things that concern himself. The Bab- 
bins consider the trouble in houses as confined to 
the land of Canaan, and Divinely eentasawarn- 
ing to the people against their sinfulness. If 



CHAP. Xlir. 1— XIV. 57. 



117 



this warning were unheeded, then the leprosy 
passed to their clothes, and finally to their per- 
sons. However this may be, it is noticeable that 
the leprosy here treated is only, as suggested by 
Lange, in the various habitations of the human 
spirit ; in the body, which is indeed an actual 
part of the man himself, but whioh is often looked 
upon and spoken of as the tabernacle of the soul ; 
in the clothing, which was a still more outer co- 
vering ; and finally in the house, the outermost 
dwelling. Not a word is ever spoken of leprosy 
in animals. 

VI. In the ceremonial for the purification of 
leprosy, so much more full than for any other 
defilement, it is seen how the purificatory rites 
rise in importance as the uncleanness becomes a 
more striking symbol of the impurity of sin. 
This symbolism reached its climax in the leper, 
and in his purification ; but yet it was only sym- 
bolism ; for as the defilement of sin lies deeper, 
so must the sacrifice for its removal be higher. 

VII. Calvin observes that the final cleansing 
of the leper was appointed for the eighth day af- 
ter his entrance into the camp. As his oircura- 
oision, or first admission into the church of God 
was on the eighth day after his birth into the 
world ; so now he was, on the corresponding day, 
to be born again into the church after his ex- 
clusion. Another parallel, too, may be here 
carried out between first entering into commu- 
nion with God, and being restored to it by re- 
pentance after having been alienated by sin. 

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL. 

"The priestly people of God. have always a 
war to wage with the defilements of the natural 
life. . . . Especially is the uncleanness of leprosy, 
and in it of all diseases, to be combated ; so also 
all the unhealthy conditions of houses and 
clothes are an object of the priestly battle, of the 
wrestling after an ideal moulding of all the condi- 
tions of life. How much these costly types still 
lack of their complete fulfillment in the Christian 
community has already been pointed out." Lange. 

Leprosy defiled all who came in contact with 
it; a lively image of the contaminating efi^ect 
of sin. See 1 Cor. xv. 33. Tet it did not defile 
the priests, who were to make a close and care- 
ful inspection of it, because this was their com- 
manded duty ; BO neither does sin contaminate 
those who, in the fear of God and as duty to Him, 
strive to the utmost to recover and save the sinner. 

As the priest for the purification of the leper 
went without the camp, and there stayed and 
held converse with the leper for his cleansing, so 
'Christ left His dwelling-place in heaven and 
came among sinners that He might purify them 
from their sin. Hesychius. " It is remarkable 
how well even the Jewish teachers themselves 
understood the symbolical meaning of this regu- 
lation " [concerning the exclusion of the leper 
from the camp] ; "for thus speaks one of them 
on this place : ' If a man considers this, he will 
be humbled and ashamed on account of his sin ; 
since every sin is a leprosy, a spot upon his soul. 
And, as it is written of the leper, his clothes 
shall be rent, etc.; in like manner, the defilement 
on his soul, which is far removed from the holi- 
ness on high, shall equally separate him from 



the camp of Israel. And if a man turns to re- 
pentance in order to be cleansed from his spots, 
behold he is clean from his leprosy, but other- 
wise the leprosy remains clinging to his soul ; 
and in this world, and in the world to come, he 
is far removed from the whole camp there above 
until he has become cleansed.' The law instructs 
how to know leprosy, pronounces the leper un- 
clean, shuts him out from the congregation, but 
it has not power to heal him ; this was reserved 
for the Son of God, to cleanse bodily in figure, 
and spiritually also, as the true Redeemer from 
sin and its consequences." Von Gerlach. 

" Ceremonial uncleanness involves ceremonial 
guilt, and demands an atonement. So moral im- 
purity involves moral guilt, which requires a 
propitiation. The uncleanness and the guilt 
mutually imply each other; yet they are totally 
distinct, and must be removed by totally differ- 
ent means. The Spirit of God by the truth of 
Revelation removes moral impurity ; the Media- 
tor, by His undertaking for the guilty, relieves 

him from the consequences of his guilt 

The symbols of purification and propitiation 
come together in the ceremonial connected with 
the leper's re-entrance into communion with 
God. The water and the blood meet in the ini- 
tial sacrifice ; the oil and the blood are associated 
in the final one." Murphy. 

As the cicatrices left by ulcers and burns were 
points where leprosy was peculiarly likely to be 
developed, so Origen, following the allegorical 
interpretation, notes that the wounds upon the 
soul, though healed, are peculiarly liable to be- 
come the occasion for the development of sin. 
The integrity of purity once lost, there is a dan- 
gerous spot in the heart which needs the care 
of the great Physician of souls. 

The Christian Fathers generally give a spiri- 
tual interpretation of the two birds used in the 
purification of the leper or the leprous house. 
Thus Theodoret (Qu. 19) : " They contain a type 
of the Passion of salvation. For as the one bird 
was slain and the other, dipped in iis blood, was 
set free ; so our Lord was crucified for leprous 
humanity, the flesh indeed receiving death, but 
the Divinity appropriating to itself the suffering 
of the humanity." This thought is quite com- 
mon in the Fathers. The two birds typify the 
two natures of Christ, and the purification of the 
sinner is accomplished only by their union in Him. 

The Fathers also consider the leprous house 
symbolical of Israel. (See e. g. Theodoret, Qu. 
18) : Israel was examined and purified, and the 
evil stones of its building removed by the many 
judgments upon the nation, and especially by 
the carrying away "without the camp " to Ba- 
bylon. But at last when its incurable sin broke 
out afresh in the crucifixion of the Lord of life, 
the whole house was pulled down and its stones 
cast out into an unclean place. 

Blood and water are constantly joined toge- 
ther in the purifications of the law, as in this of 
leprosy, so in all other cases. Whatever may be 
the underlying truth on whioh this symbolism 
rests, the symbolism itself culminates in the 
reality of the purification for sin accomplished 
by Christ upon the cross, out of whose side 
flowed the blood and the water for the cleansing 
of the world. See Jno. xix. 34 ; 1 Jno. v. 6, 8. 



118 LEVITICUS. 



FOURTH SECTION. 

Sezaal Impurities and Cleansing s. 

Chapter XV. 1-83. 

1, 2 And the Lord spake unto Moses and to Aaron, saying, Speak unto the children 
of Israel, and say unto them. When any man hath a running issue out of his flesh, 

3 because of his issue he is unclean. And this shall be his uncleanness in his issue : 
whether his flesh run with his issue, or his flesh be stopped from his issue,' it is his 

4 uncleanness. Every bed, whereon he lieth that hath the issue, is unclean : and 

5 every thing, whereon he sitteth, shall be unclean. And whosoever toucheth his 
bed shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the 

6 even. And he that sitteth on any thing whereon he sat that hath the issue shall 

7 wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the even. And 
he that toucheth the flesh of him that hath the issue shall wash his clothes, and 

8 bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the even. And if he that hath the 
issue spit upon him that is clean ; then he shall wash his clothes, and bathe himsdf 

9 in water, and be unclean until the even. And what saddle soever he rideth upon 

10 that hath the issue shall be unclean. And whosoever toucheth any thing that was 
under him shall be unclean until the even : and he that beareth any of those things 
shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the even. 

11 And whomsoever he toucheth that hath the issue, and hath not rinsed his hands in 
water," he shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until 

12 the even. And the vessel of earth, that he toucheth which hath the issue, shall be 

13 broken : and every vessel of wood shall be rinsed in water. And when he that 
hath an issue is cleansed of his issue ; then he shall number to himself seven days 
for his cleansing, and wash his clothes, and bathe his flesh in running water, and 

14 shall be clean. And on the eighth day he shall take to him two turtle doves, or two 
young pigeons, and come before the Lord unto the door of the tabernacle of the 

15 congregation, and give them unto the priest : and the priest shall offer them, the 
one /or a sin ofiering, and the other /or a burnt ofiering; and the priest shall make 
an atonement for him before the Lord for his issue. 

16 And if any man's seed of copulation go out from him, then he shall wash all his 

17 flesh in water, and be unclean until the even. And every garment, and every skin, 
whereon is the seed of copulation, shall be washed with water, and be unclean until 
the even. 

18 The woman also with whom man' shall lie with seed of copulation, they shall 
both bathe themselves in water, and be unclean until the even. 

19 And if a woman have an issue, and} her issue in her flesh be blood, she shall be 
put apart seven days : and' whosoever toucheth her shall be unclean until the even. 

20 And every thing that she lieth upon in her separation shall be unclean : every 

21 thing also that she sitteth upon shall be unclean. And whosoever toucheth her 
bed shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the even. 

22 And whosoever toucheth any thing that she sat upon shall wash his clothes, and 

23 bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the even. And if it be on her bed, or 
on any thing whereon she sitteth, when he toucheth it, he shall be unclean until the 

24 even. And if any man' lie with her at all, and her flowers be upon him, he shall 
be unclean seven days ; and all the bed whereon he lieth shall be unclean. 

a?EXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL. 

1 Ver. 3. The Sam. and LXX. here add the clause " he is unclean during all the time his issue runneth oris stopped." 

2 Ver. 11. According to the Syrlac, this washing of the hands was to be the act, not of the unclean person himself but 
of him whom he touched. 

' Vers, 18 and 24. The Sam. adds the possessive prcnonn making this " her husband." 

* Ver. 19. The Sam. and 10 MSS. supply the missing conjunction. 

• Ver. 19. The conjunction here is omitted by many MSS., the LXX. and Vulg. 



CHAP XV. 1- 



]19 



25 And if a woman have an issue of her blood many days out of the time of her 
separation, or if it run beyond the time of her separation ; all the days of the issue 
of her uncleanness shall be as the days of her separation : she shall be unclean. 

26 Every bed whereon she lieth all the days of her issue shall be unto her as the bed 
of her separation : and whatsoever she sitteth upon shall be unclean, as the unclean- 

27 ness of her separation. And whosoever toucheth those thing.s' shall be unclean, and 
shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the even. 

28 But if she be cleansed of her issue, then she shall number to herself seven days, and 

29 after that she shall be clean. And on the eighth day she shall take unto her two 
turtles, or two young pigeons, and bring them unto the priest; to the door of the 

30 tabernacle of the [om. the] congregation. And the priest shall offer the one for a sin 
offering, and the other for a burnt offering ; and the priest shall make an atoue- 

, ment for her before the Lord for the issue of her uncleanness. 

31 Thus shall ye separate' the children of Israel from their uncleanness ; that they 
die not in their uncleanness, when they defile my tabernacle [dwelling place'] that 
is among them. 

32 This is the law of him that hath an issue, and of him whose seed goeth from him, 
83 and is defiled therewith ; and of her that is sick of her flowers, and of him that 

hath an issue, of the man and of the woman, and of him that lieth with her that is 
unclean. 

« Ver. 27. D3 5 MSS. rBad n3 toucheth her. 

' Ver. 31. For DnlTni = ye shaU separate, the Sam., 4 MSS., LXX., and Vnlg. read DiT^nirt = 1/e shaV warn ; hnt 
there eeems no sufficient reason for the change. 

8 Ter. 31. |3t^D properly Bigoifies dwelling-place, and although always rendered UiierwuiU in Ex. and Lot. in the A. 
v., needs to be distlDguished from the jT\}A. Comp. note on Tiii. 10. 



EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL. 

The whole of Lange's Exegetical explanations 
under this chapter are here given. " 1. In his 
sacrificial law, Moses has throughout translated 
moral conditions into ritual forms ; and he has 
done this, under the spirit of revelation, truly 
with wonderful safety, striking precision, and 
delicacy. Accordingly he here shows the subtle, 
contagious effects in evil in legal psedagogic 
images of the sexual impurities, as they incur 
guilt, or are more or less innocent, in connection 
with original sin. In so far as our chapter 
refers back, it forms the climax of the preceding 
conditions of guilt; but in its reference to the 
following chapter, it forms the foundation for 
the idea of a general atonement for the people, 
still necessary after all the definite single atone- 
ments." 

"2. The law carries with it the conse- 
quence that all men are placed, by virtue of 
their manifold connections and contacts, under 
the sentence : Ye are unclean — unclean even 
after all more definite atonements. Haggai has 
drawn out this thought fully ; John the Baptist 
brought it into application (Hag. ii. 13 as., see 
Com. Matt. p. 68). Hence the great day of atone- 
ment must follow all the more special sin offer- 
ings, and even this can only suffice for pardona- 
ble sins ; while the unpardonable sins were sent 
into the desert upon the he-goat designated for 
Azazel. The idea of the irapeat^: Rom. iii." 

" 3. The cases of sexual impurity which are 
detailed here are the following:" 

" Vers. 1-15. Latent flowing of semen, gonor- 
rhoea. In this sense it is called a running 
issue out of his flesh. This uncleanness of 
the highest degree, as such, is defiling on every 



side: touching the bed of the unclean person, 
his seat, his body, his saddle ; being smeared 
with his spittle, touching anything that passes 
from him ; — all makes unclean in the first degree 
for one day, and requires a washing of the 
clothes, and a bath. The purifying quarantine 
lasts for eight days. Timidly he must approach 
the sanctuary with two turtle-doves, or young 
pigeons, one of which was appointed for a sin 
offering, and the other for a burnt offering. This 
disease not only contaminated, but extended its 
contaminating power to whatever it touched. 
In Num. V. 2, it is provided that the person so 
affected should be excluded from the camp." [It 
does not seem altogether certain that the affec- 
tion here described was gonorrhoea, although it 
is so translated in the LXX., vers. 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 
etc. That the word fleah is not an euphemism 
(Knobel) for the organ of generation is evident 
from vers. 7 and 13 ; still, that the latter is in 
view as the scat of the issue, is more than pro-, 
bable from the analogy of the woman in ver. 19, 
But in regard to the character of the issue itself 
nothing is said. It could hardly have been 
hemorrhoidal, since there is no mention of blood ; 
it is not likely to have been syphilitic (gonorrhma 
viruUnta), notwithstanding the opinion of 31i- 
chaelis, (laws, art. 212), both because it is more 
than doubtful if this disease was known in an- 
tiquity, and because, if it existed, its presence 
would betray cause for more severe measures 
than are here prescribed ; it may have been a 
gonorrhoea arising from weakness, according to 
the view of Lange, and as supposed by Jerome 
and the Rabbins; but it is noticeable that 
there is no mention whatever made of aemen in 
connection with it, and in xxii. 4, this is distin- 
guished from "a running issue." Or it may have 
been " more probably, simply blennorrhosa urethrse^ 



120 



LEVITICUS. 



a discharge of mucus arising from a catarrhal 
affection of the mucous membrane of the urethra 
(urethritis)." Keil; so too, Kalisch. In ver. 3, 
a distinction is noticed in the character of the 
disease which, however, was of no consequence 
for the purpose in hand ; the issue might be 
continuous, or it might be temporarily retained. 
In either case the disease was there, and its 
subject was unclean. Rosenmiiller would un- 
derstand ftesh in ver. 7 to be an euphemism as 
in ver. 2, and the law to cover especially the ease 
of the physician. In ver. 11 a provision is 
made that the person affected might prevent the 
communication of uncleanness by his touch, by 
first rinsing his hands in -water ; thus showing 
that the uncleanness communicated was of a 
symbolical character. Vers. 14, 15 provide for 
a sin offering and burnt offering, of the humblest 
kind indeed, but yet here, as everywhere in the 
law, sufficient to keep alive the association be- 
tween uncleanness and sin. It is declared that 
the priest shall make an atonement for 
him before the LORD for his issae, thus dis- 
tinctly declaring his uncleanness to have been 
the ground of an alienation from God, to be re- 
moved by a propitiatory sacrifice. — P. G.]. 

"Vers. 16, 17. A single emission of seed was 
treated as a single uncleanness." [It is proba- 
ble that the law had in view an involuntary act ; 
but it would, nevertheless, apply in all cases, 
and thus its importance in checking the fearful 
evil of self-pollution needs no comment. — F. G.]. 

"Ver. 18. So too was the result of a man and 
woman sleeping together." [This euphemism 
may possibly be misunderstood. The unclean- 
ness resulted only in case of sexual intercourse, 
and hence abstinence from such intercourse was 
u necessary part of preparation for occasions 
especially requiring cleanness. Ex. xix. 15; 
1 Sam. xxi. 5, 6, etc. The law must have ope- 
rated as an important check upon sensual pas- 
sions. For proof that the same custom was 
common among other nations, see Knobel. It is 
always to be remembered, however, that this 
defilement is connected with the general sinful 
condition of man, and did not pertain to hia 
original state. See Gen. i. 28. — F. G.]. 

" Vers. 19-24. The menstruation was defined 
as an uncleanness for seven days." [The actual 
duration is not normally more than four or five 
days ; but the period of a week seems to be fixed, 
partly to fully cover all ordinary cases, partly 
" on account of the significance of the number 
seven." Keil. During all this time the woman 
communicated uncleanness to every person she 
touched : but especially (ver. 24) whoever had 
sexual intercourse with her (for Keil shows that 
this must be the meaning) became unclean for 
the full term of her uncleanness, seven days. 
In XX. 18 it is provided that in case of such in- 
tercourse both parties should be "cut off from 
among their people," as having committed an 
abominable act. The case here provided for 
must therefore be that of the sudden and un- 
expected coming on of menstruation, so that the 
man became unintentionally defiled. But while 
uncleanness was thus strongly communicated to 
persons, it only affected among things those on 
which the woman sat or lay down. She was thus 



not debarred from the fulfillment of her ordinary 
domestic duties. 

[It has already been noticed under chap. xii. 
that the provisions of the law in regard to child 
birth are intentionally separated from the pre- 
sent law in order to mark birth distinctly and 
emphatically as a subject by itself. The two 
things may be closely connected naturally ; but 
when there has occurred another beginning of 
human life, the entrance upon the world of . 
another immortal and accountable being, the 
event has a gravity and importance which re- 
quires its distinct treatment apart from the 
ordinary, frequently recurring conditions of 
life.— F. G.]. 

" Vers. 25-30. The woman diseased with a 
bloody isiue was placed under the same regula- 
tion as the man with a flow of semen." [Blood 
seems to be used here (as throughout this chap- 
ter) for that which has the general appearance of 
blood, and is popularly called by that name. 
Hence what is here referred to is an issue of a 
menstrual character, either out of its proper time, 
or prolonged beyond its time. This being ab- 
normal required the same treatment, the same 
exclusion from the camp (Num. v. 2), and the 
same offering for ils "atonement" as in the case 
of the man. Onlinary menstruation required 
no sacrifice. — F. G.]. 

" Ver. 31. The supplement, Thus shall ye 
separate the children of Israel, etc., shows 
that these regulations are not merely typical, 
but also sanitary ; that they aim at the duty of 
sexual purity, both in moral, and in bodily rela- 
tion. The lying of a man with an unclean 
woman, vers. 83 and 24, is to be distinguished 
from the sexual intercourse (ch. xviii. 19 ; xi, 
18"). [But see under vers. 19-24.— F. &.]. 

" That of all the impurities the sexual are ren- 
dered so prominent, shows the earnest consecra- 
tion wherewith the law places the sexual foun- 
tain of the natural life of man under the law of 
chastity and holiness. So also it abhors exceed- 
ingly profanations or defilements of this fountain. 
On this side the rudeness of heathenism spreads 
through all the centuries of the Christian era 
like a dark shadow, while the consecration of the 
sex life was already announced in the centre of 
Israel in presage of ideal nuptials." [On the 
existence of similar ordinances and customs 
among other nations, see Knobel, Bahr, and 
the various articles in the Bible Dictiona- 
ries.- F. G.]. 

DOCTEINAL AND ETHICAL. 

I. All the defilements in this and the preceding 
chapters are here presented on their theocratic, 
not on their natural side. Nothing is anywhere 
said in them of means of cure. The attitude 
of the priest toward them is not that of the 
physician, aiming at their removal; but rather 
of the guardian of the sanctuary, first determin- 
ing their existence, and then when they have 
been removed, undertaking the purifications by 
which the polluted person may be restored to 
his forfeited privilege of approaching God in 
His sanctuary, and again mingling with the 
holy people. 

II. The object of the laws of purity is mani- 



CHAP. XVI. 1-84. 



121 



festly mainly moral. They may also have inci- 
dentally a hygienic purpose, but this is entirely 
subordinate. The main object is the mainte- 
nance of the majesty of God. Nothing impure 
may appear in His presence, and hence all those 
bodily conditions which are associated with, and 
suggestive of impurity, are marked as unclean, 
and not only the persons aflfected by them are 
excluded from the sanctuary, or even from the 
camp, but all contact with them is to be avoided 
by the holy people. 

III. Very much is often said of the extreme 
frequency of these defilements, as if the Israelites 
must, under the operation of these laws, have 
lived in an almost perpetual state of ceremonial 
unoleanness. But it is to be remembered that 
we have in these chapters a collection of the 
cases of uncleanness provided for, which has 
upon the mind of the reader something of the 
effect of the perusal of a medical book ; finding 
so many diseases enumerated, he is apt to sup- 
pose a state of disease far more common than it 
really is. Unoleanness, notwithstanding its ap- 
parent frequency when the account of all its 
varieties is collected together, was still an ab- 
normal state, and in the great majority of cases 
continued only a short time, being limited by 
the approaching "evening" at whatever time 
in the day it may have occurred. 

IV. In the Levitical legislation the difi^erence 
between actual sin and uncleanness which was 
merely symbolical of sin, is made to appear very 
clearly. In this chapter particularly, four cases 
of uncleanness are mentioned, two of which 
(2-15, and 2.5-30) were simply diseases, and the 
other two (16-24) entirely natural and sinless ; 
yet not only did the disease make unclean, but 
also that natural act or condition, which accord- 
ing to the Divine constitution is necessary for 
the perpetuation of the race in accordance with 
His own command. In all this there can be 
nothing sinful in itself; but as man's whole con- 
dition is sinful, so are these things constituted 
unclean, thereby to symbolize, and impress upon 
the mind of man the character of his whole re- 
lation to God who is perfect in holiness. 



HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL. 

The laws of this chapter impose many re- 
straints upon the intercourse of the sexes ; that 
was the will of God shown of old by definite 
educational precepts. It remains His will still, 
no longer embodied in such precepts, but an- 
nounced in general principles. See 1 Thess. iv. 4. 

That the defilements here spoken of were cere- 
monial and symbolical only, is shown by the fact 
(ver. 12) that the earthen vessel was to be broken, 
while the wooden one (which is also absorptive) 
was only to be rinsed with water. Had the de- 
filement been actual, the law muat have been 
the same for both. Theodore!. 

The especial object of the laws of unoleanness 
is declared (ver. 31) to be lest "they defile 
my tabernacle." Many things which are 
natural and right in this our earthly life, are 
yet unsuitable for the immediate presence of 
God. Man may, nay, under the Divine consti- 
tution of his nature, must do many things which 
yet are so far apart from the spirituality of the 
Divine Nature that they evidently need to be 
widely separated from acts of worship. Yet 
they are not thereby condemned as sinful, but 
only there is brought into prominence the infinite 
distance by which man is separated from God. 

" Not only cleanness, but cleanliness also, had 
its meaning, embodied in religious customs, as 
the 15th chapter shows, in the most striking fea- 
tures under the law. Uncleanness may exist, 
even with a considerable measure of religious 
feeling and good-will in the forms of negligence, 
of false artlessness, and even of a wild geniality. 
In the delineation of the endlessly fine and 
subtle contagious power of uncleanness, there 
comes into view the whole mysterious connec- 
tion of mankind in sinfulness, as it has been 
shown by the prophet Haggai (ch. ii.), and as it 
lies as the foundation for the baptism of John 
the Baptist. Thus also this idea of the immea- 
surable and inscrutable contagion, and of the 
totality and universality of its guilt, leads to the 
need and the establishment of the universal and 
common atonement. It presages an express, 
great, and single Divine institution," Lange. 



PART FOURTH. THE DAY OF ATONEMENT. 



" Tfte Annual, Universal, National Feast of Purification. The Great Day of Atonement, and the 

Great Propitiation." — Lange. 

Chap. XVI. 1-34. 

1 And the Loed spake unto Mosea after the death of the two sons of Aaron, when 

2 they offered^ before the Loed, and died ; and the Loed said unto Moses, Speak 

TEXTUAL AND GEAMMATICAL. 

^ Ver. 1. The LXX., the Targs. of Onk., Jon. and Jertis., the Yulg. and Syr. here insert the words atrwnge fire, as il 
obvionely implied. 
23 



122 LEVITICUS. 



unto Aaron thy brother, that he come not at all times into the holy place within 
the vail before the mercy seat, which is upon the ark ; that he die not : for I will 

3 appear in the cloud upon the mercy seat. Thus [With this"] shall Aaron come 
into the liolj place: with a young bullock for a sin offering, and a ram for a burnt 

4 offering. He shall put on the [a'] holy linen coat, and he shall have the [omit 
the^] linen breeches upon his flesh, and shall be girded with a linen girdle, and 
with the [a'] linen mitre shall he be attired : these are holy garments ; therefore 

5 shall he wash [bathe*] his flesh in water, and so put them on. And he shall take 
of the congregation of the children of Israel two kids [bucks'] of the goats for a 
sin offering, and one ram for a burnt offering. 

6 And Aaron shall offer his bullock of the sin offering, which is for himself, and 

7 make an atonement for himself, and for his house. And he shall take the two goats, 
and present them before the Lord ai the door of the tabernacle of the [om. the] eon- 

8 gregation. And Aaron shall cast lots upon the two goats ; one lot for the Lord, 

9 and the other lot for the scapegoat [for AzazeP]. And Aaron shall bring the goat 

10 upon which the Lord's lot fell, and offer him for a sin offering. But the goat, on 
which the lot fell to be the scapegoat [for Azazel'], shall be presented alive before 
the Lord, to make an atonement with him, and to let him go for a scapegoat [for 
Azazel"] into the wilderness. 

1 1 And Aaron shall bring the bullock of the sin offering, which is for himself, and 
shall make an atonement for himself, and for his house, and shall kill the bullock 

12 of the sin offering, which is for himself: and he shall take a [the'] censer full of 
burning coals of fire from off the altar before the Lord, and his hands full of 

13 sweet incense beaten small, and bring it within the vail: and he shall put the in- 
cense upon the fire before the Lord, that the cloud of the incense may cover the 

14 mercy seat that is upon the testimony, that he die not: and he shall take of the 
blood of the bullock, and sprinkle it with his finger upon' the mercy seat eastward 
[on the east side'] ; and before the mercy seat shall he sprinkle of the blood with 
his finger seven times. 

15 Then shall he kill the goat of the sin offering, that is for the people, and bring 
his blood within the vail, and do with that blood as he did with the blood of the 

16 bullock, and sprinkle it upon' the mercy seat, and before the mercy seat: and Lei 
shall make an atonement for the holy place, because of the uneleanness of the chil- 
dren of Israel, and because of their transgressions in all their sins : and so shall he 
do for the tabernacle of the [omit the] congregation, that remaineth among them 

17 in the midst of their uneleanness. And there shall be no man in the tabernacle 
of the [omit the] congregation when he goeth in to make an atonement in the holy 
place, until he come out, and have made an atonement for himself, and for his 

18 household, and for all the congregation of Israel. And he shall go out unto the 
altar that is before the Lord, and make an atonement for it ; and shall take of the 
blood of the bullock, and of the blood of the goat, and put it upon the horns of the 

19 altar round about. And he shall sprinkle of the blood upon it with his fingers seven 
times, and cleanse it, and hallow it from the uneleanness of the children of Israel. 

20 And when he hath made an end of reconciling [making atonement for'"] the 
holy place, and the tabernacle of the [omit the] congregation, and the altar, he 

3 Ver. 3. nWTS. Tliere seeme no reason why the Heb. Bhoiild not be rendered literally. 

8 Ver. 4. The articl'^n arft not in the Hpb., and shoulil ho omitted ns mi-lpadine. 

4 Ver. 4. Vrn, sue Textual Note »> on xiT. 8. Tne Sam. and LX.'^. luserL the word aU before hiefleth. 

^ Ver. 5. ■'"I^j)^/, see Textual Note 21 on iv. 23. The same word is used also vers. 7, 8, etc.; hut it seems unnecesaBiy 

to alter the translation tbroughont, ns this is the only place in which the sense is aff cted. 

^ Vers. 8, 10 (bis), 26. 7lXTi?. The word occurs only heie, and in the wide difference of opinion existing as to its 

meaning, it seems far better to rrtain the Heb. word unchanged, as is done in many modem critical translations. It 
occurs in ail cases without the ar icie. For the meaning, see exegt-sis. 

^ Ver. 12. It is better to retain the definite article, as expressed in the Heb. 

8 Vers. 14, 16. For j^=upon, the Sam. reads ^i^^^before, towards. 

^ Ver. 14. 'nty^p^loward the east is to be connected with the mercy seal, and not with sprinMe. The high priest 

looking west, faced the mercy seat, and sprinkled it on the side next to him, t'. e. the aide toward the east. This caniol 
be clearly expressed in English without a slight modification of the phrase, 
w Ver. 20. 1330. See Textual Note " on vi. 30 (23). 



CHAP. XVI. 1-31. 



123 



21 shall bring [offer"] the live goat : and Aaron shall lay both his hands" upon the 
head of the live goat, and confess over him aU the iniquities of the children of 
Israel, and all their trangressions in [according to"] all their sins, putting them 
upon the head of the goat, and shall send him away by the hand of a fit'* man into 

22 the wilderness : and the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities unto a land 
not inhabited \^ and he shall let go the goat in the wilderness. 

23 And Aaron shall come into the tabernacle of the [omit the] congregation, and 
shall put off the linen garments, which he put on when he went into the holy place, 

24 and shall leave them there : and he shall wash [bathe*] his flesh with water in the 
holy place, and put on his garments, and come forth and offer his burnt offering, 
and the burnt offering of the pe )ple, and make an atonement for himself, and for 

25 the people. And the fat of the sin offering shall he burn upon the altar. 

26 And he that let go the goat for the scapegoat [for AzazeP] shall wash his clothes 

27 and bathe his flesh in water, and afterward come into the camp. And the bullock 
for the sin offering, and the gnat for the sin offering, whose blood was brought in 
to make atonement in the holy place, shall one carry forth without the camp ; and 

28 they shall burn in the fire their skins, and their flesh, and their dung. And he 
that burneth them shall wash his clothes and bathe his flesh in water, and after- 
ward he shall come into the camp. 

29 And this shall be a statute for ever unto you : that in the seventh month, on the 
tenth day of the month, ye shall afilict your souls, and do no work at all, whether 

30 it he one of your own country, or a stranger that sojourneth among you : for on 
that day shall the priest make an atonement for you, to cleanse you, that ye may 

31 be clean from all your sins before the Lord. It shall he a sabbath of rest unto 

32 you, and ye shall afilict your souls, by a statute for ever. And the priest, whom 
he [one'*] shall anoint, and whom he [one^*] shall consecrate to minister in the 
priest's office in his father's stead, shall make the atonement, and shall put on the 

33 linen clothes, eum the holy garments : and he shall make an atonement for the 
holy sanctuary, and he shall make an atonement for the tabernacle of the \omit 
the] congregation, and for the altar, and he shall make an atonement for the priests, 

34 and for all the people of the congregation. And this shall be an everlasting sta- 
tute unto you, to make an atonement for the children of Israel for all their sins 



once a year. 
And he did as the Lord commanded Moses. 



u Ver. 20. 3''^p^, the same word as is nsed of the other goat in ver. 9, and the common word for aacriflciai 

offering. 

IS Ter. 21. For the IT' of the text, 35 MSS. read VT, as in the k'ri. 

« Ter. 21. Acmrdingto is both a bett»r translation of the prep, b and gives a better sense. 

I* Ter. 21. ^Pin, in-. \iy., according to Fnerst exiiHng or appointed at a convmient time. LXX. Stoijios, Vulg. paraim. 
The sense oS appdirUed would probably bettter express the Heb. than fit So Targ. Jon., and bo Eosenmueller) ; but there is 
neither sufficient certainty nor suiHcient difference to make the change. 

15 Ter. 22. HIU- LXX a^arov, Vulg. mlitarUan, Onk. uninluibitaile, Jon. desoUUe, Syr. tmcuUivated. Lit. a land cut 

of. The A. T. sufficiently expresses the sense. 

M Ter. 32. Th -so verbs must either be rendered imperMnally, or else taken in the pasrive, as the Heb. idiom very 
well allows. 

tering into the heavenly Holy of Holies, and 
reconoiling the world to God by His own blood 
(Heb. ix. 7-12, 24-28)." 

This chapter forms the culmination of all that 
has gone before, of the laws both of sacrifices 
and of purity, and therefore forms the fitting 
conclusion of the whole portion of Leviticus 
concerned with the means of approach to God. 
The significance of its symbolical ritual is dwelt 
upon in the 9th oh, of the Ep. to the Heb. The 
Holy of Holies was entered only on the day and 
with the sacrifices here prescribed, and this day 
was the only day of fasting appointed in the 
Mosaic law. The ritual of its sacrifices was 
peculiar and impressive, and the goat for Azazel 



EXEQETICAL AND CRITICAL. 

Here a new Paraahah of the law begins, ex- 
tending through ch. xviii. Amos ix. 7-15 forms 
the parallel Proper Lesson from the prophets. 
That prophecy is cited by St. James at the 
Council of Jerusalem (Acts xv. 16, 17), and ap- 
plied to the building up of the Gentiles into the 
Church of Christ. Wordsworth suggests that 
he may have selected that particular prophecy 
because it was associated in his mind, through 
the public readings in the synagogues, with the 
passage before us "which displays, in a figure, 
the work of Christ, our great High Priest, en- 



124 



LEVITICUS. 



is something so unlike any thing else in the Levi- 
tioal system as to have oecasioned the utmost per- 
plexity to expositors. In xxiii. 27 (Heb.) the day 
is called "the day of atonements (in the plural), 
as if this included in itself all other atonements, 
or at least was the most exalted and important 
of them all. In ver. 31 THeb.) it is spoken of as a 
"Sabbath of Sabbaths, and by the later Jews 
it was commonly called simply "Joma,"=day. 
as the day of all days. It is probably intended 
by St. Luke in the expression " the fast," Acts 
xxvii. 9. See Com. there. The high-priest 
alone could officiate, and this he must do in a 
peculiar dress worn only on this day. By the 
ritual of this day, the imperfection and insuffi- 
ciency of all other sacrifices was brought pro- 
minently into view, while yet its own imperfec- 
tion was necessarily involved in its yearly repe- 
tition. 

The chapter consists of two portions, of which 
the first (vers. 2-28) contains directions for this 
great annual expiation; and the second (vers. 
29-34), the command for its yearly celebration. 
The whole of Lange's Exegetical Notes are here 
given. 

"1. It is first of all to be noticed that the 
yearly feast of atonement is mentioned twice in 
the Levitical law of worship, viz. once here as 
(he culminating point of the laws and expiations 
of purifications; and again in ch. xxiii. in the 
midst of the feasts of the Lord for the positive 
sanctification of the land and the people, as a 
solemn prelude to the most festal and joyous of 
all the feasts, the feast of tabernacles. The 
point of unity of both lines is the thought: tha', 
Israel can then only attain to the full joys of the 
feast of tabernacles, when, on the great Sabbath 
of the seventh month — the single exclusive day 
of expiation and regular fast diiy of the year — 
it has humbled and purified itself before Jehovah 
with the confession, that all its legal atonements 
had not brought full purification ; that the in- 
struments of atonement, priests and altar, must 
themselves be atoned for ; that not even by these 
comprehensive general supplications and general 
atonements could complete atonement be made ; 
that a guilt remaining in secret must be sent 
home to Azazel as inexpiable under the iripeaiQ 
of Jehovah (Rom. iii. 25) — an act with which 
the Levitical atonement sweeps out beyond itself 
to a future and real atonement. 

"2. Corresponding to the thoughts that have 
been mentioned, we have : 

" a. The prevailing unapproachableness of 
the holy God, only momentarily suspended 
through a hypothetical, typically accomplished 
power of approach, as the idea of a future 
perfect atonement. This law was enforced 
by the fact that the two eldest sons of 
Aaron had died through approaching pro- 
fanely, and by the threat that he too should 
die if he went behind the curtain of the Holy of 
holies, where Jehovah was manifested in a cloud 
over the mercy-seat (Jer. xxx. 21), otherwise 
than according to the stated conditions, once a 
year. (Heb. ix. 7). Vers. 1, 2." [The historical 
connection of this chapter with the death of Na- 
dab and Abihu does not exclude the logical con- 
nection with the legislation of the rest of the 
book. The provision for the day of atonement 



was necessary in any case to the completeness 
of the Levitical system, but the command for its 
observance was immediately occasioned by their 
unauthorized act. There are no data to show the 
length of the interval between their death and 
the Divine communication contained in this 
cliapter; but it was probably short. Ver. 2. 
■Within the vail — which separated the holy 
place, the outer part of the sanctuary where the 
priests daily ministered at the altar of incense, 
from the holy of holies which was never to be 
entered by man except as provided for in this 
chapter. On the significance of this arrange- 
ment see Doctrinal remarks below. The custom 
of having peculiarly sacred parts in the heathen 
temples is well known. The mercy-seat. — 

n^33 LXX. Vianr^ptov, Ynlg., propitiatorium, SMi 
so the other ancient versions. The LXX. word 
is twice used in the N. T., being translated mercg- 
seat in Heb. ix. 5, hut propitiation in Rom. iii. 25. 
The word occurs only in Ex., in this chapter, 
and in Num. vii. 89, and 1 Chr. xxviii. 11. It 
is evident from Ex. xxv. 22; xxx. 6; and Num. 
vii. 89, that it was the place appointed for the 
peculiar manifestation of the presence of God ; 
and from this chapter, that it was the objeciive 
point of the highest propitiatory rites known to 
(he law. The English word only partially con- 
veys the sense. I vrill appear in the cloud. 
— There has been much question whether this 
means the light-giving cloud which overshadowed 
and at certain times filled the tabernacle, and 
which according to the Jewish authorities, was 
afterwards represented by the Shechinah above 
the ark ; or whether it refers simply to the cloud 
of incense arising from the censer of the high- 
priest as he passed within (he vail. The subject 
is ably and fully discussed by Biihr (Symb. I. o. 
V. § 2, IV. 2d aufl., pp. 471-481) who concludes 
in favor of the latter. See the authorities there 
cited. The determination in reality involves 
two separate questions : first, whether the pro- 
mise of the text is personal to Aaron, or whether 
it is given in perpetuity to him and his success- 
ors in the high-priesthood; and second, whe- 
ther, after the cessation of the wanderings in the 
wilderness, there ever was such a Shechinah. 
In regard to the latter question, later Jewish 
tradition, from the time of the Targums down, 
is certainly sufficiently emphatic in the affirma- 
tive ; but for so remarkable and perpetual a mi- 
racle, higher authority is required. Babr has 
shown that Philo and Josephus, as well as the 
Christian Fathers to the time of S. Jerome, knew 
nothing of it, and it is never mentioned in tbo 
Scriptures, or in the Jewish Apocryphal books. 
Nevertheless, the incense is not spoken of until 
ver. 12, and it seems unlikely that the cloud 
from it should be intended here. God had 
hitherto manifested His presence to Moses and 
to the people in the cloud which covered the 
tabernacle, and that in various localities; it 
would not be strange that He should now 
promise a similar manifes(*tion to Aaron by (he 
same instrumentality. That (his should take 
place upon the mercy-seat was a consequcnos 
of Aaron's coming before it in this highest act 
of propitiation. Of course this would give no 
ground to suppose that such a manifestation 



CHAP. XVI. 1-34. 



125 



oontinued there perpetually, 6r at any other 
time than that on which it is here especially 
promised. Rosenmiiller, Eeil, and most other 
commentators, however, accept the Jewish tra- 
dition of the Shechinah. — F. G.]. 

" b. He must next protect himself with a great 
sacrifice ; for he is directed to take a young 
bullock for a sin offering, and a ram for a 
burnt offering. By these the great faults of 
the priesthood on the one side, and the great 
duties on the other side are signified," ver. 3. 
[Come into the holy is sometimes understood 
in relation to Aaron's entrance into the taberna- 
cle merely, because these offerings were offered 
befors he passed beyond the court at all; but as 
the point of the whole ritual is the entrance into 
the holy of holies, the words are more fitly in- 
terpreted in relation to this. Full account is 
given of the ritual of the sin offering in vers. 
11-14 and 27, 28; the sacrifice of the priestly 
burnt ofl'ering was at the same time with that 
of the people at the conclusion of the other 
sacrifices (ver. 24]. — F. G.]. 

" c. After this, he is to make himself the 
atoner for the collective priesthood. All the 
high-priestly ornaments were laid aside, and he 
was clothed with a linen coat over linen drawers, 
and girt with a linen girdle. The linen cap 
completed the attire. Even this enrobing must 
he preceded by a religious lustration" (ver. 4)." 
[This clothing is called the holy garments, 
vers. 4 and 32 ; and it is separated from that of 
the common priests by a white linen girdle in 
place of the ordinary priestly girdle wrought in 
needle-work with "blue and purple and scarlet" 
(Ex. xxxix. 29). The high-priest is thus to lay 
aside his "golden garments" of authority, and 
to be clad in pure white as symbolical of holi- 
ness. This symbolism was increased by his 
bathing himself before putting on these gar- 
ments, and again when he exchanged them 
(ver. 24) for his official robes. These bathings 
were not the mere ordinary bathings of the 
hands and feet, but of the whole body.— F.Q.]. 

" d. Only in such guise can he receive the 
means of atonement for the congregation in- 
volved with him in guilt, the two he-goats, 
which in the more general sense, are appointed 
for a sin offering. In the presentation of the 
burnt offering, however, the congregation was 
equalized with the high-priest himself. But how 
inconsiderable is the he-goat in comparison with 
the young bullock, ver. 5." [He shall take 
of the congregation. — Inasmuch as these 
sacrifices were for the people, the victims were 
supplied by them, as the former ones had been 
by Aaron. The fact that the two goats together 
constitute the sin offering is to be particularly 
noted. The high-priest's sin offering was a 
bullock, as provided in iv. 3, and the ordinary 
Sin offering for the whole congregation was the 
same (ib. 14) ; here it is changed to two goats to 
meet the particular ritual provided, but they 
together constitute a single sin offering. In the 
same way two birds were required for the puri- 
fication of the leper (xiv. 4), or to " make atone- 
ment for the leprous house {ib. 53) one of which 
was set free ; and so also in the sin offering of 
the poor (v. 7), two doves were required which 
were differently treated, but together made up a 



single sacrifice. The burnt offering, both for 
the high-priest and for the congregation, was 
not a bullock, but an inferior victim was pre- 
scribed, probably to avoid withdrawing the at- 
tention from the other sacrifices, and thus to 
bring out with greater force the significance of 
the whole work of the day as an atonement for 
sin.— F. G.]. 

"e. Now follows the ordinance for the atone- 
ment in a shorter statement. The sin offerings 
were placed together before the sanctuary, pre- 
sented before the Lord ; the bullock and the 
two he-goats ; since the guilt is indeed different, 
but yet also common." [The text, however, dis- 
tinctly separates the presentation of Aaron's 
bullock (ver. 6) from that of the he-goats for the 
people (ver. 7) ; and this is in accordance with 
the order of the actual sacrifice which follows. It 
seems also necessary to the idea that Aaron must 
first make an atonement for himself and for 
his house before proceeding to offer for the 
people. — F. G.]. "But now the mysterious act 
was performed : the lot was cast over the two 
he-goats, while the lot of the one was called for 
Jehovah, that of the other for Azazel, Ou 
the various significations of this, see below. 
Meantime, only the directions which belong to 
both are spoken of. Vers. 9 and 10." [6-10. 

The n?!? used in vers. 9, 10 of the lots refers to 

T T 

the coming up of the lot out of the urn. Keil. 
Aaron's bullock is now offered, not sacrificed, for 
this comes afterwards, ver. 11 ; the same is true 
also of the other sin offerings. According to 
Jewish tradition, this offering was accompanied 
by the high-priest's making a solemn confession 
of sin, the form of which is given in Massechet 
Joma c. 3, g 8 (Patrick). His house is not his 
immediate, personal family, but the whole order 
of priests, and perhaps it also included the Le- 
vites after they were separated from the congre- 
gation. — The t'wo goats of ver. 7 were to be, 
according to Jewish tradition, of the same size, 
color, and value, and as nearly alike in every 
way as possible. Both of them alike Aaron was 
directed to present before the Lord, but the 
word used for this act C'DyH) is a different one 
from that used of Aaron's offering of the bullock 
(Tlpn), and does not appear to be used in a sa- 
crificial sense. The lots were then cast, and only 
the one upon 'which the LORD'S lot fell 
was Aaron at present to offer (^'^pH) ^°^ * ^i" 
offering (ver. 8) as he had already done with 
his own bullock ; the other, on which the lot 
fell for Azazel was to be presented alivo 
Cn-npil') before the Lord (ver. 10). This dif- 
ference in the treatment of the two goats from 
the outset is too important to be overlooked ; but 
subsequently the other was also o^ered( ver. 20), 
and it is expressly said that Aaron should make 
an atonement with him.— Thus it is clear 
that the goat for Azazel, while forming part of 
the one sin offering and used for the purpose of 
atonement, was yet offered to the Lord, in the 
sacrificial sense, separately from the other. — 
F. G.J. 

"/. The sacrificial acts follow these prepara- 
tions. Aaron must slay the sin offering of the 
priesthood in the court. Then he first brings a 



126 



LEVITICUS. 



large offering of incense (both hands full of 
s^7eet incense) into the holy of holies, a cloud 
of the fulness of prayer, which covers the whole 
mercy-seat, as this covers the law, the evidence i 
of the guilt of sin. With this preparatory en- 
trance only is made possible the principal en- 
trance for fulfilling the priestly atonement, with- j 
out Aaron's dying in that eutranoe- Then he i 
comes back, brings the vessel of blood, and first j 
sprinkles with his finger blood upon the mercy- ' 
seat on its front side, as if to express the thought I 
that there is an atouement in the blood ; then he 
sprinkles before the Kaporetb " [mercy-seat] j 
'■ with his fingers (plural) seven times, as if to 
express the whole historical work of the blood 
of martyrdom which the blood-sprinkling of the 
Kaporeth" [mercy-seat] "crowned." [Vers. 
11-14. It is important to the understanding of 
this day to keep the order of its rites distinctly 
in view. They have been clearly stated above: 
(1) the high priest slew the bullock for the 
priestly siu offering; (2) then he entered the 
holy of holies with the golden censer (comp. Heb. 
ix. 4) full of burning incense ; (3) taking the 
blood of his own sin offering, he again entered 
the holy of holies and sprinkled the blood, first 
upon the front side of the merey-seat, and then 
seven times before it ; (4) he again came out to 
slay the goat for the sin offering of the people 
(ver. 15). — F. G.]. "Now first follows the atone- 
ment for the people. Aaron takes the vessel of 
blood of the people's atonement, and performs 
the two sprinklings in the holy of holies as be- 
fore. Here also the distinction is madeupon the 
mercy-seat and before the mercy-seat. But 
as Aaron does not make atonement for his private 
guilt, of which mention was made in chap, iv., 
but for the faults in his sacrificial service itself, 
80 is it also with the atonement for the people. 
For their private sins they have brought their 
sacrifices during the course of the year; now 
they have, in connection with the priesthood, to 
atone generally for the subtle sins in all their 
atonements and offerings." [Yet it would give 
an imperfect view of the purpose of the great day 
of atonement to suppose it restricted simply to 
atoning for defects in the various sacrifices of the 
past year, nor probably does Lange mean to be 
so understood. It was rather an expression of 
the inherent insufficiency of those sacrifices; an 
acknowledgment that, notwithstanding all those 
propitiations, there still remained an alienation 
between a sinful people and a perfectly holy God. 
It was the design of this day to acknowledge 
this, and by the most solemn and expressive 
types, symbolically to remove it; yet in the pro- 
vision for its annual repetition, its own insuffi- 
ciency to this end stands confessed, and with 
especial clearness it points forward to the only 
true remedy in Him who should really obtain 
the victory over the power of evil. — F. G.] "So 
first atonement was made for the sanctuary of 
the Temple" [or Tabernacle] "in the holy of 
holies (which indeed had itself remained unap- 
proachable for siu as well as the sinner), and 
then from the holy of holies outward, for the 
tabernacle of congregation, which had 
been particularly exposed to defilement in the 
midst of the impurities of the people. That by 
the tabernacle of congregation is meant the 



court, is shown by the command that no one 
should enter it while he accomplishes the atone- 
ment." [On the other hand, Keil understands 
"the holy place of the tabernacle" in contra- 
distinction to the " holy of holies," which is 
called throughout this chapter simply "the 
holy." So also Bosenmiiller and others. And 
there shall be no man in the tabernacle 
of congregation — The object of this was not 
to guard the privacy of the ceremony, but sim- 
ply because all were regarded as defiled aud to 
be atoned for, and every thing defiled must be 
excluded during the process of atonement. — F.G.] 
" The whole religion of the people appears as in 
abeyance while the high-priest was consum- 
mating the atonement. And fitly were these 
atoning acts so named. After the high-priest 
had completed the atonement in the holy of ho- 
lies, he went back into the sanctuary, and there 
sprinkled the altar of incense. In a manner 
entirely analogous to the sprinkling upon the 
mercy-seat, he first sprinkled the horns of the 
altar of incense, and then the altar itself seven 
times." [The analogy is still more completely 
carried out by the change of words in the Heb. 

put it (JJIJ) upon the horns of the altar 

he shall sprinkle (ilTH) of the blood upon 
it. — F. G.] "Only in this sprinkling, the blood 
of the bullock is joined with the blood of the he- 
goat, as indeed the prayers of both priest and 
people rise together to God, and in like manner 
also their faults in prayer. It is remarkable 
that the act of sprinkling in the court (at the 
altar of burnt offering) seems to follow the act 
of sprinkling in the holy of holies, and not till 
then the sprinkling of the altar of incense in the 
temple" [tabernacle], "which is here called 
par excellence the altar. In this connection the 
passage Ex. xxx. 10 is worthy of note. Accord- 
ingly the atonement for this altar was the last 
act of sacrifice, and thereby the atonement for 
the theocratic prayer became the last point in the 
atonement, as indeed it had certainly been the 
basis for the first." [The ceremonies of propi- 
tiation began by carrying the burning incense, 
symbolizing prayer, within the vail ; then the 
blood was sprinkled upon the instruments of pro- 
pitiation, the mercy-seat and the brazen altar, 
and finally upon the altar of incense itself which 
was connected with the symbolism of prayer.—. 
F. G.] " This ordinance seems to be connected 
with the thought tnat the altar of incense in its 
relation to Jehovah (the altar that is before 
the LORD) was reckoned as belonging to the 
holy of holies, as also the Epistle to the Hebrews 
seems to understand. After all this comes the 
treatment of the living he-goat, designated 
for Azazel. This goat was brought into the 
court. Here the high-priest must lay both Aw 
hands (his hand in the singular was said of the 
offerer i. 4 ; iii. 2 ; iv. 4 ; iv. 24) upon the head 
of the goat aud confess upon it all the mis- 
deeds (rt'lj^) of the children of Israel, and all 
their breaches of allegiance (deadly sins, crimes) 
(Dri'.j;tf'n), which belong to all their sins, which 
are not included either in the sins to be atoned 
for, or which have already been atoned for 

(□nK'On-'rs'?), and shall lay these upon the head 



CHAP. XVI. 1-34. 



127 



of the goat, and shall send it away (hunt it 
away) into the wilderness by means of a man 
who stood ready for that purpose (therefore in- 
stantly). The object, however, is that the he- 
goat shall bear away all the sins, as if they had 
been laid upon him, into a desolate place. So 
shall he send him away into the wilderness, pro- 
perly speaking, into a complete solitude, into a 
bare place in the midst of the wilderness, to the 
most desolate spot. So fearful indeed is the 
burden of guilt of this beast, that the man who 
has driven away the goat must first, outside the 
camp, wash hia clothes and bathe himself before 
he may come hack again into the camp. This is 
the contagious power of the deadly sins. It is 
to be considered that sins done with uplifted hand 
could not be removed by Levitical sacrifice." 

"But further, they could not all be discovered 
and blotted out by the penalty of death, ike Che- 
rem. Thus there remained, after all the atone- 
ments and penalties, an unatoned and unpar- 
donable residue, the hidden guilt of Israel, which 
crept on in darkness through its history until 
the crucifixion of Christ (Rom. iii. 25). From 
this the congregation of Israel could only be 
freed by a symbolical act, in which they hunted 
away this burden of guilt with the sin-goat of 
double power, to him to whom this guilt be- 
longed, to the Azazel in the wilderness. That 
the solitude inside the pasturage of the wilder- 
ness was considered as a region of evil spirits is 
plain from passages of the Old and New Testa- 
ments (Isa. xiii. 21 ; xxxiv. 14 ; Matt. xii. 43 ss.) ; 
that further, the dismissing of the unpardonable 
sins could be considered as a giving over of the 
sinner, with his sin, to its author, is shown by 
the act of excommunication of Paul (1 Cor. v. 5), 
and that the idea or conception of a diabolical 
opposing spirit was handed down from patriar- 
chal times, is plain, backwards, from Gen. iii., 
and forwards, from the position of Satan in Job, 
and other places. The name Azazel corresponds 
throughout to this conception. Whether the 

'.'.'"H he derived from 7jJ?, it means (from the 
verb in Pihel) the one that is always hiding, se- 
parating himself; or from btS, the one that 
is always removing himself, the escaping 
one, the old one every where and nowhere ; 
and one can only say simply that the va- 
rious explanations which are most divergent 
from this conception are only to be accounted for 
from the want of understanding the undoubtedly 
very obscure and solemn idea of the text. Thus 
Knobel finds himself authorized by the text and 
the grammar to explain "our author considered 
Azazel as an evil being in the wilderness." To 
be sure, it is his purpose to assert in this con- 
nection that the devil does not appear in the old 
Hebrew books, and was not a dweller in the 
wilderness. [Similarly Kalisch argues, upon 
the same grounds, that this book must be later 
than the time of Zechariah !"— P. G.] That the 
teaching concerning the devil has only been 
gradually developed from the obscurest forms ; 
that the devil appears in Scripture in connection 
with subordinate demons ; that further, he is 
described in the New Testament as a dweller in 



the wilderness ;* that finally, the conception of 
natural or spectral "Desert fiends" would be a 
dualisdc one, contravening the spirit of the Old 
Testament — all this is overlooked in his skilfully 
prepared antithesis. But when Merx, in oppo- 
sition to the interpretation of the passage of Sa- 
tan, declares that the Old Testament conscious- 
ness is never dualistic, he has not learned to 
distinguish dualism from the biblical teaching in 
regard to Satan ; and, as regards the further ex- 
position, that the idea of Satan was foreign to 
the Old Testament, it is a pure assumption, with 
which he sets himself in opposition to the best 
recognized passages. The lately advanced pro- 
position, " this thought does not appear any 
where else in Scripture," denies the conception 
of aTTof Xeydfieva, and can only be described as 
bad Hermeneutics, without mentioning that we 
have here nothing to do with a diraf leyS/isvov. 
Into what adventurousness Exegesis was brought 
when it passed to the thought, that the abso- 
lutely or relatively (for the Old Testament eco- 
nomy) inexpiable sins were given over to the 
kingdom of darkness for earlier or later judg- 
ment, is shown by the interpretations that are 
given : — Azazel signifies a locality in the wilder- 
ness ; a desolate place ; a mountain (while it is 
forgotten that the people journeyed from station 
to station) ; or the buck goat itself (from \}!_ and 

'ly, caper emissarius, "the scapegoat" (der ledige 
Bock\) according to Luther) ; or Azazel is a de- 
mon, to whom this goat is brought as a sncrifice ; 
or the word is an abstraction, and signifies the 
whole sending away, like the characteristic hesi- 
tation of the LXX. between a^onofiTrri and airo- 
Ko/iiralog, in which two different expositions are 
brought out." [In regard to the meaning of 
Azazel: in the great variety of etymologies given 
for the word by scholars of the highest standing, 
it may be assumed as certain that nothing can 
be positively determined by the etymology. See 
the Lexicons and Bochart, Sieroz. I., lib. II. c. 
54 (Tom. I., p. 745 seq. ed. Rosen.) ; Spencer, de 
leg. L. III. Diss. 8, Sect. 2 (p. 1041 s. ed. Tu- 
bing.). Not only the roots themselves are va- 
ried, but their signification also, and still further 
the signification of the compound. Little light 
can be had from the Ancient Versions. The 
Sam., and the Targs. of Onk., Jon., and Jerus., 
retain the word unchanged ; so also does the 
Syriao, but in Walton's Polyglott this is paren- 
thetically translated Deus fortissimus, for which, 
however, there seems to be no more authority 
than in the Hebrew ; the Vulg. has caprus emis- 
sarius ; the LXX. renders in ver. 8, Ttj awoirofi- 
7Tai<f) (which Josephus also uses), in ver. 10 elg 
TTjv aironofiniiv, in ver. 26 rbv x^f^pov rbv 6iea- 
Ta2,jj.evov cif aipeatv; Symm. aTcpx&l'-evoQ ; Aq. 

* [Tills statement is probably founded upon two fai-ts — 
first, that of our Lord's having been l^d into the wilderness 
"to be tempted of the Devil;" but this does not imply that 
the Devil is in any especial sense a dweller in the wilder- 
ness, but only that this was a favorable situation for him to 
ply his temptations ! and second, that certsin men possessed 
of evil spirits sought solitary places. Other passiiges of the 
N. T. certainly present the Devil as eminently cosmopolitan. 
— F. G.l 

f "Hiller indeed thinks, that the scapo-goat (der ledige 
Bock) signifies that the people are set free by the expiation ; 
only since they could not have let it run free in Jerusalem, 
they sent it into the wildernesa t" 



128 



LEVITICUS- 



ftjro/lE/l«|iiivo? (or, according to Theodoret, awo- 
hj6/ievo(; Theod. afdfisvog. All these versions, 
it will be observed, either retain the word un- 
changed, or else refer it to the goat itself in the 
general sense of Luther, and the A. V, scape^ffoaU 
The old Italic, too, has ad dimissionem. The Jewish 
authorities differ, R. Saadias Gaon being quoted 
by Spencer, and Kimchi by Miinster and others 
for the interpretation rough mountain of God, 
but many of them explaining the word of the 
Devil. Of the Christian Fathers, Origen (contra 
Gels. 6), and a Christian poet cited by Epiphanius 
{Eseres. xxxiv.) from Irenseus, identify Azazel 
with the Devil; on the other hand, Theodoret 
(Qu. xxii. in Lev.) and Cyril (Glaph.) concur 
with the interpretation of Jerome. Suidas and 
Hesychius make the LXX. aTroKo/j-w?/ — anorpoir^ — 
averruncus, the averter of evil. (See Suicer Thes. 
S. V. aTToiTfinaloc.) The great majority of modern 
commentators agree with Spencer and Bosen- 
miiller in interpreting the word itself of the 
Devil, although Bahr, Winer, and Tholuclc con- 
tend for the sense complete removal. The Book 
of Enoch, so called, uses the name, or one so like 
it as to be evidently meant for the same, several 
times (viii. 1; i. 12; xiii. 1), in a way that 
shows the author understood by it the Devil; 
but this book, being an apocryphal composition, 
probably of the second century, (see Excursus 
II. in my com. on S. Jude), can add nothing to 
the authorities already cited. The writers who 
adopt this sense differ very widely in regard to 
the object of the goat for Azazel, some consider- 
ing him as a sacrifice to appease the evil spirit, 
others as sent " to deride and triumph over him 
in his own dominion," and others as simply 
" sent away to him as to one banished from the 
realm of grace." (Clark.) See the dissertations, 
among others, by Spencer and one by Hengsten- 
berg in his Egypt and the Books of Moses. 

In this great variety of interpretation of the 
word and of the meaning of the ritual, we are 
fairly remanded to the text itself with the con- 
viction that nothing is certain except what is 
positively stated there. These points at least, 
are clear: (1) the two goats together constitute 
one sin offering, ver 5 ; and also in ver. 10, the 
goat for Azazel is expressly said to be presented 
before the LORD to make an atonement 

■with him. V7J7 '^3;)7 according to invariable 

nsage, denotes the object of the expiation ; " to 
expiate it, i. e., to make it the object of expiation, 
or make expiation with it." Keil.) Neverthe- 
less a distinction is observed in the text in the 
purpose of the expiation effected by each of the 
goats. The blood of the one that was slain is 
used only for making atonement for the holy 
places, vers. 15-19 ; after this it is expressly 
said, and 'when he hath made an end of 
making atonement for the holy place, 
etc. The expiation for these was then finished, 
and as yet no expiation had been made for the 
sins of the people. Then follows, he shall 
bring the live goat, and on his head the high- 
priest lays the sins of the people to be borne 
away. The two goats then constitute one sin 
offering, but one is used to expiate the holy 
places, the other to bear away the sins of the 
people. (2) The two goats were not offered to- 



gether in the sacrificial sense, but only caiued 
to stand before the Lord for the purpose of cast- 
ing lots, ver. 7 ; afterwards the goat for sacri. 
fice was offered (ver. 9) by himself, and the goat 
for Azazel (ver. 20) was offered by himself. (iS) 
The lot was cast by Aaron as the officiating high- 
priest, and was plainly intended to place the 
choice of the goats entirely in the hands of 
the Lord Himself. (4) The preposition used ig 
precisely the same in regard to both the goats : 

for (7) the LoBD, for Azazel; in view of this it 

is impossible to understand Azazel as in any way 
designating the goat itself, so that the interpre- 
tation of the LXX. Yulg. and A. V. is untenable 
as a literal translation, although as a paraphrase, 
it very well expresses the sense. On the other 
hand, this by no means implies, as so often 
assumed, that Azazel must be a personal being. 
It would be perfectly consonant to the usage of 
language that one goat should be for the Loan, 
and the other for anything, or place, or " ab- 
straction ;" for the knife, for the wilderness, for 
the bearing away of sin. (6) The word Azazel 
is elsewhere unknown to the Scriptures, and 
there is no satisfactory evidence that, except as 
taken from this passage, it ever was a word 
known to any language. (6) Finally it is to be 
borne in mind that this is not the only case in 
which two victims, treated with different ritual, 
constituted together a single sin offering. The 
same thing occurred in the two birds of the sin 
offering of the poor (v. 7-10), of which one 
was treated according to the ritual of the sin 
offering, and the other according to that of the 
burnt offering, yet both together constituted the 
sin offering. Another analogy is in the two birds 
for the purification of the leprous man or house, 
one killed, the other set free. These last, how- 
ever, were not a sacrifice. 

In view of these facts why may it not be sup- 
posed that the word Azazel was somewhat vague 
and indeterminate in its signification to the 
ancient Israelites themselves, just as Redemption 
is to the Christian ? So far as our sinful condi- 
tion is concerned, nothing can be plainer or more 
vitally important; but when the question is 
asked, " To whom is this redemption paid?" no 
certain and satisfactory answer has been, or can 
be given. May it not have been in the same 
way with this word to the Israelites ? That 
their sins were borne away was most clearly 
taught ; but looking upon these sins as concrete 
realities, the question might arise, " Whither 
were they carried ?" The answer is in the first 
place to the wilderness, "to the place of banish- 
ment from God ;" and then further to Azazel. 
It was not necessary that the word should be 
clearly understood ; in fact the more vague its 
meaning, the more perfect the symbolism. The 
typical system could not explain further. The 
main point is well brought out in the translations 
of the LXX., the Vulg. and the A. V., After every 
other part of the atonement for the holy places 
had been completed (ver. 20) this goat was ap- 
pointed for the symbolic bearing away of the 
sins of the people, first into the wilderness, a 
wide, indefinite place, and then further to Azazel, 
a wide, indefinite word. All this very emphati- 
cally symbolized to the people the utter removal 



CHAP. XVI. 1-34. 



129 



of the burden of their Bins, without attempt- 
ing to define precisely what became of them. 
The only danger that could be supposed of 
similar yagueness entered into the New Testa- 
ment account of the great Sacrifice for sins, to set 
at rest the endless theories which aim in vain 
at explaining the modus operandi of the Divine 
atonement — except that whatever that term had 
been, learning and ability would have been 
hopelessly devoted to ascertain its meaning, 
as has already been the case with Azazel. 
— F. 6.] 

"After the atoning sacrifice was completed in 
the way described, Aaron must prepare to pre- 
sent the burnt offering. It is very significant 
that he had to lay aside in the court the linen 
garments, the garments of expiation, and bathe 
his flesh with water, and then only, in his own 
high-priestly robes, present his burnt oiFering 
and that of the people, a ram for himself, and a 
ram for the people. Moreover, when it is said, 
he shall both make an atonement for him- 
self, and for the people (ver. 24), it is cer- 
tainly implied in the expression that the typi- 
cal burnt offering signified only a typical Interim 
for the real Burnt offering (Rom. xii. 1), pro- 
vided the expression is not to be considered as a 
final recapitulation. The contrast between the 
he-goat whi'^h had been slain as a sin offering to 
Jehovah, and the goat of the Azazel is also ex- 
pressed in this: that the fat of the first came 
upon the altar with the burnt offering, while 
even the man who drove away the Azazel goat 
had to undergo a lustration." [Aaron's bathing 
himself (ver. 24) seems also to be connected 
with his having symbolically laid the sins of 
the people upon the head of the goat. The 
same lustration was also required of him who 
burnt the flesh of the other goat and of 
the bullock without the camp (ver. 28), as is 
noticed by Lange below. The object of these 
requirements is evidently to express by every 
possible symbolism the defiling nature of sin. 
In ver. 27 the word for burning is S'W, which 
as noted under iy. 12, is never used of sacrificial 
burning. — F. G.] " The sin offerings indeed, 
the bullock and the goat, in their remainder of 
skin, flesh and bones, were carried without the 
camp, and there burned ; as was to be done with 
the sin offerings of the high-priest and of the 
congregation according to ch. iv. 1-21, as if 
these pieces were considered a Cherem." [The 
law required that the flesh of all sin offerings 
whose blood was brought witliin the sanctuary, 
should be burned without the camp. See on x. 
18. — P. G.] "But it has certainly this mean- 
ing: that these pieces were here neutralized 
and removed with a becoming reverence for 
their signification. On account of this impor- 
tant idea, the fulfiller of this work was also sub- 
jected to a lustration, ver. 28." 

"As a supplement, partly a repetition, it is now 
said, that the children of Israel shall on this 
day afilict their souls ; that this law shall be an 
everlasting law ; the day a great Sabbath on 
which all work shall be stopped ; that it shall 
be Israel's atonement from all their sins which 
the high-priest should execute, and that once a 



year. It also remains not unnoticed that the 
ordinance in regard to this was observed at that 
time. 

"For the literature, see Keil, p. 113, 14," etc. 
[Trans, page 398. See also the authorities in 
Smith's BS>. Diet. art. Atonement, Day of, and 
in Winer, art. Versohnungstag . — F. G.] 

[Ver. 29. In the seventh month of the 

ecclesiastical year, which according to Josephus 
(I. 3, § 3), was the first of the civil year. The 
old Hebrew name for this month was Ethanim, 
the post-captivity name Tiari. On the first day 
of this month was appointed the Feast of Trum- 
pets (xxiii. 24), celebrated as a Sabbath and by 
"an holy convocation;" on the tenth was the 
great Day of Atonement, provided for in this 
chapter, and again mentioned xxiii. 26-32 ; and 
on the fifteenth day began the feast of taberna- 
cles, lasting for a week (xxiii. 33-4.S). Tho 
deportment required of the people on the Day 
of Atonement is more fully expressed in ch. 
xxiii. Here it is simply described as a day in 
which ye shall afilict your souls, i. e. devote 
yourselves to penitence and humiliation. This 
would of course include fasting; but the dis- 
tinctive word for fasting, D1V or DIX, so com- 
mon afterwards, does not occur in the Penta- 
teuch or Joshua. It was further provided that 
the people should do no work at all, not 
merely no servile work, as was provided for on 
various other occasions, but absolutely no work. 
And this ordinance was extended to the stran- 
ger that sojourneth among you. Various 
laws were made obligatory upon the stranger, 
as the observance of the fourth commandment, 
Ex. XX. 10; the abstinence from blood. Lev. 
xvii. 10 ; certain laws of sexual purity, xviii. 26 ; 
the law against giving of one's seed to Molech, 
XX. 2; and against blasphemy, xxiv. 16. These 
were all laws so essential to the Hebrew theoc- 
racy that every one who came within the sphere 
of their exercise was bound to respect them. 
They apply to every one staying for however 
long or short a time within the bounds of Israel, 
and it is a mistake to restrict them (Clark) to 
those of other races permanently domiciled 
among the Israelites, as will at once appear 
from a consideration of the character of several 
of these laws. Ver. 34. He did as the IiORD 
commanded Moses, i. e. in announcing the 
law. Perhaps also the expression may include 
the observance of the day when the time came 
round which could only have been several 
months later, the Israelites having departed 
from Mount Sinai on the twentieth day of the 
second month (Num. x. 11), while all the legis- 
lation in Leviticus was given during their so- 
journ there (ch. xxvi. 46; xxvii. 34). — F. Q.] 



DOCTKINAL AND ETHICAL. 

I. The vail shutting out the Holy of Holies 
set forth, in speaking symbol, the unapproaoha- 
bleness and unknowableness of God. Even the 
high priest, entering once in the year, must 
obscure his view in the veiy cloud of incense 
with which he approached. The same truth 



130 



LEVITICUS. 



was more feebly taught iu the arrangements of 
the heathen temples, and was set forth in the 
speculations of heathen philosophy. In the 
Jewish Scriptures it is declared with the utmost 
emphasis and clearness. In the New Tes:ament 
too, we are taught that He can be revealed to 
man only by Him who is both God and miin. 
Thus the latest conclusion of modern philosophy, 
that behind all that can be discovered of nature 
there is an " Unknowable," a "power inscruta- 
ble to the human intellect" is taught iu Scrip- 
ture from beginning to end. Even when the 
vail was rent asunder at the crucifixion of Christ, 
and a new and living way was consecrated for 
us into the holy of holies, it became a, way to 
the knowledge and apprehension of God rather 
practically and spiritually than intellectually. 
The finite and the Infinite can meet only iu Him 
who is both. 

II. The high-priest was warned to enter within 
the vail only in the way and at the time pre- 
scribed, lest he die. His official and symbolic 
holiness did not make him personally holy, so 
that he could bear to enter as he pleased the 
presence of the holy God, but only covered his 
officiiil service. This was not prevented or ren- 
dered unavailing by his own personal unworthi- 
ness. So here is taught the great principle that 
" the unworthiness of ministers hinders not the 
effect of the sacraments;" that the grace of 
God accompanips the acts of those whom He has 
appointed in that which He has given them to 
do, all liough this treasure be placed " in earthen 
vessels." 

III. The dress of Aaron when he passed within 
the vail was evidently significant. Ordinarily, 
when he ministered as high-priest and in the 
presence of the people, his robes were of the 
utmost splendor, symbolizing his high office as 
the typical mediator between God and the con- 
gregation; but now in the highest act of that 
mediation, when alone before God, these are to 
be laid aside, and the whole purpose of the dress 
is to symbolize that perfect purity with which 
only he may enter tbe presence of the imme- 
diate dwelling-place of God. 

IV. In Aaron's first offering of a sin offering 
for himself is very strongly set forth the imper- 
fection of the Levitical law. The one on whose 
mediation the people must depend for forgive- 
ness must yet first make propitiation for him- 
self. And in the provision for the annual repe- 
tioQ of this day, its insufficiency is apparent, 
see Heb. x. 1-3. Here then again, as so con- 
stantly iu every part of its provisions, the law 
of sacrifice proclaims itself as but a temporary 
institution until that which is perfect should 
come. 

V. By the goat for Azazel again, the same 
thing is taught. " It is not poisible that the 
blood of bulls and of goats should take away 
sins " (Heb. x. 4) ; therefore after all symbolism 
bad been exhausted in the sacrifice of bulls and 
of goats, the sins were yet laid upon the head 
of tbe goat for Azazel, and sent away into the 
wilderness. The sins thus sent away are not to 
be looked upon as different sins from those for 
which propitiation was offered, nor as a residue 
of these unatoned for; but as the same sins, as 
all the sins of the children of Israel (ver. 21J. 



Atonements had bsen made for these through- 
out the y^-ar ; u. further and higher atonement 
had at this moment been made ; but that all 
these were inherently ineflfectual was now shown 
by the goat for Azazel. 

VI. Tue Christian Fathers, with that instinct 
which often seizes upon a truth without recog- 
nizing accurately the process by which it is 
reached, generally considered the goat for Aza- 
zel as a type of Christ, some of them in one 
way, some in another. Cyril thought him a 
type of the risen Christ, and the wilderness to 
which he was sent, a type of heaven. Theodoret 
makes him a type of the Divine nature of Christ, 
which was neoes'iary to the perfection of His 
atonement, and yet incapable of suffering. The 
type seems really to consist in this: that the 
sins for whicli all the Levitical sacrifices were 
unable really to atone, were symbolically borne 
away by the goat; even as our iniquities are 
truly laid upon Christ, and He has borne them 
away. Isa. liii. 4-6. 

Vn. The incense formed a prominent and 
essential part of the ritual of the day of atone- 
ment. This is not to be forgotten in its relation 
to the antitype. It is not on Christ's sacrifice 
alone that we depend for the forgiveness of our 
sins, but upon His intercession also. 

VIII. On the day of atonement no work what- 
ever was to be done: the propitiation for sia 
was not only the paramount duty, faking the 
place of everything that interfered with it; but 
it was to be all-absorbing. The people had no 
duties to perform directly in connection with 
the service of atonement ; but still they must do 
no work. The propitiation for sin must be the 
one thing on that day done in all the oamp of 
Israel; and meanwhile the whole congregation 
were to " afflict their souls.'' Though the pro- 
pitiation of sins be wrought for us, and not by 
us, yet must it bring to us the lowliness and 
humiliation of repentance. 

IX. Aaron was to make an atonement (ver. 20) 
for the holy of holies, for the tabernacle, and for 
the altar; but these had already been sanctified 
at 'their first consecration, and the alooement 
now made must be perpetually repeated year 
by year. It is plain from this that there was no 
effective remedy for the inherent weakness and 
sinfulness of man, which contaminated even his 
moat holy things, until the coming of that Son 
of man who should be without sin. The high- 
priest entered the holy of holies, and thus ap- 
proached the symbolic dwelling-place of God; 
but he did not thereby open the way to others, 
or even to himself except for this same typical 
entrance, "the Holy Ghost this signifying, that 
the way into the Holiest of all was not yet made 
manifest" (Heb. ix. 8); the only atonement 
which could really open the way for man to 
heaven itself must be offered before the throne 
of Jehovah by Him who alone could offer an all- 
suffioent sacrifice for the sin of the world. 

X. " The rites were not in any proper sense 
supplemental, but were a solemn gathering up, 
as it were, of all other rites of atonement, so as 
to make them point more expressively to the reve- 
lation to come of God's gracious purpose to man, 
in sending His Son to be delivered for our 
offences, and to rise again for our justification 



CHAP. XVI. 1-34. 



131 



to be our great High Priest for ever after the 
order of Melohisedec, and to enter for us within 
the vail (Horn. iv. 25 ; Heb. vi. 20). The day 
of atonement expanded the meaning of every sin 
offering, in the same way as the services for Good 
Friday and Ash Wednesday expand the meaning 
of our Litany days throughout the year, and 
Easter Day, that of our Sundays." Clark. 

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL. 

The day of atonement "forms a contrast to 
the defilement of the sanctuary by the sons of 
Aaron, their rash intrusion, their strange fire, 
their moral death and fearful destruction. (Ch. 
xvi. 1). It depends — as far as concerns the un- 
derstanding — upon a great dread, a great world- 
historic preparation, and earnest religious pray- 
ers and actions. It is performed for the whole 
people, and this means for all humanity. But it 
points also, by its several particulars out from 
the Old Testament and into the New. The high- 
priest is not yet clean, not yet the righteous ; he 
must first offer for himself (see the Ep. to the 
Heb.). He is not one with his sacritice and sa- 
crificial blood, although he must represent the 
approximation to this unity in the disrobing 
himself of his high-priestly majesty. But even 
the sin offering availed only for sins of weakness 
(xxiv. 16 ; Num. xv. 30), and not for sins of ma- 
lice, of rebellion, of outrage with a high hand. 
These were everywhere, when they were disco- 
vered, punished with death. But since all were 
not discovered, a deadly sin steals through the 
life of Israel, and accumulates — as a token of 
wliioh the goat of the sin offering is sent, through 
the goat of the Azazel, into the wilderness as a 
curse offering to the author of the demon-like 
sin." [The same application may be made of 
the different views given of the sins borne away 
by the goat, and of Azazel in the Exegetioal. — 
F. 6.]. " Thus the law lightens the darkest 
night-side of Israel and of the human race. But 
Christ has shown the chain and tradition of 
these secret faults in His denunciation. Matt, 
xxiii. 30 S3., and Paul has shown (Rom. iii.) how 
Christ, before the tribunal of God. has also 
atoned for these hitherto inexpiable sins (on the 
distinction between wdpsai^ and a<pecng see Coe- 
ceius), and has moreover no scruple in declaring 
that Christ also has become a curse offering for 
us (Gal. iii. 13)." [The Kardpa of Gal. iii. 13 
may well be compared with the duaprlav eTToirjasv 
of 2 Cor. T. 21. It cannot possibly denote that 
Christ became a " curse offering " in the sense 
which Lange attributes to the Azazel-goat (al- 
though something approaching even this view of 
the atonement was held in Christian antiquity. 
SeeOxenham's Cath. doct. of the Atonement,2d ed., 
pp. 114-124) ; but rather means that he took 
upon Himself the curse which belonged to us. — 
F. G.]. " The New Testament atonement is in- 
deed conditioned on faith in its objective appli- 
cation to individual men, although in its universal 
objfctivc force it is absolutely unconditioned. Of 
itself also, the shadowy representative of this 
great future atonement produced in Israel a calm, 



thankful, and festive disposition, the foundation 
for the joyous feast of Tabernacles. The Old 
Testament sanctuary itself, in all its parts (ver. 
33), was again expiated and cleansed, in a typi- 
cal way, by this atonement. As the ground for 
this lies the thought : tliat without such purifi- 
cations from time to time, a priestly institution 
is in danger of sinkiug into the deepest and most 
corrupting corruption. The acts for sanctifying 
the holy people extend to the end of ch. xvi. ; in 
oh. xvii. follow the sacred observances." Lange. 

The congregation of Israel were wholly ex- 
cluded from even the typical holy of holies, yet 
were they required to be holy; when on one day 
of the year their high-priest passed within the 
vail, they must " afflict their souls" au'l do no 
manner of work; but for us, our Great High- 
Priest has passed within the vail, and opened a 
new and living way for us to follow ; " let u3 
then draw near with a true heart " (Heb. x. 22). 
The hope of thus entering the true holy of holies 
at the end of his pilgrimage brings with it to the 
Christian a closer communion with God on his 
journey thither; for that is not reserved for the 
end, but in spirit even now he has " boidness to 
enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus " (ib. 
19). Only all depends upon (he Propitiation 
which the day of a'onement typified. 

The fearful contagion of sin is shown by the 
purification of those who had to do with the pro- 
pitiation for sin ; even Aaron must bathe him- 
self and change his robes, and the mea who took 
charge of the two goats of the sin offering, who 
led into the wilderness the one for Azazel, or 
burnt the flesh of the one slain m sacrifice, must 
wash their clothes and bathe their flesh before 
they could return to the camp. Hereby is sha- 
dowed forth the exceeding pollution of sin. 

The sacrifices of this day were performed by 
the high-priest alone, and especially when he 
made atonement for the holy places no man might 
be within the court. " Thus the high-priest pre- 
figured Christ, who accomplished the work of 
atonement ' alone, and of the people there was 
none with Him ; His own arm brought salvation ' 
(Isa. Ixiii. 5)." Wordsworth. 

The holy of holies was never entered by any- 
one except at this time; yet (ver. 16) atonement 
must be made for it because of the unclean- 
ness of the children of Israel. — Upon this 
Calvin (in ver. 16) remarks, "Moses distinctly 
says that the sanctuary must be purified not from 
its own unoleannesses, but from those of the 
children of Israel. Now the reality of this figure 
is to be regarded for our advantage. God ap- 
pears to us in His only Begotten Son through 
baptism and the holy supper : these are the 
pledges of our sanotification : but such is our 
corruption that we do not cease, as far as in us 
lies, to profane these instruments of the Spirit, 
by which God sanctifieth ua. But since no flocks 
may be slain, it becomes us to mourn, and ear- 
nestly to pray that our uncleanness, by which 
baptism and the holy supper are vitiated, Christ 
may wash away and cleanse by the sprinkling 
of His own blood." 



132 LEVITICUS. 



B003S II. 
OF CONTINUANCE IN COMMUNION WITH GOD. 

Chaptehs XVII.— XXVI. 



"The keeping holy of the consecrated relations of the life of Israel, of the 'vrhole 
round of sacrifice, and of the round of typical holiness, by the putting aside 
of the sins of obduracy (Cherem). Chaps. XVII. — XXVII." — Lanqb. 

PART I. HOLINESS ON THE PART OF THE PEOPLE. 

Chaps. XVII.— XX. 



FIRST SECTION. 

"The keeping holy of all animal slaughter as the basis of all sacrifice, of the blood as the soul of all sacri- 
fice, and of animal food as the foundation of all food, of cill feasting^ — Lange. 

Holiness in Regard to Food. 

Chapter XVII. 1-16. 
1, 2 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto Aaron, and unto his 
sons, and unto all the children cf Israel, and say unto them : This is the thing 

3 which the Lord hath commanded, saying. What man soever there he of the house 
of IsraeP that killeth an ox, or lamb [sheep^], or goat, in the camp, or that killeth 

4 it out of the camp, and bringeth it not unto the door of the tabernacle of the \m,. 
the] congregation, to offer an offering unto the Lord before the tabernacle [the 
dwelling place'] of the Lord ;* blood shall be imputed unto that man ; he hath 

5 shed blood ; and that man shall be cut off from among his people : to the end that 
the children of Israel may bring their sacrifices, which they offer [sacrifice*] in the 
open field, even that they may bring them unto the Lord, unto the door of the 
tabernacle of the [om. the] congregation, unto the priest, and offer them jor peace 

6 offerings unto the Lord. And the priest shall sprinkle the blood upon the altar 
of the Lord ai the door of the tabernacle of the [om. the] congregation, and burn 

TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL. 

^ Yor. 3. The LXX. here, as in the text in vers. 8, 10, irscrts the clause or oftlie strangers which snjnum amcmg you. 
2 Ver. 3. 2^2- See Textual Note ' on iii. 7. 

8 Ver. 4. 12UID- See Textual Note 8 on xv. 31, There is especial reason for a change in the rendering here as the 
"IJ^'lD 7nX has just occurred in the previous clause. 

* Ver. 4. Thi-^ ver. is lurgely interpolated in the Sam. and LXX. " to offer a burnt ofFerine or a peace offering [for your 
atonement S^m.'] accoptaljle uoto the Lord for an odor of a sweet savor. And who-oever shall kill without, and hhall not 
brines it to the door of the tabernacle of testimony, that he may offer an oif 'ring to the Lord before the tabernacle of tbs 
Lord; blood shall be," ete. The purpose of this interpolation is supposed to be to brina: this passage irito harmony with 
Pent. xii. 25 ; but the diflBculty, if any can be considered to exist, is not avoided by this repetition. 

^ Ver. ft. D^n3r DH TK'X DH^nST. The same word occurring twice in the same clause should surely have the 

Bftme translation. n3T is the technical word for killing in sacrifice, and although in the later books it is rarely used for 

slaughtering In the more general sense, it is never applied in the Pentateuch to anvthing else than sncrifice. See prelimi- 
nary note on sacrifice. It cannot, therefore (with Clark) be here taken of simply slaughtering for food. 



CHAP. XVn. 1-16. 



133 



7 the fat for a sweet savour unto the Loed. And they shall no more offer [sacrifice'] 
their sacrifices uato devils [demons'], after whom they have gone a whoring. This 
shall be a statute for ever unto them throughout their generations. 

8 And thou shalt say unto them, "Whatsoever man th&re be of the house of Israel, 
or of the strangers which sojourn among you, that ofiereth a burnt ofiering or sacri- 

9 fiee, and bringeth it not unto the door of the tabernacle of the [om. the] congregation 
to offer it unto the Lord ; even that man shall be cut off from among his people. 

10 And whatsoever man tJiere be of the house of Israel, or of the strangers that so- 
journ among you, that eateth any manner of blood ; I will even set my face against 

11 that soul that eateth blood, and will cut him off from among his people. For the 
life [soul'] of the flesh is in the blood : and I have given it to you upon the altar 
to make an atonement for your souls : for it is the blood that maketh an atonement 

12 for [by means of] the soul. Therefore I said unto the children of Israel, No soul 
of you shall eat blood, neither shall any stranger that sojourneth among you eat 
blood. 

13 And whatsoever man there be of the children of Israel, or of the strangers that 
sojourn among you, which hunteth and catcheth any beast** or fowl that may be 

14 eaten ; he shall even pour out the blood thereof, and cover it with dust. For it is 
the life [of it is the souP] of all flesh: the blood of it is for the life [soul'] thereof: 
therefore I said unto the children of Israel, Ye shall eat the blood of no manner 
of flesh: for the life [souP] of all flesh is the blood thereof: whusoever eateth it 
shall be cut off. 

15 And every soul that eateth that which died of itself, or that which was torn tuith 
beasts, whether it be one of your own count»y, or a stranger, he shall both wash his 
clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the even : then shall he 

16 be clean. But if he wash them not, nor bathe his flesh ; then he shall bear his 
iniquity. 

^ Ver. 7. DT'J^tS'T lit. to bucJc-goaU- See Ezeg. The A. V. haa, however, nndonbtedly expresBed the sense, except 

that here, as frequently in the New Testament and sometimes in the Old (as in the translation of the same word in 2 Chron. 
xi. 15) it uses the plural devils ; but one StajSoAo? is recognized in Scripture, and evil wpirils in the plural are expressed by 
fiatfioves or Satfiofia. It is bettor therefore to substitute demotig.' Vulg. damones^ LXX. jutaraioi. In the A. V. in lea. xiii. 
21 and xxxiv. 14 it is renders 1 Satyrs. 

t Vera. 11 and 14. K?3 J is here equivalent to ^vxv and is so rendered in the LXX. In English the life of the A. V. 

may b" understood in the same way, but bo also may snul, and it is better in this very important passage to keep a uniform 
rendering of th«- Heb. word. All the ancient versions retain the same rendering throughout, so do seTcral modern versions 
and almost all recent expositors. 

8 Vi-r. 11. n33" ttf£J33 — maketh an atonement by means of the son!. "3 with 133 has only a local or instru- 
mental signification fch. vi. 23 ; xvi. 17, 27; also vii. 7; Ex. xxix. 33; Num. v. 8). Accordingly, it was not the blood as 
such, hut the blood as the vehicle of the soul, which possessed expiatory virtue." Keil, following Knobel. Similarly Bilhr, 
Kurtz, and others. So also Von Gerlach and Clark. The A. V. is singularly Infelicitous in that It refers the final l^ejj to 

the soul of man, instead of to the soul of the victim ; nevertheless, it follows the LXX., the TargumB, and the Vulg. ; and 
Bo also i/Uther. 8a Ver. 13. See note i on xi. 2. 

" Ver. 14. Comp. ver. 11. t^i3J occurs three times in this verse, each time rendered in the A. V. life, hut the uniform 

translation soul is hotter. In the expression tlie blood of It Is tbe soal thereof, " itS^333 is to he taken as a 

prpdicate in its meaning, introduced with heth essfntiaU. It is only as so understood that the clause supplies a reason at 
all in harmony n ith the context." Keil. With this most modern commentators concur, as well as the ancient and several 
recent versions. 



EXEQETICAL AND CEITICAt,. 

The whole of Lange's " Exegetioal " is here 
given. " 1. With our chapter begins the second 
half of the Book of Leviticus. The book as a 
whole treats of the priestly presentation of the' 
typical holiness of Israel, of the people of the 
holy Jehovah. In the first part, ch. i.-xvi., the 
various forms of the purification or sanctiflca- 
tion of the impure and unholy people are set 
forth; in the second part, from ch. xvii. to the 
end, the various ways of keeping holy the people 
and their common life are now prescribed, and 
that too by the punishment of Cherem, as far as 
the profanations are wittingly committed (with 
uplifted hand). Profanations from impulse^ on 



the other hand, must place the backsliding 
Israelite under the law of purification, which 
has found its culmination in the holiness of 
Israel through the great sacrifice of atonement. 

" How much this organic completeness of the 
whole book can be mistaken, Knobel shows most 
remarkably when he says : ' The section has, in 
its expression, much in common with the Elohist, 
but yet it cannot have come from him, since (a) 
he would have attached it to ch. i.-vii., where it 
fits be8t(!); or, on account of ver. 15, at least 
to ch. xi.-xv. ; but would not have placed it 
here, beyond the law of the Day of Atone- 
ment, etcS " 

[This chapter, like all the Divine communica- 
tions in the remainder of Leviticus, is addressed 
to Moses; indeed this ii the oase throughout 



134 



LEVITHjus. 



the whole book, except when Moses and Aaron 
are addressed together in regard to acts which 
depended upon an exercise of priestly judgment, 
and also except the single instance (x. 8-11) in 
which the prohibition of the priestly use of 
strong drink is addressed to Aaron alone. Still, 
several of these communications to Moses are to 
be immediately communicated by him, as in the 
present chapter, unto Aaron, and unto 
his sons, and unto all the children of 
Israel, as alike binding upon them all. A slight 
difference in the arrangement of this portion 
of Leviticus is occasioned by treating the con- 
cluding chapter (xxvii.) as an appendix, which 
seems to be required by the formula of conclu- 
sion at the end of ch. xxvi. The other ten chap- 
ters are arranged as follows: xvii.-xx., holiness 
in matters which concern the people generally, 
the last chapter (xx.) being occupied chiefly 
with the punishments for the violation of this 
holiness; xxi., xxii., holiness in matters con- 
cerning the priests and offerings; xxiii. — xxv., 
sanctification of the various feasts, including 
also that of the holy lamps and shew-bread 
(xxiv. 1-9), and a short historical section giving 
the account of the punishment of a blasphemer 
(xxiv. 10-23) ; xxvi. forms the conclusion of the 
whole book, consisting of promises and threats; 
and to this is added an appendix (xxvii. )*on 
TOWS. This portion of the law of Leviticus is 
arranged, therefore, in the same systematic way 
as the former portion, and the two parts stand 
also in systematic relation to one another. " As 
the former part relates to the birth of the na- 
tion as a spiritual commonwealth, so the present 
part relates to the progress of their social life as 
the people of God." Murphy. Necessarily there 
are details common to both portions, and this 
sometimes occasions certain slight repetitions; 
but such repetitions were unavoidable if the 
systematic character of the legislation above 
pointed out was to be preserved. Thus the pre- 
sent chapter, on a superficial view, might seem 
as Knobel has suggested, to be connected with 
the law of sacrifice; but on examination it will 
be at onoe seen that the subject here is the sanc- 
tification of animal food, and to this sacrifice, 
although generally necessary, is only incidental. 
Or, as Knobel also suggests, it might seem to be 
connected with the laws of clean and unclean 
food of oh. xi. ; but the purpose is wholly differ- 
ent, — there the question is what may be eaten ; 
here, how it shall be eaten. In both cases, the 
former chapters have for their main point, the 
laying down of the conditions under which 
Israel may enter into communion with God ; 
these that follow deal with the conduct of the 
daily life, by means of which they may continue 
in that communion. The eating of animal food 
naturally oomes first into consideration, as the 
act which must be continually repeated and 
continually thrust upon the attention. — F. G.]. 

" 2. Our section begins with the most inti- 
mately connected ways of preserving holiness: 
(a) of the slaying, (b) of the blood, (c) of the 
use of the flesh. 

" 3 . Every slay ing of a clean animal designed for 
food must take place before the door of the ta- 
bernacle of congregation quite without excep- 
tion, whether the slayer was within or without the 



camp. That is every slaying of an animal was 
put in relation with the peace offering, and thus 
also was a sort of sacrifice." [It does not ap- 
pear from the text that the slaying itself took 
place at the door of the tabernacle, but only the 
offering, as in the case of all other sacrifices. 
The animal was probably slain where the other 
victims were slain, this being passed over in the 
text as already provided for in the law of sac- 
rifice. These slayings for food were in every 
particular, not merely like, but actual peace 
offerings, unless a distinction should be sought 
in the fact that there is here no especial pro- 
vision for giving a portion to the priests ; hui 
that, like the place of slaying, has already been 
provided for in the law of sacrifice. That the 
meaning of this passage is, that all sacrificial 
animals killed for food must first be offered as 
victims in sacrifice, is plain from the removal 
of the restriction in Deut. xii. 15, 20, 21. It is 
also shown by the use of QXW instead of 1131 in 

•> - T -T 

ver. 3, a distinction carefully observed in the 
killeth of the A. V. From S. Augustine and 
Theodoret down, however, there has always been 
a difference of opinion upon this point among 
interpreters; most modern commentators, how- 
ever (as Kosenmiiller, Knobel, Keil, Kalisch, 
Clark, etc.) agree that the law must relate to all 
killing of animals for food. Not much animal 
food was used in the wilderness, as is evidenced 
by the various murmurings of the people, the 
manna forming their chief support. It is to he 
remembered that this part of the law, as far as 
ver. 7, is made obligatory only upon the Israel- 
ites, and even for them was in force only du- 
ring the life in the wilderness; while the rest 
of the chapter includes also "the stranger" 
in its requirements. — F. G.]. " The offering, 
indeed, consisted in this, that the animal was 
brought to the Tabernacle of congregation, and 
placed before the priest, and that the priest 
sprinkled the blood of the same on the altar, 
and burned the fat for a sweet savour. 
The same rule was obligatory for the strangers 
not of Israel, if they wished not only to slay, 
but with their slaying to bring also a burnt or 
peace offering — they might offer only before the 
door of the tabernacle of congregation; for the 
public worship of false gods was forbidden in 
Israel (Ex. xxiii. 32, 33)." [This law, in regard 
to sacrificing, is made obligatory upon the 
strangers, as well as upon the house of 
Israel in vers. 8, 9 ; but the previous part of 
the law (vers. 1-7) applies only to the Israelites. 
Both were restrained from offering sacrifices 
elsewhere ; but only the latter were obliged to 
make offerings of all animals slain for food. — 
P. G.] "The opposite, which was at the same 
time to be avoided by the Israelites, reads thus: 
they shall no more sacrifice their sacri- 
fices to the he-goats (Luther: the field- 
devils), as to those which they who are in the 
snare whore after. Thus we understand the 
expression in reference to this, not as a reproach : 
which they whore after hitherto, or are inclined 

to whore after." [The Heb. is D'3T DH ItyS 
Dn^'inN, which seems sufficiently well expressed 
in the A. Y., and this is sustained (either in the 



CHAP. XVII. 1-16. 



135 



present or the past tense) by all the ancient 
versions. — F. G.] "Rightly the Egyptian wor- 
ship of the he-goat was remembered, which was 
a deification of the generative desire, and con- 
sequently of sensuality, and the biblical expres- 
sion to whore after applies in this connection 
with double force. It can thus be perceived 
that the offering of the slain flesh, besides the 
religious idea, had also the moral purpose of 
hindering unrestrained luxury. But with the 
sacrifice of the slain animal, the fact was at the 
same time declared, that in truth every animal 
enjoyed in the fear of God was offered to the 
Lord; that the man who must offer himself to 
Jehovah must also place his slaying of an ani- 
mal under the aspect of giving it up to Jehovah, 
if he wished to keep it holy. Therefore also the 
transgression ia treated as a blood-guiltiness, 
and would be visited upon them by Jehovah as 
a murder. Since man has the right to shed the 
blood of an animal only from Jehovah, and in 
relation to Jehovah (to whom everything, with 
this, must revert as a sacrifice), a reckless slay- 
ing of an animal appears in the text as the be- 
ginning of a criminal blood-shedding, which on 
a descending path, may end in the murder of 
man." [Vers. 1-7. Ver. 4. Blood shall be 
imputed unto that man ; he hath shed 
blood. This does not mean that murder is to 
be imputed to the offender, but that the blood 
of the animal which he has actually shed is to 
be reckoned to his charge. The reason of both 
this precept and that against the eating of blood 
is given in ver. 11 : Blood had been divinely 
appointed as a means of atonement. If now the 
animal slain was one allowable for sacrifice, and 
its blood was not used for atonement, the offen- 
der was guilty of a misuse of that which God 
had appointed for this purpose, and he must be 
held responsible for the wasted blood. By ana- 
logy, the blood of animals that were not sacrifi- 
cial (vers. 13, 14) must also be treated with 
respect. It is important to note this meaning 
of the passage, for nowhere in Scripture is any- 
thing ever said to be imputed to a man by God 
which does not really belong to him. — That 
man shall be cut oS from among bis peo- 
ple. — The slighting of the Divinely appointed 
means of atonement was a sin which struck so 
deeply at the root of the theocratic and typical 
■law that it was inconsistent with membership 
among the holy people. The offender must be 
excommunicated. Ver. 6. A further reason is 
here given for the law of ver. 4. It is only 
applied to peace offerings, for this was the only 
kind of sacrifice that could be used by the peo- 
ple for food, the subject of this paragraph. 
This reason is further developed in ver. 7. It 
would seem thai the Israelites, very lately come 
out of Egypt, were more or less in the habit, so 
common among all nations of antiquity (comp. 
1 Cor. viii. ; x. 25-28), of consecrating all ani- 
mal food by first offering the animal to the 
Deity; and this custom, if allowed to be carried 
out by the people at the-r own pleasure, would 
become, and indeed had already become (ver. 
7) a fruitful source of idolatry. Entirely to out 
off this, it is provided that all such offerings must 
be brought first unto the door of the taber- 
nacle, the place of the sole worship of Jehovah; 



and second, unto the priest, as His represent- 
ative, and the mediator between Him and the 
people. The custom of sacrificing in the open 
field also prevailed among the nations of classic 
antiquity, and was so inveterate among the 
Israelites as to be spoken of by both Hosea 
(xii. 11) and Jeremiah (xiii. 27). Ver. 7. 
Unto demons. — The Hebrew word, as noted 
under Textual, is the same as that for he-goats, 
Q'Ti^E', Onkeloa has TTE?, the same word as 
is used in Deut. xxxii. 17, meaning demons. 
It is doubtful whether the word is used of an 
actual worship of a false god under the form of 
a goat, or only figuratively. Certainly at a 
later date there was in Thmuis, the capital of 
the Mendesian nome in lower Egypt, and there- 
fore near the residence of the Israelites, a hor- 
rible and licentious worship of the fertilizing 
principle in nature, represented by a he-goat 
(Joseph, c. Ap. ii. 7; Herod, ii. 42, 46; Diod. 
Sic. i. 18; Strabo, lib. xvii. c. 19, 802; c. 40, 
813) ; it may be doubted whether this, in its full 
development, existed as early as the time of 
Moses ; but very likely it may have already 
been known in its germ, and have been commu- 
nicated to the Israelites (comp. Hengstenberg 
Eg. and the Books of Moses, Am. Ed., p. 216). 
The strong tendency of the Israelites to adopt 
idolatrous forms of worship boTOwed from 
Egypt had already been shown in the instance 
of the golden calf; and we find again (2 Chron. 
xi. 15) this very worship of the he-goat (A. V. 
devils) mentioned along with the calves of Jero- 
boam, who had sojourned so long in Egypt be- 
fore ascending his throne. — This shall be a 
statute forever does not refer to the sacri- 
ficing of animals designed for food, which was 
revoked with the termination of the life in the 
wilderness; but to the worship of demots, 
which is the immediate subject. — F. G.] 

" Knobel thinks this statute forever was 
abolished later, when the animals were no longer 
brought to the Tabernacle or to the Temple; 
but the principal thought is the consecration to 
Jehovah, the religious slaying, and in this the 
statute (the husk of an idea) remains among the 
Jews continually, even to this day. But the 
idea itself remains continually in the Christian 
community. From this type it follows also that 
that use of animal food was sacrilegious in which 
the distinction between the nature of man and 
of animals was obliterated." 

" 4. Most solemnly is the use of blood forbid- 
den. There follows immediately the menace of 
punishment in the strongest terms for the 
stranger as well as for the Israelite: I virill 
even set my face against that soul that 
eateth blood, and vsrill cut him off from 
among his people [ver. 10]. The reason is 
this: the soul or life of the flesh, its soul-like 
life-principle, is in the blood. But the blood 
belongs, as does all life, to Jehovah, and He baj 
given it to the Israelites only for a definite pur- 
pose, that they may with it atone for, or cover, 
their souls. The blood is the atonement for the 
life, since in the blood the life is given over to 
the judgment of Jehovah for deliverance and for 
pardon. Therefore the prohibition is here re- 
peated, as it has also been already expressed. 



136 



LEVITICUS. 



Bven to the blood of beasts that man slays in 
the chase, to the very birds, this prohibition 
applies, although this blood was not offered ; it 
was to be poured out and covered with earth — 
it was to be buried. The burial is generally 
analogous to the sprinkling of the blood upon 
the altar, as the earth is an altar in the widest 
sense — it is a symbol of the atonement of the 
life, which lies in the resignation of the life. 
As physiology confirms the proposition that the 
blood is the especial source of life in living 
creatures, so do justice and the philosophy of 
religion confirm the proposition that death atones 
for the guilt of life — so far as it is on this side 
of death (Rom. vi. 7). And the use of blood 
must appear wicked as long as blood was the 
means of atonement. Bat the analogue for this 
guilt, for all times, is the making common or 
life, of death, of blood, the self-willed invasion 
of the destiny of man." [Vers. 10-14. Lange 
has not here called attention especially to vers. 
8, 9, which show that the stranger was allowed 
to offer both the burnt offering and the sac- 
rifice (i. c. the peace offering) ; only in so doing 
he must conform to the law in offering it at the 
door of the tabernacle. This command is given 
here because the previous statute being only 
applicable to the Israelite, and the stranger not 
being required to offer as sacrifices the animals 
he might kill for food, he might have claimed 
the liberty also of offering sacrifices at his own 
pleasure. The penalty of ver. 9, since it applies 
equally to the stranger, cannot be restricted to 
excommunication, but must be understood either 
of banishment from the land or else of the pun- 
ishment of death. The object, as already no- 
ticed, and as is evident from the amplification 
of the law in Deut. xii., was at once to prevent 
idolatrous sacrifices, and also to keep up the 
idea of the sacrifice as having only a typical ' 
and not an intrinsic efficacy, since it could only 
be allowed at all when its blood was sprinkled 
on the altar by the appointed priest. The other 
injunctions that follow in this chapter, equally 
with the present one, are applicable to strangers 
as well as Israelites. In ver. 10 the expression 
set my face against means that Ood will take 
the punishment of the offence into His own 
hands ; He will oppose and reject the offender. 
In ver. 1 1 the vicarious character of the atone- 
ment effected by means of the sacrifices is very 
clearly brought out ; the soul, the V^OTi the prin- 
ciple of animal life, is in the blood, and for that 
reason the " soul " of animals was given to man to 
make an atonement for his own "soul;" by the 
giving up of the life of the animal the life of man 
was spared. Nothing is said here of the higher 
spiritual principle in roan, because — even if the 
people could have understood such a distinction — 
there was nothing answering to this in the brute. 
Nothing in the victim could be a vicarious sub- 
stitute for this J that want could be met only by 
the sacrifice of Calvary. Meantime, however, 
this was symbolized and set forth, as far as the 
nature of the case allowed, by the substitution 
of the animal life of the victim for the animal 
life of man. The blood, therefore, maketh an 
atonement by means of the soul which is 
in it. See Textual note 8. The statement is not 
here, that the blood makes atonement for the 



soul, as in the A. V.; this idea has already been 
expressed in the previous clause, and now is 
added the statement of how this is effected, lest 
there should seem to be a virtue in the mere 
blood itself as such. With this exposition of the 
meaning of the passage itself must be connected 
the whole typical significance of sacrifice ; and 
in view of this there is truth in the explanation 
of Theodoret, of the Jewish expositors, and of 
the great mass of commentators, that the animal 
life of the victims was accepted in place of the 
rational soul of man; the former died that the 
latter might live. But that this sense can only 
be held in view of the connection of the type 
with the Antitype was long ago seen by St. Au- 
gustine (Quaest. 57 in Hept.). In ver. 13 the 
particular is put for the general ; as during the 
life of* the wilderness most animals used lor food 
which were not sacrificial were taken in the 
chase, this stands for all such animals. But af- 
terward (Deut. xii. 15, 16, 22-24) the same di- 
rection of pouring out the blood upon the earth 
is applied to all animals slain for food. The ob- 
ject of the command to cover the blood was pro- 
bably double ; first, simply to prevent the dese- 
cration of the blood as the vehicle of the animal 
soul ; second, to avoid any abuse of it to super- 
stitious and idolatrous uses. Ver. 14 once more 
repeats with emphasis the prohibition of the 
eating of the blood, and for the same reason — 
because the blood is the soul, t. e., the vehicle of 
the animal life. — F. G.] 

5. " The use of unclean flesh (ver. 15) could not 
be placed on an equality with the foregoing sins, 
since it might take place through many formi 
of thoughtlessness ; but nevertheless it was pre- 
vented through the natural loathing. Hence the 
offender, in the first instance, fell only into the 
first grade of the law of purification ; but if he 
neglected this, he had to make expiation for his 
misdeed. 

" Keil (following Baumgarten) entitles the 
section chap. xvii. — xx. the holiness of the daily 
life of the Israelites, and chap. xvii. particularly 
the holiness of food. Certainly the sanctification 
of the eating of flesh leads to the sanctification 
of food generally. On ' the oneness of soul and 
blood,' see Keil, p. 126." [Trans, pp. 409-10. 
See also Clark's note II. at the end of this chap- 
ter. The prohibition of flesh that had not been 
properly slaughtered evidently rests on the fact 
that its blood had not been poured out. Still, as 
even in this case most of the blood would be col- 
lected in the larger vessels of the body, and 
would not appear as blood in the flesh that was 
eaten, there is less stringency in the prohibition. 
The defilement, however, was still considerable, 
and involved alike for the Israelite and the 
stranger, the washing of the clothes and the 
bathing of the person, and remaining unclean 
until the evening (ver. 15). That^vhich died 
of itself, or that 'which 'was torn, are here 
classed together, as also in chap. xxii. 8. In 
Ex. xxii. 31 the latter is commanded to be given 
to the dogs, and in Deut. xiv. 21 the former is 
allowed to be given to the stranger, or sold to an 
alien. There appears to have been a certain 
degree of distinction between the two, although 
both are forbidden to the Israelite. That whiok 
died of itself was also forbidden to the stranger 



CHAP. XVII. 1-16. 



187 



during the intimate aasooiation of Israelite and 
stranger in tiie camp life of the wilderness, but 
this law was relaxed in Deuteronomy in view of 
the better separated life in the land of Canaan. 
Such food, however, was always considered 
polluting to the Israelite (Ez. iv. 14; xliv. 31), 
and its touch, as has already been seen (xi. 39) 
oommunioated defilement. At the council of Je- 
rusalem (Acts XV. 29) the prohibition of "things 
strangled " is still continued in counection with 
the prohibition of blood. — F. G.] 

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL. 

I. The command that all sacrifices should be 
offered in one place was plainly a part of that 
educational law which had been added because 
of transgressions. There had been no such re- 
striction laid upon the patriarchs ; and under 
the law ifself, it was often dispensed with by 
Divine command, or with the Divine approval, as 
in the case of Samuel, of David, of Solomon, and 
of Elijah. Its purpose was to teach symbolically 
the Divine unity, and to prevent the worship of 
false gods. When this lesson had been suffi- 
ciently taught came the hour " when neither in 
this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem," men should 
"worship the Father" (Jno. iv. 21). 

II. When the Israelites sacrificed otherwise 
than at the tabernacle, though the idols to which 
they professed to offer might be nothing, yet 
really they sacrificed to demons. So St. Paul 
teaches it was with the sacrifices of the heathen 
in his time (1 Cor. x. 19, 20), and he warns 
Christians that by partaking of those sacrifices 
they came into fellowship with demons, and this 
was incompatible with partaking of "the cup 
of the Lord." The same consequences must in 
all ages attend the offering of the homage of the 
heart elsewhere than to God. 

III. This unfaithfulness to God is represented 
here, as so constantly in the later Scriptures, 
by conjugal infidelity. As husband and wife 
are no longer twain, but one flesh, so are the 
faithful united to their Head in one body, and 
any giving of superior allegiance to another is as 
the sin of marriage unfaithfulness. 

IV. The blood and the soul, or animal life 
(1!'3|1), are here connected together, and the same 
word is used of the sacrifice of Christ, Isa. liii. 
10, and the corresponding Greek word {''jnixv) 
repeatedly by our Lord Himself (Matt. xx. 28 ; 
Jno. X. 11, etc.). He gave His life {fux^) for us. 
In view of the connection established in this 
chapter between this and the blood, a fresh sig- 
nificance attaches to His words of institution of 
the Lord's Supper (Matt. xxvi. 27, 28). The 
drinking of the cup which He gave, is the com- 
munion in His sacrifice for the remission of sins. 

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL. 

Lange : "That animal food as used by man, 
was to be kept holy by a religious consecration 
and slaying, excludes the use of flesh that is un- 
hallowed or has been offered to demons. Man 
was to have a feeling for the suffering of the ani- 
mal, for the sacrificial particular of the act of 
slaying, for the religio-moral duty of thankful 
and moderate use of flesh. Hence there is an 
24 



element of truth also in the dogma of the vege- 
tarians. But all blood must be reserved as an 
offering to Jehovah ; for Jehovah alone is the 
Author of life, the God of all souls, and it is a 
crime to encroach greedily upon His domain. 
But how does the eating of blood in Christendom 
agree with this, as the council of the Apostles 
(Acts XV.) have forbidden it, and as it is still 
forbidden in the Oriental Church ! The New 
Testament thought is the holiness and inviola- 
bility of everything living in itself, since a cre- 
ative breath of life dwells in it. If man, without 
an object, sheds blood or destroys life, he de- 
stroys the sanctuary of Divine goodness. The 
outline of the legal prescription disappears be- 
hind these thoughts. Men may be very careful, 
as in Byzantium and in Russia, to avoid the eat- 
ing of blood, and still be in many ways crimi- 
nally careless with life, even with the life of 
man. Connected with the eating of flesh, the 
eating of the flesh of an animal that has died of 
itself, or been torn by wild beasts, is also forbid- 
den, even if in a slighter degree. In the fact 
that such a use of flesh has in itself something 
savage, and is a source of many sicknesses, lies 
the permanent thought of this legal command." 

Calvin notes that the command to sacrifice in 
one place was to avoid corruption of the sacri- 
fices, and the direction to bring the offering to 
the priest was to direct the people to the One 
Mediator to come. Thus everywhere the law is 
our school-master to point us to Christ. No of- 
fering acceptable to God can be offered except 
through Him, and all enjoyment of daily life must 
be made holy through His mediation. 

God does not impute to man the fault which is 
not his ; but the fault which is really his may 
be far more serious than he supposes. The kill- 
ing of an animal otherwise than God allowed, 
was the shedding of blood — of blood which had 
been given for man's atonement ; and so now, 
many sins which seem upon the surface mere 
sins of frivolity and thoughtlessness, will prove 
on closer examination to be deep offences against 
the love of Him who shed His blood for us on 
the cross. 

Any offering of sacrifice otherwise than in the 
way of God's appointment, became to the Isra- 
elites a sacrificing to demons; so any giving to 
other objects of the supreme affection He re- 
quires for Himself,beoomes to us idolatry. Comp. 
Eph. T. 5 ; Col. iii. 5. 

Strangers must in many respects come under 
the laws given to the people of God. Men do 
not escape the responsibility of obedience by re- 
fusing to acknowledge allegiance, and to be num- 
bered with His people. 

In the treatment of the blood of the wild ani- 
mal is taught the general principle of congruity 
in matters which are not the subject of direct 
precepts. Man should order all his ways in har- 
mony with the conduct which in certain things 
is directly commanded. Especially under the 
Christian dispensation is this principle of wide 
application. Here principles are given rather 
than detailed precepts, to guide our conduct, and 
we must largely be governed by the congruity 
and fitness of things, and their harmony with 
that which is commanded. 



138 



LEVITIv^vK. 



SECOND SECTION 

Holiness of the Marriage Relation. 
Chapter XVIII. 

" The keeping holy of marriage, nj all sexual relations, and of all the relations of life in general" 

Chapteks XVIII.— XX. 

A— "THE KEEPING HOLY OF MARRIAGE AND OF ALL SEXUAL RELATIONS UNDER 
THE PENALTY OF THE CHEEEM."— Lahgb. 

Chapter XVIII. 



PRELIMINARY NOTE. 

On the " Prohibited Degrees " and on the Marriage Laws of the Heathen. 

The law declaring under what conditions sex- 
ual intercourse is forbidden is given in the pre- 
sent chapter ; the punishment of disobedience in 
the several cases is declared in xx. 10-21. The 
latter is naturally less full, leaving the punish- 
ment in some instances to be inferred from ana- 
logy ; and in one case it is considered by some 
commentators that there is a slight extension of 
the law here given. See on xx. 20. The law 
covers all sexual intercourse whether by formal 
marriage or by simple concubinage; and when 
the wives of various persons are mentioned, the 
term includes their wives when living, and their 
widows when they were themselves dead. It is 
remarkable that it makes no exception in favor 
of such marriages as had occurred among the 
ancestors of the Israelites, as in the case of Ja- 
cob, from which they were themselves descended. 
(The marriage of Abraham with Sarah was pro- 
bably with his niece, the word mter allowing of 
this latitude). 

The whole law is expressed in reference to the 
man, since the inception of such relations rests 
with him ; but it would be a mistake to suppose 
that a precisely parallel list might be drawn up 
also for the woman. Differences are introduced 
by the law of the Levirate marriage (an institu- 
tion much more ancient than the time of Moses, 
see Gen. xxxviii.), and by the general relation 
of protector and protected ; the law therefore 
applies to the woman only in the case of those 
relationships in whioh the man is forbidden to 
have intercourse with her. Some of the degrees 
which are prohibited implicitly are not expressly 
mentioned : thus connection with a daughter is 
not mentioned by itself, although necessarily in- 
volved in the prohibition of intercourse with a 
woman and her daughter in ver. 17 ; that with 
a step-mother is included in ver. 8, and is espe- 
cially mentioned as the subject of one of the 



curses in Deut. xxvii. 23 ; that with a 
mother is not mentioned at all, either because it 
was considered unnecessary to do so, or else be- 
cause it was sufficiently implied by the other pro- 
hibitions. The whole law is expressly grounded 
(vers. 2, 3, 24-27) upon the duty of avoiding the 
abominable customs of the Egyptians and the 
Canaanites, so that there was the less necessity 
for express mention of anything which was not 
practised by them. 

The principle on which the prohibitions rest 
(ver. 6) is expressly declared to be nearness of 
relationship ; and although the Hebrew expres- 
sion employed for this (lit. flesh of bis flesh) 
might in itself apply only to blood relations, yet 
it is distinctly extended in the law to relations 
by affinity also, though not always to the same 
degree. In the remoter degrees the relationship 
is afi'ected by other considerations, so that ia 
parallel cases, sometimes one connection is for- 
bidden while the other is not mentioned. Gene- 
rally, the whole list might be incluiled in the 
single prohibition that no man might be connec- 
ted with a woman who stood, or who might come 
to stand to him in the position of a ward ; no one 
who could be included in the family of whioh he 
was head. In this connection the LXX. trans- 
lation in ver. 6 is to be noted : ovflpoirof trpof 
Trdvra o'tKsla aapub^ avrnv oil 7i-po(!£7i.£vasraL. Such 
a description, however, would not be quite ac- 
curate, since the niece is not included in the list 
of prohibited degrees ; and there are two pro- 
hibited cases which would not come under the 
description. These are the maternal aunt, who 
would form a part of the wife's father's or bro- 
ther's family; and the wife's sister, forbidden 
only during the life-time of the wife. 

The prohibited degrees may be conveniently 
arranged under the three following heads : 



PKELIMINART NOTE ON THE PROHIBITED DEGKBES OF THE HEATHEN. 



139 



1. Mother, ver. 7, 
4. Daughter, ver, 17. 



6. Motber-In-lftw, rer. 17. 

9. Step-graud-daughter, Ter. 17. 



a. Relations by Blood. 

2. Aunt on either side, vers. 12, 13. 
6. Grand-daughter, vers. 10. 

b. Direct Relations by Affinity. 



3. Siater aod half sister, vers. 9, IL 



7. Step-mother, ver, 8. 



8. Step-daughter, ver. 17- 



o. Indirect Relations by Affinity. 

10. Father's brother's wife, ver. 14. 11, Brother's wife, ver. 16. 12. BE^aghtef-in-law, ver. 16, 



In addition to these there is a temporary pro- 
hibition of the wife's sister daring the wife's 
own life. 

Among the heathen these relationships were 
very differently regarded. Marriage with a sis- 
ter was permitted among the Egyptians by ex- 
press law in consequence of the legend in their 
mythology of the marriage of Osiris with his 
sister Isia (Diod. Sic. i. 27; Philo de Sp. Legg. 
near beginning), and this custom continued, at 
least in the royal family, quite down to the time 
of their conquest by the Eomans (Dio. Cass. xlii. 
p. 205, E. ed., Hanover, 1606). With regard to 
lufirriage with a mother, direct evidence is want- 
ing ia regard to the Canaanites, but among the 
Medes and the Persians it was practised from 
the earliest times, as also among the Indians and 
the Ethiopians. (See the authorities in Enobel), 
and all these nations appear to have permitted 
also marriage with a daughter. Marriage with 
a sister, however, was unknown among the Per- 
sians until the time of Cambyses, (Herod, iii. 
31). Marriage with a step-mother seems to have 
been universal among Oriental monarchs, and 
the inheritance of the father's seraglio one of 
the marks of succession to his throne. Hence 
Solomon's treatment of Adonijah is to be ex- 
plained when he sought to have Abishag given 
to him (1 Kings ii. 13-25). Marriage with a 
wife's step-mother, however, is not forbidden, 
and a notable instance of it is in David's inhe- 
riting the wives of his father-in-law Saul, spoken 
of as a mark of the Divine favor, 2 Sam. xii. 8. 

The marriages here forbidden are spoken of 
as crimes in the Canaanites for which they were 
about to be punished. While it is not necessary 
to extend this to each particular, still it must be 
recognized that the prohibited degrees generally 
were such as could be understood by the light 
of nature or such dim tradition of the Divine 
will as might have been accessible to the Ca- 
naanites. Accordingly, it is well known that the 
prohibited degrees among the Greeks and Ro- 
mans were for the most part the same as in the 
laws of Moses. Solon indeed permitted mar- 
riage with a half-sister by the father only, and 
Lyourgus with a half-sister by the mother only 
(Philo de Sp. Legg., pp. 601, F. Ed., Geneva, 
1618) ; but the early Roman law went even far- 
ther than the Levitical in forbidding marriages 
between uncles and nieces, and between cousins 
german, which was only relaxed in the 2d cent, 
before our era (Liv. xlii. 34 ; Cic. pro Gluent. V. 
quoted by Clark). Similar laws, too, might be 
quoted from other nations, showing that those 
of the Egyptians and Canaanites were simply a 



license to passion, contrary to what they might 
have known to be right. 

Marriage with a deceased, wife's sister is 
clearly allowed under the I^Bvitioal law, not 
merely by not being prohibited ;. but being pro- 
hibited during the lifetime of the sister first taken 
to wife, it becomes doubly certain that it was 
permitted afterwards. It is even made still mor? 
clear by the reason assigned.^: the relations of 
two wives of the same man are not apt to be 
friendly, and Moses would not allow either that 
the natural affection of sisters should be sub- 
jected to this strain, or that the inevitable ani- 
mosities of the harem should be increased b;/ 
the previous familiar relation of sisters. On the 
other hand, the marriage with a brother's widow 
was forbidden, evidently because she became 
the ward of the surviving brother ; and because 
also if the brother had died childless while she 
remained his wife, the survivor was bound to 
take her by a Levirate marriage. In either case 
her children were to be reckoned to the deceased 
brother, and hence the penalty for violating this 
precept in xx. 21 is that they shall be childless, 
i. 6., that any children born to such a union 
should be reckoned in the genealogies, not to 
them, but to the deceased brother. The law 
therefore in this case must be considered as based 
upon questions of civil polity and not upon afS- 
nity. Hence it does not apply to the parallel 
case of the decased wife's sister; for she could 
never have formed a part of her brother-in-law's 
household under the family system of the He- 
brews. In the punishments denounced in ch. 
XX. against the sins here prohibited, it will be 
found that a distinction is made in the degree 
of guilt. One, and the larger class, is to be ca- 
pitally punished (in one case even the bodies of 
both parties are to be burnt), while in the other 
class the penalty is simply that "they shall be 
childless." It cannot be supposed that a per- 
petual miracle was to be maintained through all 
the ages of Israel's hisl^ory ; but the meaning 
evidently is that the children of such marriages 
should be reckoned not to their actual father, 
but to the former husband of the woman. In the 
strong feeling of the Israelites in regard to pos- 
terity, this penalty seems to have been suficient. 
(An instance of this use of the word childless is 
to be found in Jer. xxli. 30 compared with 1 
Chr. iii. 17, 18). It is not to be supposed that 
the more remote of the prohibited degrees were 
among the abominations for which the Canaan- 
ites were to be cut off; but on the other hand 
adultery and the other horrible sins mentioned 
in vera. 20-28 were undoubtedly among their 
custom*. 



140 LEVITICUS. 



Literature. — Miohaelis, Laws of Motes; Ab- 
\andlung ilber die Ehegeaetze Mosis; Saalschutz, 
Mos. Eecht; Seldeu, uxor ebr. See also the 



numerous references in Calmet on this chapter. 
Also, John Fry, The cases of marriage between 
near kindred, etc. Loudon, 1766. 



Chaptek XVIII. 1-30. 

1, 2. And the Loed spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, 

3 and say unto them, I am the Lokd your God. After the doings of the land of 
Egypt, wherein ye dwelt, shall ye not do : and after the doings of the land of 
Canaan, whither I bring' you, shall ye not do : neither shall ye walk in their ordi- 

4 nances [statutes']. Ye shall do my judgments, and keep mine ordinances [statutes*], 

5 to walk therein : I am the Lord your God. Ye shall therefore keep 'my statutes, 
and 'my judgments : which if a man do, he shall live in them : I am the Lord. 

6 None of you shall approach to any that is near of kin* to him, to uncover thdr 

7 nakedness : I am the Lord. The nakedness of thy father, or [even°] the naked- 
ness of thy mother, shalt thou not uucover : she is thy mother ; thou shalt not 

8 uncover her nakedness. The nakedness of thy father's wife shalt thou not uncover : 

9 it is thy father's nakedness. The nakedness of thy sister, the daughter of thy 
father, or daughter of thy mother, whether she he born* at home, or bom abroad, 

10 even their' nakedness thou shalt not uncover. The nakedness of thy son's daugh- 
ter, or of 'thy daughter's daughter, even their nakedness thou shalt not uncover: 

11 for their's m thine own nakedness. The nakedness of thy father's wife's daughter, 
begotten of thy father, she is thy sister, thou shalt not uncover her nakedness. 

12 Thou shall not uncover the nakedness of thy father's sister:' she is thy father's 

13 near kinswoman.* Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy mother's sister: 

14 for she is thy mother's near kinswoman.* Thou shalt not uncover the nakednass 
of thy father's brother,' thou shalt not approach to his wife : she is thine aunt. 

15 Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy daughter in law : she is thy son's 

16 wife; thou shalt not uncover her nakedness. Thou shalt not uncover the naked- 

17 ness of thy brother's wife ; it is thy brother's nakedness. Thou shalt not uncover 
the nakedness of a woman and her daughter, neither shalt thou take her son's 
daughter, or her daughter's daughter, to uncover her nakedness ; for they are her 

TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL. 

1 Ver. S. " N^3D- Introducturus sum. Present for the future." EosenmtlUer. 

' Ver. 3, Dn^npn^l- npn is variously and apparently arbitrarily rendered in the A. V. ordinance and ifnhite, 

beside the occaBional re'uderingB, cusfmn, manner and rite. There is no reason why the translation should not be uniform, 
and as statute is the more cooimon. and hitherto in Lev. the uniform, rendering, this is adopted. 

s Ter. 5. One MS. and the LXX. insert twice the word aU. At the end of the verse the LXX. adds your God. 

• Ver. 6. 11i£73 •1!<ty"73~7N, lit- to any flesh of his flesh. The distinction between 1i£;3 and "nNty is not unde^ 

T : "' : T V T T •• : 

stood. The derivative of the latter, TT^Xiy, is nsed in ver. 17 (where only it occurs) of blood relationship. The margia 

of the A. V. gives " Heb. remainder of his flesh " according to the pointing, INK?- In vers. 12, 13, "IXty is nsed alone of 

near blood relationship. 

' Ver. 7. That the copulative 1 ought not to be rendered diy'unctively bs in the A. V. is evident from the latter part 
of the verse. LXX. has Kai, Vulg.rf. 

•J Ver. 9. niVlD, according to the Masoretic punctnation, la Hiphil, and must therefore be taken as active, agreeing 
with mother^ and mean " who hath home children whether at home or abroad." The A. V., however, in common with ftU 
the ancient versions, has taken it as passive, mSw, agreeing with daughter. For the rightfulness of this, Michaelil 
earnestly contends (Laws of Moses, Art. 114, 115). " See Comment. 

7 Ver. 9. The Sam., 18 MSS. and the Syr. hsive the pronoun in the sing. The Vulg. omits it 

8 Ver. 12. In the same construction in the following verse ^3=/or is supplied; it is fonnd here also in 4 MSS. and in 
the versions generally. 

• Ver. 14. The expletive conjunction 1 is here supplied in the Sam., in 25 MSS., and some ancient versions. 



CHAP. XVIII. 1- 



141 



18 near kinswomen : it is wickedness. Neither stalt thou take a wife to her sister," 
to vex her, to uncover her nakedness, beside the other in her life time. 

19 Also thou shalt not approach unto a woman to uncover her nakedness, as long 

20 as she is put apart for her uncleanness. Moreover thou shalt not lie carnally with 

21 thy neighbour's wife, to defile thyself with her. And thou shalt not let any of thy 
seed pass through the fire to Molech [thou shalt not dedicate any of thy seed tt> 
Molech"], neither shalt thou profane the name of thy God: I am the Lord. Thoii 
shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind : it is abomination. Neither shalt 
thou lie with any beast to defile thyself therewith : neither shall any woman stand 
before a beast to lie down thereto : it is confusion. 

Defile not ye yourselves in any of these things : for in all these the nations are 
defiled which I cast out" before you : and the land is defiled : therefore I do visit 

26 the iniquity thereof upon it, and the land itself vomiteth" out her inhabitants. Ye 
shall therefore keep" mj statutes and my judgments, and shall not commit any. of 
these abominations ; neither any of your own nation, nor any stranger that sojourn- 

27 eth among you: (for all these abominations have the men of the land done, which 

28 were before you, and the land is defiled ;) that the land spue not you out also,, when 

29 ye defile it, as it spued" out the nations that were before you. For whosoever shall 
commit any of these abominations, even the souls that commit them shall be cut off 

30 from among their people. Therefore shall ye keep mine ordinance, that ye commit 
not any one of these abominable customs [statutes^], which were committed before 
you, and that ye defile not yourselves therein : I am the Loed your God. 



22 
23 



24 
25 



w Ter, 18. There can be here no question of the exact literalnesa of the rendering of the text of the A. Y; ; that of the 
margin is not a translation, but a more than doubtful iiUerpretation. It would be an absolute prohibition of polygamy 
which is here out of the question, unless stress were laid, as Poole has done, upon the purpose of such marriage, to vex ; 

but the word Ti]f7=to press, to bind together^ will not justify Ihia. 

" Yer. 21. For T3j7n7, Sam. and LXX. read T'^^jTl—lo reduce to servitmie. A similar idea, to didieate, may be 

given to the Heb. word as it stands. Vulg. ut conaecretwr, and similarly all the ancient versions. So the word is used, Ex. 
xiii. 12. As this is the first mention of Molech, and there is no word for fire, it is better to keep' strictly to the original 
and translate dedicate. BosenmuUer, traducas. The corresponding expressions in xx. 2, 3, 4, have simply Tnj=to giva^ 

without the following verb. According to the Maaoretic punctuation Molech is always (except 1 Kings xi. 7) written with 
the article II^Qrit ^^^ ^^ rendered here and xx. 2, 3, 4, 5, by the LXX. apxav, but Jer. xxxii. (Gr. xxxix.) 35, o MoXbx 
^a(^lAev5, 1 Kings xi. 7 (Or. 6), simply 6 ^ao-iAeus, and 2 Kings xxiii. 10, o MoAd;^. 

^ Yer. 26. The Heb. has here the pronoun Di^K in addition to the verbal suffix. It is omitted in the Sam. and in 3 

MSS. , 

13 Yers. 24, 25, 28. In ver. 24 TvJJ^O is t^i© Hiphil Part.=Iam casting oul^ and in accordance with this the preteritea 

Kpni (which has the 1 conversive) of ver. 25 and TItip "VffKS of ver. 28 are to be understood. 



EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL. 

This chapter coosists of an introductory ex- 
hortation, vers. 2-5 ; the laws against incest, 
Yers. 6-18; the prohibition of other kind of 
unchastity and unnatural crimes, vers. 19-23 ; 
and a concluding exhortation, vers. 24-80. 
" The whole marriage law, as a holy limitation, 
marks two mutually opposite extremes or forms 
of excess : first, sins against the blood relation- 
ship, or against the fear of desecrating the com- 
mon source of life, the community of blood, 
vers. 1-18 ; secondly, sins of the dissolutedispo- 
sition, the horrible passing over the life-line of 
pure marriage, or the new relationship, into the 
Tarious forms contrary to nature, vers. 19-30." 
I/ange. 

Vers. 2-5. This exhortation opens with re- 
minding the people I aia the LORD your 
Grod, and closes with the abbreviation of the 
same formula : I am the LORD. The same 
expression occurs again in the midst of it (ver. 
4), and also at the opening of the law itself 
(ver. 6), in the midst of the third diyision of the 



chapter (ver. 21), and again at the close of the 
whole. It is designed to impress most strongly 
upon the minds of the Israelites that the obser- 
vance of this law is a matter of covenant obliga- 
tion. And this is enforced by the contrast (ver. 
3) with the doings of the laad of Egypt 
from which they had been delivered, and the 
doings of the land of Canaan whose nations 
were about to be cast out to make room for them« 
It closes with the promise that if a man do the 
Divine statutes and judgments, he shall live 
in them. Xot merely, he shall not be cut off 
by the punishments denounced against the trans- 
gression of these laws in ch. xx. ; bat he shall 
gain that true life of communion with God which 
accompanies the obedience to His commands. 
Comp. Ezek. xx. 11, 13, 21 ; Luke x. 28. "This 
whole legislation bears on its front the name of 
Jehovah, the God of Israel, ver. 2, in the more 
definite signification that the Israelites should 
keep themselves holy in their personality, i. e. 
true to themselves, suitably to their personality, 
as Jehovah is holy (xix. 2). But the legislation 
took its occasion in this : that Israel, as the 
people hallowed by Qod, should form an instruo- 



142 



LEVITICUS. 



tiTe and rebuking contrast to the shameful sexual 
life of the land of Egypt, whence they had just 
come out, and that still more shameful of the 
land of Canaan, whither they were going under 
the leadership of Jehovah. . . . That this legis- 
lation was not able in later days to prevent 
transgressions, e. g. in the family of David itself, 
is explained even from the essential nature of 
law. From this a careful critic would decide 
for the high Mosaic age of the law rather than 
for the contrary. 

"That a most highly living intelligence per- 
vades the section results from the various signi- 
ficant expressions : the judgments and sta- 
tutes of Jehovah (ver. 4) become for the people 
the statutes and judgments (first law, and 
only afterwards the idea (ver. 5)." [Patrick 
says: "The Gemara Babylonica, mentioning 
these words, saith, it is a tradition of their doc- 
tors that by D'Q3t!'p are to be understood such 
natural laws as all mankind are bound to ob- 
serve, though there were no written commands 
for them, such as those against idolatry, and 
those about uncovering the nakedness of such 
near relations as are here mentioned, and mur- 
der, etc. And by iTlpn such laws are meant 
as depended only on the pleasure of God, and 
obliged none but those to whom they were given, 
such as those about meats and garments and 
leprosy, etc." F. G.] "That which is contrary 
to nature in the marriage of relations consists 
in this : that the man by his family life, which 
should be the foundation of new bonds of love 
and new families, mingles again egotistioalUy 

with his own flesh ('nb?3 nXB'-Vs '7N) ; and 
that by profane conduct he exposed the obscure 
and hallowed origin of his own life (uncovered 
the shame), and thus repeated the sin of Ham (for 
the shame of the wife of near kin is also the shame 
of the father, xx. 11). Therefore also it is neces- 
sary to explain the saying 'V7hich if a man do, 
he shall live in them in its particular connec- 
tion : all these directions tend to the furtherance 
of life, especially of the higher life, while the con- 
trasted sexual relations produce death. 

"The case of adultery is not considered, 
since the reference is to widows when connec- 
tions with those who have been married before are 

considered The deterinining principle is 

that of community of blood ("'KE'). But this is 
itself determined by the fundamental idea that 
man and wife are one. Hence it follows that 
the shame of the father's wife is also the shame 
of the father himself (vers. 7, 8). The shame 
of a grand-daughter was looked upon, since she 
was a descendant, as the shame of the grand- 
father himself (ver. 10). The shame of the sis- 
te>-in-law was thus also looked upon as the 
shame of the brother. 

" As to the guilt and punishment, the death- 
penalty stands according to xx. 11 sqq. for the 
carnal intercourse (not. merely the marrying) 
with a father's wife, with a daughter-in-law, witli 
a, half-sister " [and hence of course with a full 
sister] ; " the punishment was, indeed, death by 
fire when one took a woman and her daughter 
together (that is DBt)." [This necessarily in- 
cludes the case of a daughter, and of a wife'° 



mother. Michaelis (Laws, Art. 102) considers 
ni3I as a foreusio term used to express those 
forms of incest in which the woman is under the 
guardianship of the man, and derives the word 
from the Arabic in which " Zimm means mar- 
riage, and Zimma the state of guardianship ( Cli- 
entela), from the word Zamm, to connect." This 
sense is indeed appropriate for the very few 
places in which it occurs in the law (Lev. xviii. 
17 ; xii. 29 ; xx. 14 bis), but elsewhere it is used 
for any abominable wickedness (as Job xxxi. 11) 
especially lewdness (Judg. xx. 6). See Gesen. 
Thea. — P. G.]. "It is said indefinitely of the 
intercourse with a sister of the father or of the 
mother, they shall bear their iniquity (|1j[)." 
[xx. 19. Michaelis (Art. 112, 2) observes in re- 
gard to these and the following kinds of pro- 
hibited marriages, that Moses tolerated " their 
continuance, if once consummated. At least he 
nowhere enjoins a separation of the parties." It 
might be argued, indeed, that a forbidden mar- 
riage was utterly void, and therefore that its sin 
was constantly renewed as long as the parties 
continued to sustain towards each other the mar- 
riage relation ; but certainly the penalty in the 
two following classes presupposes that they con- 
tinued to live together. — F. G.]. " In contrast 
with this, it is said of him who slept with his 
father's brother's wife, they shall bear their 
sin (DNOn); they shall die childless" [xx. 
20]. " So also of the case when any one takes 
his brother's wife, thatisiTIJ ( Levitical unolean- 
ness), they shall be childless" [xx. 21], 
" Thus the social punishment is not wholly ab- 
sent here also, but the principal thing was the 
threat of the Divine punishment of these con- 
nections with childlessness." [On the meaning 
of this punishment, see the preliminary note.— 
F. G.]. " Since in all these cases the willingness 
on the woman's side is assumed, the threat of the 
penalty is for both sides alike. It is worth while 
to notice also the circumstance that the penal 
statutes which refer to the marriage of relations 
are mingled with other penal statutes (xx. 13, 
16, 16), a proof that here in chap. xx. another 
point orview is brought forward. But if in re- 
gard to the prohibition of the marriage with a 
brother's widow childlessness was threatened, 
while later the prohibition could be changed re- 
latively into a command in the ordinance of the 
Levirate marriage " [the Levirate marriage took 
place only in case the brother died childless — 
F. G.]; " still there is made definitely prominent 
a principal end of the legislation in the manifold 
threat of childlessness, which evidently extended 
also over the greater transgressions or reached 
the Cherem : marriage was to be protected, ob- 
served, and kept holy as the nursery for the 
raising of children, for new families, and truly 
for pure and hallowed families (comp. Com. on 
Jno., p. 47 " [Am. Ed., p. 111]). 

" It is well known that in the treatment of 
these prohibited degrees of marriage various 
motives have been given, among others the fol- 
lowing: the diminution and prevention of fami- 
lies in the marriage of relations. This motive 
comes out strongly here. Also in the expyession 
in ver. 6, he shall live by them." [A broader 
meaning may be given, as above, to ver. 5, and 



CHAP. XVIII. 1-30. 



143 



the threat of childlessness has already been ex- 
plained (prel. note) as referring to the legal reck- 
oning of the children. If childlessness could be 
proved to be a natural penalty of the inter-mar- 
riage of near blood relations, it would yet wholly 
fail to apply to cases of simple affinity, to which 
alone the penalty is attached in the law. Very 
striking is its inapplicability to the marriage with 
a brother's wife, for if such a natural law existed, 
the Levirate marriage would have been wholly 
useless. — P. G.]. "But no less is there another 
motive here implied : the respect of kinship, 
{reapectus parentelse), and even the forcible ex- 
pression uncover the nakedness only brings 
out strongly the impiety which, in such case.s, 
uncovers the fountains of its own life, which have 
been hitherto concealed by natural respect." 
[See this point discussed at length in Michaelis 
(Art. 107) who decides that it had no influence 
in the Mosaic legislation. — P. G.]. "And it is 
plain, that with this unnatural going back of 
men to the roots of their own existence in this 
perversion of marriage, which is the specific 
school of the future, into a retrogressive move- 
niient, it must immediately follow that family ego- 
ism will be at the same time ever more and more 
cherished ; whereas the Theocracy, as the reli- 
gion of the future, seeks to establish marriage 
on the basis of ever new conditions of love, for 
the purpose of building up a most intimate fel- 
lowship in the human family."* [See this mo- 
tive also discussed and rejected by Michaelis, 
Art. 106.— P. G.]. 

" It is well known that the hierarchy and its 
theology has not only not explained ideaMy the 
law of the marriages of relations, has not only 
brought it over unchanged into the new covenant; 
but has also stiffened it still more by another cal- 
culation of the degrees of relationship, by the 
addition of spiritual relationships, and by the 
prohibition to marry the sister of a deceased 
sister-f- [wife]. In regard to heathen marriage 
customs, see Knobel, p. 502 sqq. 

" That these marriage laws of Leviticus form 
a great and sharp contrast to the immoral cus- 
toms of the Egyptians and the Canaanites ex- 
presses the very cause of this legislation. More 
in regard to the immorality of the heathen may 
be found in Knobel, p. 502 sqq., in Keil, p. 127 
sqq." [Trans, p. 413 note, p. 418], "and espe- 
cially in the Historisch-polituichen Brie/en of I. v. 
Ranmer, p. 29 sqq. It is particularly worthy 
of notice that the Arabian morals have the great- 
est resemblance to these morals of the law, which 
may perhaps be explained from their Semitic 
character." [But the legislation of the Japhetic 
Greeks and Bomans, and of the Hindoos for the 
higher castes was even more strict, as noted by 
Lange below ; and the doom pronounced upon 
the Canaanites certainly implies that their sins 
were such as might be recognized in any nation 
by the light of nature. — F. G.]. " The lascivious 
service of lust of the Egyptians, illustrated by 

* Comp, 'Winer, Art. Eh^.. Herzog'B Berj^l-lilncj/cJoplidie, Ehe 
fiei (few Sebr&ern u. a. Lexica. H. Spoudlin, JJeher das Ehe- 
verbot wegen verwandUchaft mid das verbrechen de.f Incestm, Zu- 
rich, 1844. Tlie same, p. 13 : " die richtige Begrwndung von Au- 



t "Here cornea into Dotice the illiberal article in the Eng- 
lish law, which haa already produced man; tragic occur- 
rences." 



Ptolemy's marriage with his sister, and by the 
history of Cleopatra, would appear the more le- 
markable since the Egyptian customs and reli- 
gion on all sides admonished of death ; but per- 
haps, indeed, this fact depends upon a connection 
between sexual pleasure and the thought of death, 
as e. g., in war and camp life, such a conueotiou 
is to be observed. Besides the Arabian customs, 
the harsher character of the Hindoo and of the 
Boman legislation is to be particularly noticed." 
Lange. 

Vers. 6-18. The phrase uncover the naked- 
ness continued to be used to express sexual in- 
tercourse through many ages. Comp. Ezek. xvi. 
36 ; xxiii. 18. The list of prohibited degrees 
begins appropriately with the mother. Her na- 
kedness is described as the nakedness of thy 
father, since husband and wife constitute " one 

flesh," Gen. ii. 24. " Strictly speaking TW^]! nbj 
is used only with reference to the wife ; but in 
the dishonoring of his wife the honor of the hus- 
band is violated also, and his bed defiled. Gen. 
xlix. 4." Keil. Comp. ver. 8. Eosenmiiller ex- 
plains the phrase as meaning the nakedness which 
is (or was) under the control of the father. The 
Targ. of Jonathan assumes an ellipsis, and rea- 
ders " a woman shall not cohabit with herfather, 
nor a man with his mother," which is neither 
agreeable to the Hebrew, nor consistent with the 
fact that the whole law is addressed to the man. 
Aben Ezra, as quoted by Eosenmiiller, well ex- 
presses the arrangement: " He begins with the 
father, who precedes the son, and declares for- 
bidden all nakedness of the father and mother ; 
the mother is placed first, then the nakedness of 
the wife of the father who is not the mother, 
then the sister who is the daup;htBr of the father 
or of the mother." In ver. 8 thy father's wife 
refers to another wife than the mother of the 
person addressed, and the term v^ife is of course 
broad enough to include the concubine. The 
sinfulness of this act, as in the case of Eeuben 
(Gen. XXXV. 22; xlix. 8, 4) was understood long 
before the giving of the Mosaic law, and conti- 
nued to be held in abomination among the Gen- 
tiles in Apostolic days (1 Cor. v. 1) ; neverthe- 
less it was one of the crimes of which Absalom 
was deliberately guilty (2 Sam. xvi. 22), and as 
already noticed, it was regularly practised by 
themonarchs of Persia. — Thy father's naked- 
ness is used in the same sense as in ver. 7. 
Connection with a half-sister on either side being 
forbidden in ver. 9, that with a full sister, since 
ehe might be described as a half-sister on both 
sides, is doubly forbidden. The expression born 
at home or born abroad has been variously 
interpreted. The true sense is undoubtedly 
that given by Eosenmiiller, "a sister in what- 
ever way she may be a sister, whether of the 
same or of different parents, whether legiti- 
mately or illegitimately born." Thus are in- 
cluded the daughter of either father or mother 
by either a previous or a subsequent marriage 
(and these cases would have been much more 
frequent under laws allowing of divorce and re- 
marriage), or the daughter of the father by an- 
other wife; also illegitimate children of either. 
The marriage of Abraham and Sarah is often 
referred to as an instance in opposition to thia 



Hi 



LEVITICUS. 



law ; but it is more probable that the word siater 
is there used in the broader Bense, and that Sa- 
rah was really the niece of Abraham. Ver. 10. 
Theirs' is thine own naliedness. — Because 
of their direct descent, intercourse with them 
would inTolve a sort of incest with one's self. 
Of course this would apply & fortiori to the case 
of a daughter which is not specifically men- 
tioned, bul is included in the prohibition of ver. 17. 
The prohibition of ver. 11 of the half-sister on the 
fal her' s side seems already included in the broader 
one of ver. 9. Various explanations have been 
given to mark a difference between them, among 
which perhaps the best is that of Keil : that ver. 
9 treats of the connection of a sou by a second 
marriage with a daughter by a first marriage, 
while ver. 11 applies to the connection of a son 
by a first marriage with a daughter by a subse- 
quent marriage ; but this seems an undue limi- 
tation of ver. 9. Probably there was at the time 
some technical use of the terms which constituted 
a distinction which is now lost. According to 
Selden {Uxor Eebr. L. I. c. 4) ver. 11 admits of 
the translation " The nakedness of thy father's 
wife's daughter (but she who is begotten of thy 
father is thy sister) thou shalt not uncover ;" 
thereby meaning to forbid connection with the 
daughter of a step-mother, and marking this as 
a distinct prohibition from that of the half-sister. 
Intercourse with an aunt on either the father's 
or the mother's side is forbidden in vers. 12, 13, 
on the principle of near blood relationship ; but 
there is no prohibition of marriage with the cor- 
responding relation of niece. The reason of this 
distinction is not apparent. According to Ex. 
vi. 20, Moses was himself the offspring of the 
marriage of Amram with Jochebed, his paternal 
aunt. This would indicate that this prohibited 
degree is a matter of the Divine statute rather 
than of natural law, and was not therefore ne- 
cessarily extended to the niece. In ver. 14 the 
prohibition is extended to the wife of the pater- 
nal uncle, as having become an aunt by her union 
with the uncle. It would not however follow 
from this that the law forbade the marriage of a 
woman with the husband of her aunt, since in 
consequence of the dependence of the family upon 
the male in the Hebrew polity, the correspond- 
ing relations upon the mother's side stood in a 
less intimate relation than those upon the fa- 
ther's. In the reverse order, however, the pro- 
hibition is more stringent upon the woman than 
upon the man, since a woman is hereby forbidden 
to marry her husband's nephew, while the man 
is not forbidden to marry his wife's niece. The 
application of this principle to ver. 15 would 
fioem at first sight to lead to the permission of 
*he abominable marriage of a woman with her 
son-in-law ; but this is guarded against by ver. 
17. The prohibition of intercourse with a bro- 
ther's wife in connection with the more ancient 
custom of the levirate marriage has already been 
explained in the preliminary note. It is parti- 
cularly to be observed that the levirate marriage 
only took place in case the brother had died 
childless, and she was still his wife at his death, 
and that even then it was not so much a fresh 
marriage, as a sort of continuance of the mar- 
riage of the deceased by his nearest surviving 
representative. The prohibitions of ver. 17 have 



already been seen to complement several of the 
other prohibitions, and the principle which for- 
bids the connection with both a mother and a 
daughter is extended also to the grand-daughter. 
On ver. 18 see preliminary note. 

" Keeping the seed sacred to its purpose, is as 
has been said the fundamental thought of our 
section. Hence over against the physico-spiritual 
sins against nature of marriage of blood relations 
is placed, as the other extreme, the violation of 
nature in desecrating the blood with beasts or 
demons. The first sin is, indeed, a violation of 
nature which can take place in marriage itself, 
the transgressing the unapproachableness of a 
woman in her sickness. But a sickness in sexual 
relation is certainly the condition of menstru- 
ation, ver. 19." [After the list of prohibited 
degrees, whether of consanguinity or of affinity, 
naturally follows the prohibition of other unlaw- 
ful conditions of sexual intercourse. First is 
mentioned that of which there was the greatest 
danger of violation. The feminine unclean- 
ness here named is the m], including both the 
monthly unoleanness (xv. 33) and the unclean- 
ness after childbirth (xii. 2). The violation of 
this is enumerated by Ezek. (xviii. 6 ; xxii. 10) 
among sins of a most serious character. Next 
comes adultery (ver. 20), then the giving of the 
seed to Molech (ver. 21), and finally sodomy 
(ver. 22), and bestial sins (ver. 23).— F. 6.]. 
" The second sin is adultery : it defiles a man in 
three and four ways, since he commits treason 
against the teleology of his seed, against his per- 
sonal dignity, against the sacrifice of his plea- 
sure, and against his betrayed neighbor. On 
the punishment of adultery see Knobel, p. 506." 
[Both parties were to be put to death, xx, 10; 
bent. xxii. 22 ; Comp. Jno. viii. 5. Knobel fur- 
ther notes that other nations of antiquity were 
less rigorous ; they generally punished the adul- 
terer with a fine (Died. 12, 21), but also more 
severely. Among the Egyptians the adulterer 
must submit to a thousand blows and have 
his nose cut off (Diod. 1, 78) ; among the Indiana 
both pecuniary and bodily punishment, as well 
as exile and death were commanded (Manu 8, 
352 ss.) ; among the Greeks, the woman suffered 
repudiation and infamy, while the adulterer could 
be put to death or receive from the court a se- 
vere bodily punishment (Waohsmuth II. 1, p. 
272). Knobel further mentions the punishments 
among the Moslems and the modern Orientals. — 
F. G.]. " The third sin is the sacrifice to Mo- 
lech, here manifestly infanticide and falling away 
from the name of Jehovah at once. Knobel: 
" By this is meant not a mere lustration by 
means of fire, but an actual burning. See Mo- 
vers, Phonmer I., p. 328 sqq. On the Moleoh 
sacrifice, see the same, p. 506 Opposed to this, 
the deductions of Keil, that the expression here 
indicates only a lustration or a februation (P. 
130, 131 [Trans, p. 416, 417]) can hardly Be 
maintained." [The precise purport of this pro- 
hibition is very uncertain. In Deut. xii. 81, it 
is mentioned as a sin of the Canaanites that 
" even their sons and their daughters they have 
burnt in the fire to their gods," and the Israel- 
ites are warned against imitating them. It is 
generally assumed by commentators that the 
deity there intended is Molech, and that by seed 



CHAP. XVIII. 1- 



14B 



in oar passage is meant cliildren, and that tins 
b.iili refer to tlie same thing. But here we have 
no mention of fire (see Textual Note 9), and it is 
at least doubtful if seed here means offspring, 
AUhough explanations are offered by the com- 
mentators of such an abrupt change of subject, 
yet it is far more in accordance with the context 
and the general purpose of the chapter to un- 
derstand seed here simply of the semen. Too 
little is now known of the worship of Moleoh at 
this very ancient date to determine precisely the 
meaning of the expression. It is noticeable, 
however, that there is no other prohibition of 
the foul habit of masturbation, for which there 
seems to be need ; may it not be conjectured that 
this act was known as " giving one's seed to Mo- 
leoh," and was associated with the practices of 
idolatry ? The sin, whatever it was, connected 
itself with the worship of a false god as is shown 
by the clause neither shall thou profane the 
name of thy God. It was not only itself to 
be punished with death by stoning ; but punish- 
ment was also denounced againstanyonewho saw 
the sin committed and did not expose it (xx. 2- 
6). If the above conjecture is right, it was very 
natural that in after times this custom should 
have advanced, as it did, to the actual burning 
of children as a sacrifice to Molech (2 Ki. xxiii. 
10; Ezek. xvi. 20, 21, etc.), though even this is 
explained by many of merely passing the chil- 
dren between two fires. — F. G.]. "The fourth 
sin is the especially abominable sin of Sodom, 
Poederastia, for which the Canaanites at last re- 
ceived the sentence, that their land should "spue 
them out;" nature herself could no more endure 
them. See 1 Kings, Commentary p. 56" [Trans. 
p. 75 ?] " The fifth sin is the acme of abomina- 
bleness, conjunction with a beast, and yet this 
was something that occurred, or else the law 
would not have spoken of it. According to He- 
rodotus and Pindar, women at Mendes let them- 
selves be mounted by a he-goat (Herod. 2, 46, 
tic.)." Knobel. See similar examples given by the 
same." [The fearful prevalence of Sodomy, 
(which takes its name from a Canaanitish city), 
in the Rome of Apostolic days is evident from 
Ebm. i. 24, 27, as well as from the classic au- 
thors. The practice of it seems to have been 
inveterate among the Hebrews, 1 Kings xiv. 24. 
'■ Ver. 22. The ancient Persian law sternly con- 
demned this offence [Vendid. viii. 10 a^. Knobel). 
Also the Hindoo law (Menu xi. 174, 175), and 
the Koran, vii. 78-8a Ver. 23. The story of 
Pasiphsa may furnish proof that the early Greeks 
abhorred this offence. The Hindoo law punishes 
it severely Menu xi. 17, Gentoo laws, p. 280. The 
Moslem law condemns it, Hediya II., p. 27." 
Clark.— F. G.]. " The following inculcation of 
these prohibitions, vers. 24-30, contains the most 
expressive apology for the conquest of Canaan 
on the part of the Israelites ; and that this was 
no partiality of Jehovah, is plain from the fact 
that He threatens the Israelites with entirely the 
same punishment in case they should sin in the 
same way, and moreover, that He enacts the 
death penalty for the single offender." Lange. 

The poetic representation of the land as vomit- 
ing out its inhabitants is founded upon a truth 
which required that the laws of this chapter 
should be made binding upon the stranger that 



Bojonrneth among you as well as upon the 
Israelites themselves (ver. 26). The land which 
the ancestors of Israel were not allowed to pos- 
sess, " because the iniquity of the Amorites was 
not yet full" (Gen. xv. 16), had now become 
filled with a mass of festering moral corruption. 
Its inhabitants were to be cast out and the holy 
people planted in their stead. It could not be 
allowed that "the stranger" should again intro- 
duce the pollutions which were now being so se- 
verely punished. 

The only punishment here threatened for the 
violation of these precepts is first the national 
one, in case the sins became national, of being 
treated as their predecessors had been ; and se- 
condly, the individual punishment for individual 
offenders (ver. 29), they shall be cut o2 from 
among their people. They were to be ex- 
communicated as violators of the holiness re- 
quired of the covenant people. Israel, however, 
constituted a state as well as a church, and later, 
in ch. XX., the civil punishment of these Crimea 
is fully prescribed. Here the legislator speaks 
of the sin rather than of the crime, and conse- 
quently of the spiritual rather than the civil 
penalty. 

The preterites of ver. 25 Xpffl (A. V. vomit- 
eth out) and ver. 28 HKp (A. V. spaed out) 
must necessarily be determined in their sense by 
the whole context, and especially by the nbE'ip 
= I am casting out, of ver. 24. The whole trans- 
action is represented as one in progress, as in 
XX. 23 (where the same participle is used), and 
from any fair consideration of these chapters in 
themselves it would be impossible to infer that 
the casting out of the Canaanites wa? already an 
accomplished fact. It is therefore quite unne- 
cessary to speak of these preterites (Keil), as 
prophetic. 

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL. 

I. We have here set forth (ver. 5) the prin- 
ciple which St. Paul declares (Bom. x. 5 ; Gal. 
iii. 12) to be the fundamental principle of the 
whole law, — that salvation depends upon obedi- 
ence. On this ground he shows that man can 
never attain justification, since it is impossible 
for him to offer » perfect obedience. The law 
by a practical demonstration of this fact becomes 
" our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ." Ne- 
vertheless, " the law is holy, and the command- 
ment holy, and just, and good" (Rom. vii. 12), 
and the faith which leads to salvation is dead 
without the earnest effort at obedience. Hence 
God sets forth His laws as that which if a man 
do he shall live in them, and it has ever 
proved that the path of obedience is the path of 
life in every sense. 

II. " The family relationship is itself ordained 
by God. It is the birthplace of the children of 
God — the first school, and generally the source 
of all chastity and good manners. Any injury 
inflicted on it would undermine the temporal and 
eternal welfare both of individuals and of the 
people. In this iies the abomination of incest. 
This is the reason of that natural horror of it 
which God has implanted in us. This is the rea- 
son that, among all nations, marriage within oer- 



146 



LEVITICUS. 



tain degrees was forbidden, altliough the laws 
of the most moral nations wavered in respect to 
the exact boundaries. . . . Because this was the 
reason of the prohibited degrees, we see also why, 
in the family of the first men, when there was 
no difference between family and people, bro- 
thers and sisters might marry without sin." 0. 
von Gerlach. 

III. The Canaanites were to be punished for 
their offences against the marriage law. But 
they would not have been guilty if they had had 
no Itnowledge that what they did was wrong, 
(Rom. iv. 15 ; v. 13). It is therefore evident 
that there must be a natural law or a tradition 
of primeval revelation which should have en- 
abled them to recognize the sinfulness of their 
customs. 

IV. Although the Mosaic legislation recognizes 
polygamy and divorce on trivial grounds, yet 
still it cannot be arrayed as in opposition to the 
higher law of Christian purity. On the con- 
trary, like the laws of revenge and many others, 
these laws were restrictions leading the people 
as they were able to bear it towards the higher 
law of the Gospel. That they fell short of this 
was simply because God suffered it to be so tem- 
porarily "because of the hardness of men's 
hearts." 

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL. 

"The chapter about the forbidden degrees of 
marriage has in its immediate form a much 
greater meaning for dogmatics, morals, and the 
legal and ecclesiastical ordinance of marriage, 
than it has for homiletics. The New Testament 
explanaliou and application of this law is so 
great a subject and work, that here we must re- 
fer to the literature relating thereto. But indi- 
rectly, these laws are a treasury also for homi- 
letics. By the prohibition of the marriage of 
relations, God ever forms new sets of relation- 
ships. By this He brings to view the universal 
relationship which lies upon the foundation of 
human manifoldness and diversity. He mani- 
fests harmony in the contrasts of genealogies. 
He freshens anew the duty of love in a thousand 
ways ; and freshens, too, marriage in a thousand 
ways through love. Sexual love, in its dignity. 



is here hallowed through the law. Strangers 
and aliens become, by this divine ordinance, re- 
latives, brothers and friends ; a holy web of 
love, in spite of single desecrations, spreads from 
town to town, from land to land, from people to 
people. The egoism of family, rank, and class, 
is a kind of heathenism which this law combats 
with a prefigurative force, and Christianity meets 
by its consecration of the state of betrothal on 
the foundation of Christian brotherly love and 
universal philanthropy. The expression of these 
prohibitions of marriage designates the trans- 
gressions without any anxious fear except to op- 
pose with strong words the lack of fear in life, 
and to create a holy fear before the sources of 
life, the mysterious darkness of the continuous 
creation of man. When the ideality of the legal 
life fails, there is made prominent the marked 
unhallowed nakedness and rudeness of the sexual 
relations. The various forms and degrees of 
guilt are to be noticed. Over against the offences 
against the family life in too near relationship, 
come the horrors of the sexual crimes against 
nature (ver. 21 sqq. Comp. Rom. i.). The fla- 
grant violation of nature is emphasized by the 
threat that the violated nature, the horrified 
land, would itself undertake the punishment, 
and spue out such sinners. But the positive 
punishments also were not to be omitted (chap. 
XX.). And it must not be overlooked that Jeho- 
vah introduces and closes these commands with 
the explanation of His name Jehovah, His holy 
personality. The establishment of personal dig- 
nity in a kingdom of true personal continuance 
in love, is the purpose of the law." Lange. 

Besides its moral and social bearings, the Le- 
vitical law has another and most important as- 
pect. It has been found historically that all 
great deviations from the faith bear fruit, sooner 
or later, in sensual sins; and conversely, all re- 
laxation of the law of sexual purity has sustained 
itself by the denial or perversion of fundamental 
doctrine. The Levitical law was therefore a 
safeguard of the truth, and herein men received 
an essential part of their training, not merely 
for the high morality, but also for the high reli- 
gious truth of the Gospel. We see at Cormth 
how danger to the one went hand in hand with 
danger to the other. 



THIRD SECTION. 
Holiness of Conduct towards God and Man. 
Chap. XIX. 1-16. 
1, 2 And the Loed spate unto Moses, saying, Speak unto all the congregation' ot 
the children of Israel, and say unto them, Ye shall be holy : for I the Loed your 
God am holy. 
3 Ye shall fear every man his mother," and his father, and keep my sabbaths: I 
am the Loed your God. 

" TEXTUAL and GEAMMATICAL. 

1 Tor. 2. pny _ congregatton is omitted by 3 MSS. and the LXX. 

2 Ver. 3. In the LXX., Vulg., and Syr., the order is reversed to his father and hit mother. The Sam and Onk. foUowthe 
Hebrew. 



CHAP. XIX. 1-37. 147 



4 Turn ye not unto idols,' nor make to yourselves molten gods : i am the Loed 
your God. 

5 And if ye offer a sacrifice of peace offerings unto the Loed, ye shall offer it at 

6 your own will [offerings, unto the Loed ye shall offer it for your acceptance*]. It 
shall be eaten the same day ye offer it, and on the morrow : and if ought remain 

7 until the third day, it shall be burnt in the fire. And if it be eaten at all on the 

8 thu-d day, it m abominable ; it shall not be accepted. Therefore every one that 
eateth' it shall bear his iniquity, because he hath profaned the hallowed thing of 
the Loed: and that soul shall be cut off from among his people. 

9 And when ye reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not wholly reap the cor- 
10 ners of thy field, neither shalt thou gather the gleanings of thy harvest. And thou 

shalt not glean thy vineyard [fruit garden'], neither shalt thou gather every grape 
[the scattered fruit'] of thy vineyard [fruit garden'] ; thou shalt leave them for 
the poor and stranger : I am the Loed your God. 
11, 12 Ye shall not steal, neither deal falsely, neither lie one to another. And ye 
shall not swear by my name falsely, neither shalt thou profane the name of thy 

13 God : lam the Loed. Thou shalt not defraud [oppress'] thy neighbour, neither' 
rob Aim; the wages of him that is hired shall not abide with thee all night until 
the morning. 

14 Thou shalt not curse the deaf, nor put a stumbling-block before the blind, but 
shalt fear thy God : I am the Loed. 

15 Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment :'» thou shalt not respect the person 
of the poor, nor honour the person of the mighty : but in righteousness shalt thou 
judge thy neighbour. 

16 Thou shalt not go up and down as a talebearer among thy people :" neither" 

17 shalt thou stand against the blood of thy neighbour : I am the Loed. Thou shalt 
not hate thy brother in thine heart : thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbour, 

18 and not suffer sin upon him [and not bear sin on his account"]. Thou shalt not 
avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love 
thy neighbour as thyself: I am the Lokl. 

19 Ye shall keep my statutes. Thou shalt not let thy cattle gender with a diverse 
kind :" thou shalt not sow thy field with mingled [diverse'^] seed : neither shall a 
garment mingled [a diverse garment"] of linen and woollen^' come upon thee. 

' Ver. 4. Q^7''7X = inania numina, Bosen. It is formed from 7X with a termination expresBive of contempt. 

* Ver. 5. D3jyi7 =for your acceptance. See Textual Note » on i. 3. 

s Ter. 8. The Heb. has the plural form V 7^355, but the Sam. and other versionB have the sing, as in the following verb 
and noun. 

* Ver. 10. D13 IB generally a -vineyard, but also (Judg. xv. 7) an olive yard. It is " a field or yard of the nobler plants 

and treps, cultivate'! in the manner of a garden or orchard," Gesen. It is doubtless here used in its broadest sense, and the 
vinesard of the A. V. is therefore too restricted. 

' Ver. 10. t3*^2 =. tiial which is scattered, and hence meaning here both the fallen fruit (Chald., Yulg., Syr.), and also 

the single berries (f the olive and the vine not gathered with the harvest. 

^ Ver. 13. pj^^n. Ver. 11 forbids sins of craft and falsehood against one's neighbor; this, sins of violence and open 
oppression. The ti-a'aslation given is that of the A. V. in Deut. xxiv. 14. 

* Ver. 13. The Heb. X ; is without the conjunction which is supplied in 40 MSS. in the Sam. and the LXX. 
"> Ver. 15. The conjunction 1 is preflxed in 7 MSS., the Sam., LXX., and Syr. 

n Ver. 16. ^'B_J?a. The Sam. and 66 MSS. omit the \ 

** Ver. 16. Here again the Heb. omits the conjunction which is supplied in 40 MSS., and in the Syr. 

^ Ver. IT. NDn * wU NKTi'K/l is a clause the meaning of which has been much questioned. It seems certain, 
. : ■• yr T • : 

however, that KE^J cannot mean mfer, (permit) as in the A. V., but must mean bear as in the margin. The marginal /or 

. TT 

hvm IB ambiguous, and it is better therefore to use the more explicit on Ma accmmt. For instances of precisely the same 
sense of these wurds, see xxii. 9 ; Num. xviii. 32, and comp. also the very similar expression in I'a. Ixjx. 8. 
" Ver. 19. 3 MSS., the Sam., LXX., and Syr., prefix the conjunction. 

^ Ver. 19. D'X 73 (dual from X73 = Beparation) occurs only in this verse (three times) and in the parallel Deut. xxii. 

9, but is frequent in the Talmud. It signifies of turn Tcinds, fieterogeneoue. The translation of the A. V. at its first occurrence 
in the ver. diverse is good, and should by all means be retained in the other clauses, both for consistency's sake, and for the 
force of the command. _ All the Semitic versions preservn the uniformity. 

w Ver. 19. TJ£3J?ty occurs only here and in Deut. xxii. 11, where it is explained " of woolen and linen together." Its 

etymology is obscure. See the Lexicons and Bochart, Mieroz. I., lib. 11., c. 35, p. 545, ed. Rosen. It is probably an Egyp- 
tian word, although not yet satisfactorily explained. The Chald. retains the word, and the LXX translates /ct'pSTjAov =. 
Jpttn'tMM, adulterated, probably by a mere conjecture. Rosenraiiller quotas Forster as explaining it of a costly Egyptian 
dress woven in various figures of plants and animals in colors, having a symbolical idolatrous sigoilication. See Com. 



148 LEVITICUST 



20 And whosoever lieth carnally with a woman that is a bondmaid, betrothed" to 
an husband, and not at all redeemed, nor freedom given her ; she shall be scourged 
[there shall be punishment"], they shall not be put to death, because she was not 

21 free. And he shall bring his trespass offering unto the Lord, unto the door of the 

22 tabernacle of the congregation, even a ram for a trespass offering. And the priest 
shall make an atonement for him with the ram of the trespass offering before the 
Lord for his sin which he hath done ; and the sin which he hath done shall be 
forgiven him. 

23 And when ye shall come into the land, and shall have planted all manner of 
trees for food, then ye shall count the fruit thereof as uncircumcised ■}' three years 

24 shall it be as uncircumcised to you : it shall not be eaten of. But in the fourth 

25 year all the fruit thereof shall be holy to praise™ the Lord withal. And in the fifth 
year shall ye eat of the fruit thereof, that it may yield'" unto you the increase 
thereof: I am the Lord your God. 

26 Ye shall not eat any thing with the blood f neither'" shall ye use enchantment, 

27 nor observe times. '^Ye shall not round the corners of your heads, neither shalt 

28 thou ''^ mar the corners of thy" beard. Ye shall not make any cuttings in your 
flesh for the dead, nor print any marks upon you : I am the Lord. 

29 Do not prostituto thy daughter, to cause her to be a whore ; lest the land fall to 
whoredom, and the land become full of wickedness. 

30 Ye shall keep my sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary : I am the Lord. 

31 Eegard not them that have familiar spirits, neither seek after wizards to be de- 
filed by them : I am the Lord your God. 

32 Thou shalt rise up before the hoary head, and honour the face of the old man, 
and fear thy God : I am the Lord. 

33 And if a stranger sojourn with thee^ in your land, ye shall not vex [oppress'*] him. 

34 But [omit but"] the stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one boru 
among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself ; for ye were strangers in the land 
of Egypt : I am the Lord your God. 

35 Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment, La meteyard, ia weight, or in mea- 

17 Ver. 20. n3*in3 Niph. from HTn = to tear oJT, to set apart. There Beems no donbt of the correctness of the text of 
the A. v., and the margin ia therefore unneceBsary. 

16 Ver. 20. n^nn r\^p2' TIus word ia an-. Key., but there seema little doubt of its meaning, investigation, and then 
punishment. Authorities are much divided on the question whether both parties, or only the woman, was to be scourged. 
The L XX ., Vulg., and Syr., are clear for the former, while the Sam. applies it only to the man. In the uncertainty it is 
better to retain the indeflniteness of the Heb. as in the marg. of the A. V. The Sam. reading ia remarkable 1 7 H^nn mp3 

= lie shaU ie punished, and then, in the aing. HDV N7 = he ahall not die. Thia givea a sense agreeing excellently with 
the reason assigned because slie was not free, and henca the act did not legally couslitute adultery which was 
punishable with death. 

11 Ver. 23. " The singular suffix in 'inSlU " [and also in ri3] " refers to 7^ and the verb "711; is a denom. from 
t t.'t ; • 

T\7^^, to make into a foreskin, to treat as uncircumcised, i. e., to throw away as unclean or uneatable." Keil. The LXX. 

rendering irepiKaBapteiTe Triy aKa9apa-Lav aurou ■= ye shall purge away its vmcleanness expresses very well the general 
sense. . . 

20 Ver. 24. □' 7l7n occurs only here and in Judg.ix. 27. In the latter place it seema to mean merry-making feasts to 

idols, and Josephna (Ant. Iv. 8, 19) understands the law to be that the fruit of the fourth year should be carried to the place 
of the Sanctuary, and there used in u holy feast with friends and the poor. But the following verse seems so clearly to 
forbid the owner's partaking of it before the fifth year that it would be unsafe to change the translation. The marg. of 
the A. V. holiness 0/ praises to tJie Lord does not convey any distinct idea. The idea of Murphy a praise offering ia hardly 
Buatained by the text. The true sense is probably that incorporated into the Targ. Onk. it shai/ he consecrated to those ojfer- 
ing praises before th^ Lord, i. e., it was to be given to the Lord through His priests, and used by them in leaata. 

21 Ver. 25. For tl'DlilV that It may yield, the Sam., followed by the Vnlg., reads tl'DXilb for cotttcUng (in 
itorehouses) the produce. 

22 Ver. 26. Din~7J^. The LXX. muat have read *^ instead of T to auatain the version enl Twf opitav, and some 
critics would adopt this to avoid the peculiarity of the conatruction of ^y, considering it justified by the frequency of the 
practice in connection with idolatrous feasts (comp. Hos. iv. 1.1). But a mla-reading of the LXX. ia not a BuflQcient ground 
for a change of the text ; for the construction of Sj^ aee Ex. xli. 8, and comp. Textual Note * on ii. 2. 

23 Vera. 26, 27. In both placea the Sam., one or two MSS., and the LXX., supply the conjunction. 

2* Ver. 27. The Sam, and most of the Ancient Versions put the verb and the pronoun in the plural in accordance with 
the previous clause. 

25 Vnr. 33. The Sam. and versiona have the plural. 

26 Ver. 33. The marg. of the A V. expresses the sense of -Ijin better than the tazt. 
'^ Ver. 34. There ia no occasion for the insertion of the but of the A. V. 



CHAP. XIX. 1-37. 



149 



36 sure. Just balances, just weights,'' a just ephah, and a just tin, shall ye have : I 

37 am the Lord your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt. Therefore 
shall ye observe all my statutes, and all my judgments, and do them: I am the 
Lord. 

*8 Ver. 36. The marg. of the A. T. stones is unnecessary, that being merely the primary sense of !3^, while weighl is 
the fally establlsbed derivative sense. 



EXEGETIOAL AND CEIXICAL. 

With this chapter begins a new Parashah of 
the law extending to xx. 27. The parallel 
Haphtarah from the prophets is Ezek. xx. 2-20, 
recounting the disobedience of Israel in the wil- 
derness to the commands of this chapter and 
their consequent punishment; and the close of 
Amos ix. 7-16, denouncing the punishment and 
foretelling the final restoration of God's people 
— a prophecy applied by S. James (Acts xv. 16, 
17) to the gathering in of the Gentiles to the 
Church of Christ. 

"This remarkable chapter is perhaps the 
most comprehensive, the most varied, and in 
some respects the most important section of 
Leviticus, if not of the Pentateuch ; it was by 
the ancient Jews regarded as an epitome of the 
whole Law ; it was adopted and paraphrased by 
the best gnomic writers, such as Pseudo-Phocy- 
lides ; and it has at all times been looked upon 
as a counterpart of the Decalogue itself." Ka- 
lisch. 

It treats of the holiness in the daily life and 
conversation which must characterize the cove- 
nant people of a holy God. This basis of the 
commands given is prominently brought forward 
at the opening and continually kept in mind by 
the phrase I am the Iiord throughout. This 
expresses at once the basis of the command, and 
the goal towards which the Israelite must strive. 
It is as difiBcult to arrange these laws systemati- 
cally as to do so with the duties of the daily 
life, and an arrangement which would be sys- 
tematic from one point of view would not be so 
from another. The following analysis of the 
chapter, from Murphy, presents a somewhat 
different view from that given by Lange below : 
"They are in communion with God (1-8), in 
the communion of saints (9-22), and are about 
to be in a land of holiness (23-32), and visited 
by strangers (33-37). And each of these rela- 
tions brings out a series of duties peculiar to 
itself." 

Lange says: "We hold that this section, as 
being the summing up of the laws of the theo- 
cratic humanity, is quite in place, as a contrast 
to the characteristics of the heathen inhumanity 
which the foregoing chapter has displayed ; and 
in so far forth comprises in no part anything 
repeated, varying, or in the more restricted 
sense religious. It gives the characteristics of 
the consecrated human personality in the theoc- 
racy, and of its conduct as it should correspond 
with the holy personality of Jehovah, and hence 
it is said again and again : I am Jehovah. 
From this constant refrain a liturgy of religious 
humanity could be unfolded. First, in three- 
fold distinctness : Ye sh^ll be holy, i. e. hal- 
lowed personalities, for I Jehovah your God 
am holy, and ever again I am Jehovah your 
God (vers. 3, 4, 10, 25, 81, 34, 36), or I am 



Jehovah (vers. 12, 14, 16, 18, 28, 30, 32, 87). 
Evidently these statements together, as the cha- 
racteristics of the private human conduct, stand 
in connection with the legislation for the social 
humanity in the section, Ex. xxi-xxiii. 

"Disposition: vers. 1, 2. The principle of 
humanity: Jehovah the Holy One. Vera. 3-8. 
True and false piety. Vers. 9-18. Inwardly 
grounded humanity. Vers. 19-32. Observance 
of the moral laws of nature. Vers. 33-37. Ob- 
servance of hospitality and the duties of trade. 

"The first theocratic law of humanity is the 
root of all that follow, the law of piety. And 
here it is not said: 'Father and mother,' but 
mother and father ; for the mother precedes 
the father in the duty of mankind." Words- 
worth says in reference to this order: "la the 
former chapter God had displayed the evils con- 
sequent on the abuse of woman, and here He 
inculcates reverence towards her, as the founda- 
tion of social happiness." This is the fifth com- 
mandment of the Decalogue (Ex. xx. 12), and is 
clearly necessary to be called to mind here ; for 
as the family is the basis of all social organiza- 
tion, so is reverence to parents the first necessity 
of family order. Next follows the reiteration 
of the fourth commandment (Ez. xx. 12) as the 
first duty of man beyond the immediate respect 
due from him to those from whom he derives 
his being. The great prominence everywhere 
given in Scripture to the observance of the Sab- 
bath (comp. e. g. Ez. xx. 12, 13, 16, 20, 21, 24, 
being the portion from the prophets read in the 
synagogue in connection with this chapter), and 
the universality of its obligation as grounded 
upon the Divine rest, show how deeply this must 
enter into all excellent social organization. 
These two precepts are here coupled together as 
they are in the Decalogue, and they are the only 
commands given there in positive form. They 
"express two great central points, the first be- 
longing to natural law, and the second to posi- 
tive law, in the maintenance of the well-being 
of the social body of which Jehovah was the 
acknowledged king." Clark. It is noticeable 
that the same generality which is given to the 
command in Ex. by the use of the sing, is here 
attained also by the use of the plural ; for the 
plural is not to be understood as used (Kalisch) 
for the purpose of including other festivals than 
the weekly day of rest. 

Ver. 4. This precept includes the two first 
commands of the Decalogue. The order of com- 
mands in this chapter, in so far as the commands 
themselves are the same, is diflFerent from that 
in the Decalogue, because there the starting 
point is from God Himself; here from man in 
his family and social relations. In regard to 
this precept, Lange says : " If the heart of man 
becomes benumbed to the use of images of false 
gods of any kind, he sinks down to the idols 
which are his ideals, and becomes as dumb and 



150 



LEVITICuB. 



unspiritual as they are, ver. 4. All gods of the 
heathen are ElUim, nothingnesses, Ps. xcyi. 5; 
cxv. 8; cxxxv. 18; Isa. xl. 18; xliv. 10, etc" 
Comp. also Deut. xxvii. 15. It was a notion of 
the Rabbins that this word was compounded of 

hVi,z=not, and '7K=Gorf. Comp. 1 Cor. viii. 4; 

x.'l9. 

Vers. 5-8. The Legislator now turns to the 
especial outward act of communion with God in 
the peace offering. His object is not to speak 
of sacrifices in general, nor even of any special 
kind of peace offering; therefore the distinc- 
tions of vii. 11-21 are not referred to. The 
reference is rather to xvii. 3-7, according to 
which, during the wilderness life, all food of 
sacrificial animals was to be sanctified by the 
peace offering. So here all holy feasting of 
communion with God must be based upon a sac- 
rifice for their acceptance, and must be treated 
according to the commands already given. The 
order of the precepts is therefore perfectly 
natural : first, filial duty ; then the observance 
of the fundamental divine institution for society ; 
next, negatively, the entire turning away from 
everything that could come into rivalry with 
God ; and now the keeping holy of the appointed 
means of communion with Him. After this 
come (9-18) various precepts to guard the holi- 
ness of conduct toward one's neighbor, especially 
the poor and distressed, illustrated by one com- 
mand of detail after another until the all inclu- 
ding principle is announced, thou Shalt love 
thy neighbor as thyself 

Vers. 9, 10. The gaiherer of his harvest, out 
of the abundance which God had given him, 
must have a generous care for the poor and the 
stranger ; the poor, as those unable to cultivate 
their own land, or who had been obliged to sell 
it until the next year of Jubilee ; and the stran- 
ger, as those who by the organization of the 
Hebrew commonwealth could have no possession 
of land in their country. The LXX. and the 
Syr. interpret stranger of proselytes, and are 
followed by some Jewish commentators ; but 
such restriction is plainly at variance with the 
whole spirit of the command. The same precept 
is repeated, in regard to the grain harvest, in 
connection with the feast of weeks (xxiii. 22), 
and more generally in Deut. xxiv. 19-22 with a 
reminder of the privations and bondage they 
had themselves endured in Egypt. The story 
of Ruth is a beautiful exemplification of the ope- 
ration of this statute. 

Ver. 11. This and the following precepts take 
the usual negative form of statutory law. The 
eighth commandment is here joined with the 
offences recounted in vi. 2-6 of falsehood and 
fraud towards others. St. Augustine here (Qu. 
68) enters at length into the casuistical question 
of the jusiifiableness of lying under certain pe- 
culiar circumstances, citing the example of Ra- 
hab among others. He concludes that it was 
not her lying, as such, which received the 
divine approbation, but her desire to serve God, 
which indeed prompted her lie. However this 
may be, it is plain that the law here has in view 
not extraordinary and exceptional cases, but the 
ordinary dealings of man with man. Such law 
is of universal obligation. Comp. Col. iii. 9. 



Ver. 12 is of course covered by the third com- 
mandment, but is not coextensive with it, since 
the point of view here is that of conduct towards 
one's neighbor. Comp. ch. vi. 6- 

Vers. 13-17 relate to social offences of different 
kinds, common enough in all ages and lands, 
but all inconsistent with the character of a holy 
people. Ver. 13 deals with faults of power, 
" the conversion of might into right." The par- 
ticulars mentioned are oppression (comp. xxv. 
17-48), robbing, and undue retention of wages. 
The last is spoken of more at length Deut. xxiv. 
14, 15. Comp. Jas. v. 4. Ver. 14 mentions 
crimes of mean advantage. Comp. Deut. xxvii. 
18. The sense is, thou shalt not curse the 
deaf, for though he hears not, God will hear 
and avenge ; and so of the blind, God sees and 
cares for him. Job remembered with satisfac- 
tion that in his prosperity he had been " eyes to 
the blind" and "feet to the lame" (Job xxix. 
15). The precept in its literal sense belongs to 
all times, and so also does its obvious spiritual 
application, Rom. xiv. 13 ; 1 Cor. viii. 9-13. 
Lange characterizes this verse as the " sanotifi- 
cation of the human dignity of the infirm.' ' In 
ver. 15 the Legislator turns to official wrong, 
guarding against personal influence in judgment 
from whatever source. — Respect the person 
of the poor has reference not only to pity for 
him, but to that instinctive tendency to sympa- 
thy with the weaker side which still has such 
powerful influence with the modern jury in the 
perversion of justice. On the other hand, 
honoring the person of the mighty repre- 
sents the opposite perversion, perhaps almost 
equally common, but less creditable to humanity. 
Vers. 16 and 17 forbid offences of a meaner 
kind. On ver. 16 Lange says : " Sanctity 
of a neighbor's good name, and especially of his 
life and blood. Casting aside of all inhumane 
conduct, all ill-will, as manifested in malicious 
belittling, blackening, and slandering, and espe- 
cially in attempts against the life of a neighbor, 
whether in court or in private life." The Rab- 
bins, equally with the Hindoo laws, are particu- 
larly severe upon the crime of tale-bearing. 
The Targ. Jonathan paraphrases the clause, "Do 
not go after the tale-bearing tongue, which is 
harsh as a sword, slaying with both its edges." 
The latter clause of ver. 16 is sometimes other- 
wise interpreted; "most of the recent Jewish 
versions follow the Talmud in giving another 
sense to the words, which it appears the Hebrew 
will bear: Thou shall not stand by idly when thy 
neighbor's life is in danger. So Zunz, Luzzato, 
Herxheimer, Leeser, Wogue." Clark. Ver. 17. 
Lange : "Observance of good-will towards one's 
neighbor. Blameworthiness of hate, and also 
of the bitter keeping back of the reproof which 
one owes to his neighbor. It is a fine reminder 
that one may become a sharer in a neighbor's 
fault by a lack of openness, and by a holding 
back of required reproof" On the last clause, 
see Textual, and on the whole verse comp. Prov. 
xxvii. 6; Matt, xviii. 15-17. 

In the close of ver. 18 all is summed up in the 
royal law — thou shalt love thy neighbor as 
thyself. This is twice quoted by our Lord 
Himself (Matt. xix. 19 ; xxii. 39), and, next to 
love to God, is made the great commandment of 



CHAP. XIX. 1-37. 



151 



the law. It is repeatedly referred to by the 
Apostles as the fulfilling of the whole law to- 
wards one's neighbor (Rom. xiil. 9; Gal. v. 14; 
Jas. ii. 8). It may be that at the time it was 
given it was too far above the spiritual condition 
of the people, who must first be trained by the 
detailed pi-eeepts going before. Nevertheless, it 
is imbedded in the law as the expression of the 
divine will, and that it might be reached by such 
as were able to receive it. Such passages as 
Prov. xxiv. 17, 18; xxv. 21, 22, show that it did 
not fail of exerting an influence upon the na- 
tion, and in later times the Rabbins abundantly 
recognized it as the very summary of all duty 
toward's one's neighbor. That the precept has 
no narrow limitations to their own people is 
shown by ver. 34, in which it is expressly ex- 
tended to " the stranger." 

The second series of commands, vers. 19-32, is 
introduced with the formula. Ye shall keep 
my statutes, in which, says Kalisch, the word 
"statutes must be taken in its original and 
most pregnant sense as that which is ' engraven' 
and unalterably ordained : yon shall not deviate 
from the appointed order of things, nor abandon 
the eternal laws of nature as fixed by Divine 
wisdom." Ver. 19. Lange : " Observance of the 
natural system, or of the simple laws of nature, 
symbolically expressed in reference to the ten- 
dency to allow the interbreeding of different 
species of animals, to mix various seeds in the 
field, and to wear garments made of mixed stuffs. 
When it is said in regard to these things, Ye 
shall keep my statutes, the laws of nature 
are plainly meant as the laws of Jehovah, and 
we must distinguish between the symbolical ex- 
emplification of the law and such mixings as 
nature herself or the necessities of life compel, — 
to say nothing of the purpose of investigation." 
This law is repeated in Deut. xxii. 9-11. It is 
clearly to be looked upon as one of those many 
educational laws given to train the Israelites to 
the observance of the natural order and separa- 
tion of things, to a sense of fitness and con- 
gruity ; and hence, when the underlying princi- 
ple has come to be comprehended, the particular 
details by which it was enforced cease to be ob- 
ligatory. As to the allegation that this command 
was violated in the high-priest's dress, which is 
said to have been woven of linen and wool, it is 
unnecessary to say more than that the difBeully 
arises entirely from a misapprehension in faking 
the word scarlet to mean scarht wool, instead of 
as a simple designation of color. 

Vers. 20-22. The punishment for adultery was 
death for both parties (xx. 10), and the same in 
case of the seduction of a free virgin who was 
betrothed (Deut. xxii. 23, 24); and it was still 
death to the man in case the act might be pre- 
sumed to have been by violence {ib. 25-27). 
These laws were inapplicable in their full force 
in the case of a slave, since she could not legally 
contract marriage. Still, the moral ofl'euce ex- 
isted, and therefore there must be punishment. 
Versions and authorities vary as to whether the 
punishment was to be inflicted on both parties 
(LXX., Vulg., Syr.), on the man alone (Sam.), 
or on the woman alone (A. V.). The last is sup- 
ported on the ground that the man's pun- 
Jshment consisted in his trespass offering ; but 



this is 80 entirely inadequate that this view 
may be dismissed. Probably both parties were 
punished when the acquiescence of the woman 
might be presumed, and the man alone in the 
opposite case. This would be in accordance 
with the analogy of Deut. xxii. 23-27, and would 
account for the indefiniteness of the Hebrew ex- 
pression. See Textual note 18. The supposi- 
tion that both were ordinarily to be punished 
also agrees best with the following plural — they 
shall not be put to death. In the form of 
sacrifice to be presented by the man, the trespass 
offering (comp. v. 14 — vi. 7), the violation of the 
rights of property of which he had also been 
guilty is recognized. 

Vers. 23-25. " Treatment of nature, in the case 
of the culture of plants, after their analogy with 
the life of man. Symbolic practice : the fruits 
of trees for the first three years were to be con- 
f idered as the foreskin of the tree, and were not 
to be harvested nor eaten. The trees were to 
be allowed to grow strong by having their fruit 
hang on them. The fruit of the fourth year was 
to be hallowed to Jehovah, and thus by a theo- 
cratic consecration, the fruit of the following 
years should be a consecrated food, analogous to 
the food of the flesh that was slain before the 
door of the Tabernacle. First, the fruits of the 
trees were, so to speak, heathen ; then they were 
hallowed in a priestly way; and then finally be- 
came fruits to be enjoyed by the theocracy." 
Lange. It is noticeable that this command, like 
so many others, is wholly prospective, — ^vtrben 
ye shall come into the land, — one of the 
constantly recurring evidences that this legisla- 
tion was actually given during the life in the 
wilderness. 

Vers. 26-28 forbid several heathen customs, 
some of them associated with idolatrous or su- 
perstitious rites, and all of them unbecoming the 
holy people of God. " To the consecration of 
the use of fruit is added for completeness once 
more the consecration of the use of flesh, and in- 
deed with a more strict prohibition of the use 
of the blood : ye shall not eat any thing 
^7ith the blood." Lange. "These words were 
not a mere repetition of the law against eating 
blood (xvii. 10), but a strengthening of the law. 
Not only were they to eat no blood, but no flesh 
to which any blood adhered." Keil. Patrick, 
quoting from Maimonides and others, makes it 
very probable that this has reference to a heathen 
custom of eating flesh over the blood of the ani- 
mal from which it had been taken as a means 
of communion with demons who were supposed 
to feast upon the blood itself. See Spencer, lib. 
II., c. 15. Neither shall ye use enchant- 
ment. — This is a different sin from that forbid- 
den in Ter. 31 ; for in the parallel prohibitions, 
Deut. xviii. 9-12, the two are distinguished. 
tS?nj, primarily to whisper, to mutter, covers all 
kinds of magical formulas, all attempts to secure 
a desired result otherwise than by natural means 
or the invocation of divine aid. The LXX. oim 
o'uM/ielade and Syr. interpret it of augury by 
means of birds ; but while the form of the He- 
brew seems to connect the act primarily with the 
serpent, its sense in use is certainly more gene- 
ral. Comp. Gen. xliv. 5, 16. Nor observe 



152 



LEVITICUS. 



times. — \yi))< according to some authorities, a 
denom. verb from pj?=a cloud, and this sense has 
been followed by the A. V.; according to Rab- 
binical authorities, however, it is from |'J?^<Ae 
eye, and means to bewitch with an evil eye. In 
either case the general sense is in accordance 
with the preceding clause : to rely upon occult 
arts for the accomplishment of one's purposes. 
Lange : " To the prohibition of the unhallowed 
sensual use of nature is added the prohibition 
of the demoniacal misinterpretation of nature, 
of an impious desire to enter the spirit-world by 
breaking through the opposing limits of nature ; 
the prohibition of soothsaying and sorcery, 
whereby, in all their forms, natural things were 
misused, ver. 26. In the same connection be- 
longs the disfiguring of the natural appearance 
of one's own personal form, especially of the 
head and the beard, ver. 27. And in this law 
the Christian world might have cause to see it- 
self reflected, with 'their unnatural forms of every 
kind : crinolines, trains, high-heeled shoes, chig- 
nons, and hats that are only lids to the forehead. 
Only the law of customs must be remembered : 
the taste of the women is the taste of the men." 
Theodoret (Qu. 28), followed by many moderns, 
understands the things here forbidden of heathen 
customs connected either with idolatrous usages 
or with mourning for the dead. Ver. 28. For 
the dead.— " tffaj-nD 2;3], xxi. 11; Num. vi. 
6 ; or riD, Deut. xiv. 1 ; so again [the same form 
as here is used] in xxii. i; Num. v. 2; ix. 6, 7, 
10." Keil. Lange : " This opposition to nature 
was increased by cutting marks in their flesh in 
remembrance of the dead, as the Jews must have 
seen done in the cultus of the dead among the 
Egyptians. With this belongs the cutting in of 
written characters, every kind of tattooing, of 
profaning the human dignity in the human 
form. Ver. 28. On similar heathen customs see 
Keil, p. 130 [Trans, p. 424]; Knobel, p. 513." 
Comp. xxi. 5 ; Deut. xiv. But notwithstanding 
the law, the custom appears to have continued a 
familiar one, see Jer. xvi. 6 ; xlviii. 37. "Any 
voluntary disfigurement of tie person was in it- 
self an outrage upon God's workmanship, and 
might well form the subject of a law." Clark. 

Ver. 29. "The common natural disposition 
becomes especially unnatural when the father 
of a family gives away his daughter, or allows 
her to go away, to become a whore. One result 
of this is that the land or people itself begins to 
fall to whoredom also in the religious sense. 
" The religious immorality is here meant, as it 
was joined with many worships. Num. xxv. 1," 
etc. Knobel. The heathen religious service of 
lust existed among the most difi'ereut nations, the 
Babylonians, for example, and the Indians of the 
present day." Lange. Keil argues that the re- 
ference here can be only "to fleshly whoredom, 
the word riDt being used only in this connec- 
tion." But see Ezek. xvi. 27, 43, 58, etc. Ne- 
vertheless, the context here requires that the 
carnal sin should be understood, and certainly 
that is the primary sin in Num. xxv. 1. 

Ver. 30. Lange : " The spirit of reverence for 
the institutions of the church is also a character- 
istic of true humanity, and the corresponding ir- 



reverence, a characteristic of barbarism, even 
if the barbarism be occasionally in tho garments 
of the higher culture." History has abundantly 
shown that the keeping holy of the Lord's day 
and reverence for His sanctuary runs hand in 
hand with the highest national development. 
Throughout this " social and domestic life is per- 
vaded by the fear of God and characterized by 
chasteness and propriety." Keil. In His re- 
peated cleansing of the temple (Jno. ii. 14-16 ; 
Matt. xxi. 12, 13) our Lord has shown that the lat- 
ter duty at least is one of permanent obligation. 
Ver. 31. Lange: "Also the passive superstL 
tiou which, instead of asking of Jehovah, espe- 
cially on His days of rest and in His holy place, 
asks of the conjurors of the dead and of wizards, 
or of any ungodly oracle of any kind, and thus 
breaks through the limits of the consecrated hu- 
manity, which leaves it to God to rule and trusts 
in God." Them that have familiar spirits. 
— The Heb. 3'lN is used both for the divining 
spirit, the foreboding demon itself, as here and 
in XX. 27 ; 1 Sam. xxviii. 7, 8, etc.; and also for 
the person in whom such a spirit was supposed 
to dwell, Isa. xxix. 4. The LXX. usually render 
it by iyyaaTplfivfiot— ventriloquists, since among 
the ancients ventriloquism and magical arts were 
wont to be associated together. Wizard. — 
'J^T — lit. the knowing one ; By mm. yv6aT!i;; Aq. 
yvapiarfi^, is always associated with 3iK, and 
means plainly one who pretends to more than 
mortal knowledge. The chief means used by 
both these classes of persons was the consulting 
with the spirits of the departed. While this fur- 
nishes an incidental testimony all along to the 
belief of the Israelites in the life beyond the 
grave, it is self-evident that all such attempts 
to secure knowledge which God has not put it in 
the power of living man to acquire are a resist- 
ance to His will, and a chafing against the bar- 
riers He has imposed. It is remarkable that 
such attempts should have been persisted in 
through all ages and in all lands. In ver. 82 
the outward marks of respect to old age are con- 
nected with the fear of God. The commendation 
of this virtue is frequent in Scripture, and its 
practice appears to have been universal among all 
ancient nations, as it is still among the Orientals. 
Vers. 33, 34. Lange : " Humanity towards the 
stranger, who is not a Jew, who thus certainly 
might dwell as a private man in the future in- 
heritance of Israel. He was to be treated ex- 
actly as an inhabitant in human intercourse, 
Thou Shalt love him as thyself. — With this 
the remembrance is still preserved that the 
Israelites had been strangers in the land of 
Egypt." The royal law of ver. 18 is here ex- 
pressly extended to the stranger, and notwith- 
standing the national narrowness necessary to 
preserve the true religion in the world, the ge- 
neral brotherhood of mankind is hereby taught 
as far as was possible under the circumstances. 
Vers. 85, 36. Lange : " Integrity, correspond^ 
ing to the humanity, is now made especially pro- 
minent and sharp, as if in prophetic foresight in 
regard to the occupation of the Israelites in 
trade, and with reference to all forms of bu- 
siness. 

" In this mirror of humanity not only Judaism 



CHAP. XX. 1-27. 



153 



may see itself reflected, nqt only mediaeval fana- 
ticism, but also modern culture." 

The Ephah is mentioned as the standard of 
dry, and the Hin of liquid measure. Pre- 
cisely how much each contained is in dispute. 
The Hin was the sixlh part of the Ephah; and 
the latter, according to Josephus (Ant. lit. 9, 
J 4; VIII. 2, J 9), contained rather more than 
eight and a half gallons. But the Ralibins make 
the capacity only about half this, which is more 
probable. However this may be, it is clear that 
equity in the affairs of the daily life is here 
made to rest upon the foundation of duty to- 
wards God. 

In ver. 37 all duties enumerated in this chap- 
ter are placed upon the same ground — the only 
ground, as experience has abundantly shown, 
suf&ciently strong to withstand the temptations 
and vicissitudes of the world. 

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL. 

I. The foundation of the law here, as every- 
where, is the holiness of God. Because He is 
holy, therefore the people who would live in 
communion with Him must be holy too. This 
principle is of universal application to all times, 
and to all occupations of human life. 

II. In the human development of holiness filial 
reverence must always occupy the first place, and 
next to that comes reverence for the outward in- 
stitutions of divine appointment. 

III. The fulfilling of our whole duty towards 
our neighbor, under the old dispensation as un- 
der the new, culminates and is comprehended in 
the law — Thou ahaU love thy neighbor as 
thyself. With a clearness that seems to belong 
to the teaching of the Gospel, "neighbor" is 
made to comprehend the stranger as well as 
one's own compatriots. 

IV. In the general exhortation to holiness are 
included all details of the daily life. There is 
nothing so insignificant that one may allow him- 
self in unholy conduct in relation to it; because 
he would thereby viglate the fundamental prin- 



ciple of communion with God. This is particu- 
larly applied in the law to matters of business 
and trade. 

V. All attempts to arrive at more than mortal 
knowledge by consultation with the spirits of the 
dead are especially and emphatically forbidden. 

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL. 

Lange : " The foundation of these laws is an- 
nounced in the most emphatic declaration of the 
name of Jehovah and His holiness, again and 
again, as the sanction of the commands. Ye 
shall be holy, for I am holy — i. e., ye shall 
keep your personality pure, for your Jehovah, 
your covenant God, the absolute Personality, re. 
pels all uncleanness, all confusion with the 
world, either in the heads of Pantheists or in the 
hearts and morals of the servants of sin, or in 
the rites of the priests. The personality is dis- 
honored with every act of idolatry and every 
idolatrous worship (see Isa. xliv. 9sqq.; Acts 
xvii.). There follow the outlines of holy thanks- 
giving festivals, holy harvest festivals and vint- 
ages, holy ways of thought and action, holy 
oaths, etc. Continually new features of the con- 
secration of life by a humane conduct are made 
prominent; and truly they are fine and thought- 
ful features." 

Each precept of this chapter has a homiletical 
value so clear that no amplification of the text 
itself is necessary. Holiness is made to consist 
not merely in the avoiding of sin and in the 
fulfilment of certain prescribed duties, but in a 
general course of life prompted by genuine love 
The wants of the poor are to be regarded, the 
weak and defenceless are to be respected, justice 
is to be unwarped by either personal sympathies 
or influence, tale-bearing avoided, all magical 
arts and efl^orts to attain forbidden knowledge 
are to be shunned, and, in a word, man is to con- 
duct himself in all things as one who is in com- 
munion with God, and therefore seeks to have 
His will carried out in all the length and breadth 
of his own daily life. 



FOURTH SECTION. 

Punishment for TTnholiness. 

"Keeping Holy Ike Holy Congregation by Cutting off Irreparable Transgression." —Lk^GZ. 

Chapter XX. 1-27. 
1, 2 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Again, thou shalt say to the children 
of Israel, Whosoever he be of the children of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn 
in Israel, that giveth any of his seed unto Molech ; he shall surely be put to death: 

3 the people of the land shall stone him with stones. And I will set my face against 
that man, and will cut him off from among his people ; because he hath given of 

4 his seed unto Molech, to defile my sanctuary, and to profane my holy name. And 
if the people of the land do any ways hide' their eyes from the man, when he giveth 



> Ver. 4. On the 
23 



TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL. 

in Dbj,'n and wbj?', see Text. Note w on iv. 13. 



154 LEVITICUS. 



5 of his seed unto Moleoh, and kill him not : then I will set my face against that man, 
and against his family, and will cut him oif, and all that go a whoring after him, 

6 to commit whoredom with Molech, from among their people. And the soul that 
turneth after such as have familiar spirits, and after wizards, to go a whoring after 
them, I will even set my face against that soul,'' and will cut him oif from among 

7 his people. Sanctify yourselves therefore, and be ye holy : for I am the Lohd 

8 your God.' And ye shall keep my statutes, and do them : I am the Lord which 
sanctify you. 

9 For* every one that curseth his father or his mother shall be surely put to death: 
he hath cursed his father or his mother ; his blood' shall be upon him. 

10 And the man that committeth adultery with another man's wife, even he that 
commiteth adultery with his neighbor's wife,' the adulterer and the adulteress shall 

11 surely be put to death. And the man that lieth with his father's wife hath unco- 
vered his father's nakedness : both of them shall surely be put to death ; their 

12 blood^ shall be upon them. And if a man lie with his daughter in law, both cf 
them .''hall surely be put to death ; they have wrought confusion ; their blood" shall 

13 be upon them. If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both 
of them have committed an abomination : they shall surely be put to death; their 

14 blood sliall be upon them. And if a man take a wife and her mother, it is wick- 
edness : they shall be burnt with fire, both he and they ; that there be no wicked- 

15 ness among you. And if a man lie with a beast, he shall surely be put to death: 

16 and ye shall slay the beast. And if a woman approach unto any beast, and lie 
down thereto, thou shalt kill the woman, and the beast : they shall surely be put 

17 to death ; their blood* shall be upon them. And if a man shall take his sister, his 
father's daughter, or his mother's daughter, and see her nakedness, and she see his 
nakedness ; it is a wicked thing ; and they shall be cut off in the sight of their 
people : he hath uncovered his sister's nakedness ; he' shall bear his ini- 

18 quity. And if a man shall lie with a woman having her sickness, and shall uncover 
her nakedness ; he hath discovered [uncovered*] her fountain, and she hath unco- 
vered the fountain of her blood : and both of them shall be cut off from among 

19 their people. And thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy mother's sister, 
nor of thy father's sister : for he uncovereth his near kin : they shall bear their 

20 iniquity. And if a man shall lie with his uncle's wife, he hath uncovered his un- 

21 cle's nakedness: they shall bear their sin ; they shall die childless. And if a man 
shall take his brother's wife, it is an unclean thing: he hath uncovered his bro- 
ther's nakedness : they shall be childless. 

22 Ye shall therefore keep all my statutes, and all my judgments, and do them : 

23 that the land, whither I bring you to dwell therein, spue you not out. And ye 
shall not walk in the manners [statutes'] of the nation," which I cast out before 

24 you : for they committed all these things, and therefore I abhorred them. But I 
have said unto you. Ye shall inherit their land, and I will give it unto you to pos- 
sess it, a land that floweth with milk and honey: I am. the Lord your God, which 

25 have separated you from other people. Ye shall therefore put difference between 
clean beasts and unclean, and between unclean fowls and clean : and ye shall not 
rnake your souls abominable by beast, or by fowl, or by any manner of living [omit 
living"] thing that creepeth on the ground, which I have separated from you as 

« Ver. 6. \il3p3- Four MSS. and Onfc. road t!?"X3, which Do Roasi prefers on account of the following 'ijljt. For 
the last, however, the Sam. reads nHX. 

' Yer. 7. The Sam., i MSS. and LXX. read: for I, the Iord your God, am holy. 
* Ver. 9. ''J)=./or is omitted in two MSS., the LXX. and Vulg. 

6 Vers. 9, 11, 12, 16. On the plnral form for hlond, comp. Gen. iT. 10 ; Ex. xxtl. 1. 

1 ^'"' }^' .'^'''!°° "' Kennicott'a MSS. omit the first clause of tbis verse. RosonmUUer considers that the repetition 
involves a distinction for the sake of emphasis, making j;"l in the second clau3e=relation, so that there ia a probibiiion, 

f.rst of adultery in general, then apscifl'-ally of adultery with the wife of a relative. For this sense of the word he refers 
to Dout. xni. 7: 2 Sam. xiii. 3. S. Angnstiao (Qu. 73 in Sept.) takes the same view. 
8 v' ll' "^^^ LXX., Syr. and Vulg. have the plural. 

Ver. 18. The same word should receive the same Translation in both clausoa. 
,0 \?''- ^- StatuUs. See Text Note 2 on xviii. 3. 

• ■ ^" '^® ®'^™' '■^'^^'^ D'Un, and B > one MS. fol owed by all the ancient versions, aa seems to be required by the 
u'v^ "'«!' commilled. It is not unliknly tliat □ m .y have drooped out of the text. 

Ver. 25. There ia nothing to express ihe word Uving in the Heb., and it is better omitted, as the referenca is wholly 
to the dead bodiea of those auimals. 



CHAP. XX. 1-27. 



155 



26 unclean. And ye shall be holy unto me : for I the Lord am, holy, and have 

27 severed you from other people, that ye should be mine. A man also or woman 
that hath a familiar spirit, or that is a wizard, shall surely be put to death : they 
shall stone them with stones : their blood Bhaill he upon them. 



EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL. 

The whole of Lange's Commentary on this 
chapter is here given. 

" Our section forms a completion of the pro- 
hibitions which have preceded in oh. xviii., 
while it still further joins the punishment of 
death to seyeral of the very sins there mentioned. 
Yet this is certainly no mere appendix, but pro- 
ceeds from an entirely new point of view. 
There the fundamental idea was : the sexual 
relations, particularly, the theocratic seed, must 
be kept holy ; here the fundamental idea is: the 
holy land must be kept holy, it must not be out- 
raged or stirred up to reaction and revolt 
through an abomination which might determine 
it to spue out the Israelites also (as v, person 
spues out something nauseous from his mouth), 
ver. 22. Ch. xviii. 28 had already expressed 
this thought, but from the point of view that 
the land would be thereby desecrated. It is 
also here clearly brought out that the land 
would be taken away from the Canaanites on 
account of their constant abominations, and 
given to the people of Israel; but that the like 
punishment should befall them also, if they did 
not keep the land clean by executing the penalty 
of death upon the offenders. In the ooueeptiou 
of the sickened land and the revolted nature 
lies evidently the idea of the people consumed 
by unnatural sins." [A. simpler view of the 
relation of this to chs. xviii. and xix. is given 
by Clark: "The crimes which are condemned 
in those chapters on purely spiritual ground, 
the absolute prohibition of Jehovah, have here 
special punishments allotted to them as oflfences 
against the well being of the nation." In ch. 
xix. there is no mention at all of punishment 
except in the single case of the betrothed slave 
(vers. 20-22) ; in ch. xviii. there is no specific 
punishment attached to each offence, but only 
the general statement (vers. 28-30) of the penalty 
to fall upon the trangressor of any of the sta- 
tutes and upon the laud as a whole. For the 
purpose of civil government, therefore, the pre- 
sent chapter is a necessary supplement. — P. G.J 

"Already i^schon fruh'T) has the decree of the 
death-penalty been brought forward for sins 
that were committed, Hm "1'3 (Num. xr. 30). 
By this we can only understand stubborn or 
arrogant sins ; therefore not every conscious 
sin, as opposed to the unconscious, but every 
sin which was maintained in opposition to the 
theocratic jurisdiction. Single sins might always 
prove to be such ; but the abominations here 
mentioned were, for the most part, deadly sins, 
those most befitting the Cherem, as blaspheming 
the name of Jehovah, oh. xxiv. 11, and dese- 
crating the Sabbath, Num. xv. 32. 

"But also we have here different grades of 
punishment with the different grades of offence. 
The first class of sins is devilish, vers. 1-7 ; the 
■econd class brutal, even beastly, vers. 10-16 ; 



the third, of the carnal nature, unruly, vers. 
17-21. 

First Class. 

" 1. The sacrifice to Molech. It is to be 
understood that the stranger was included with 
the Israelite under this prohibition ; for if, in 
general, no sacrifice to false gods were allowed 
in the land, so certainly not the sacrifice to Mo- 
lech. The Jew, however, would become more 
wicked by such an offering than a heathen. It 
is also here plain that what is spoken of is the 
giving up of children to death." [The expres- 
sions used here, vers. 2, 3, 4, are an abbreviated 
form of that in xviii. 21. It may be doubted 
whether they refer to children at all, or if so, to 
putting them to death. See Textual Note and 
Comm. on xviii. 21.— P. G.] 

" In regard to this, it sounds like a charge to 
execute immediate judgment on the spot: the 
people of the land shall stone him with 
stones, properly, bury him under thrown 
stones." [Doubtless in j. primitive state of 
society all punishment was somewhat summary, 
and this particular punishment is often provided 
for in the law, ver. 27; xxiv. 14; Num. xv. 35, 
36; Deut. xiii. 10; xvii. 5; xxi. 21; xxii. 21, 
24, etc. But, nevertheless, it was only to be 
administered on sufficient evidence, and with 
due forms of law, Deut. xvii. 6; xix. 15, etc.— 
F. G.] — "In this case the avenging is God's 
personal affair: Jehovah sets His face against 
him to consume him out of Jehovah's people; 
for his sin is a three-fold one : he has given his 
seed to Molech, and therein has judged himself; 
he has defiled the sanctuary of Jehovah, that is, 
the land hallowed by His sanctuary; and he 
has profaned Jehovah's holy name, and dese- 
crated the religion of His name. And even 
if the people should let him go unpunished 
in the last case, Jehovah Himself will pur- 
sue him and even his race with His judg- 
ment, until He has exterminated all who are 
associated in his guilt. So strongly rules the 
absolute Personality against all behaviour 
that opposed personality. The judgment is in 
this case as immanent in the guilty as a consu- 
ming fire. One might also suppose that " the 
face of Jehovah," in a constructio prsegnans, here 
simified the Angel of His presence, and thus 
expressed the thought that the spirit of the 
revealed religion would exterminate the abomi- 
nations mentioned together with their authors. 
There were two grades, however, in complicity 
in this guilt: in the first grade, it is an apos- 
tasy to these men (as e. g. in the case of heathen 
wives); in the second grade, through this 
to Molech. Ver. 5."-[It is noticeable that 
while the prohibition of the sin in vers. 1-5 
extends to the stranger on the ground that such 
abomination was not to be tolerated at all in 
the consecrated land ; yet the extension of the 
penalty to complicity in the sin by concealment 
is applied only to the people of the land 
(ver 4)— that is, to native Hebrews (comp. iv. 



156 



LEVITICUS. 



27), and also to them alone (ver. 2) is committed 
the execution of the penalty. — F. G] 

" 2. Also the soul that turneth after such 
as have familiar spirits (necromancers) and 
after -wizards (LXX. cyyac!Tpiuv8oi=^ventrilo- 
quists, ijraofdol = singing msigic charms, both 
not exegetioally exhaustive) to go a whoring 
after them — i. e., to engage in apostasy 
from Jehovah to dark forms of supersti- 
tion, — therefore against these also Jehovah 
will set His face. It helps them nothing if they 
remain unpunished of men ; they fall before the 
more searching sentence upon presumptuous 
wickedness. Jehovah pursues them even to 
their extermination, for they are not to corrupt 
His people for Him. 

" In regard to these sins it is said, on (he 
other hand : Sanctify yourselves therefore, 
and be ye holy: raise yourselves to the dig- 
nity of theocratic personalities, for your God is 
in Jehovah, the absolutn, pure Personality. 
While they observe the ordinances of this Holy 
Being, they must understand that it is He who 
is training them to be a holy people. 

Second Class. 

"FiEST Case. — Next the text speaks of the 
unnatural and profligate child that curseth his 
father or his mother. He shall be surely 
put to death. And herewith commpnoes the 
new class. But since the expression begins with 
for ('3), it gives to the clause at the same time 
a symbolic character in reference to the former 
class : profaning the name of Jehovah is like this 
sin of cursing father or mother, since He, as the 
Holy One, creates for Himself His holy people. 
But for the second class the expression is cha- 
racteristic, his blood shall be upon him, or 
upon them, vers. 9, 11, V2, 13, 16. It is to be 
observed that ver. 14 brings out an increase in 
regard to this form of punishment; but ver. 15 
certainly falls under one category with ver. 16. 
The ordinance of punishment, equalizing the 
guilt of the unnatural curser with that of the 
shedding of blood, brings upon him the penal 
retribution of the latter. Ver. 9. 

"Second and Third Cases. — The crime 
of adultery with a neighbor's wife, and the crime 
of incest with a father's wife (a step-mother) are 
equalized under the sentence of blood-guiltiness 
which incurred death, and this for both man and 
woman alike. Vers. 10, 11. 

" FouBTH Case. — The same applies to incest 

with a daughter-in-law, 7Dn (mixing, confusion, 
defilement). [Ver. 12.] 

" Fifth Case. — Paederasty, moreover, is desig- 
nated as an abomination, as contrary to nature, 
a revolting crime; and the punishment of death 
is here expressly made prominent. This sin is 
called nS^in (abomination, horror). [Ver. 13.] 

" Sixth Case. — The double incest is made 
most particularly prominent when a man lies 
both with a mother and her daughter. They 
were to be burnt with each other (without doubt, 
their bodies after they had been stoned). This 

sin is called HHt (a refined or unheard of deed 

T ■ ^ 
of shame. The law brings out prominently that 



such moral enormities should not exist in Israel). 
The same penalty was, moreover, imposed upon 
the daughter of a priest who became a whore, 
because she had put her father to shame, xxi. 9. 
So Achan was first stoned in the valley of Achor, 
then burned, since he had brought a curse, a 
corrupting complicity in guilt upon Israel, Josh. 
vii. But Josiah set burning against burning, the 
theocratic burning against the burning to Mo- 
leoh, when he burned the bones of the priests 
upon their altars, and thereby purified Judah 
and Jerusalem (2 Chr. xxxiv. 5; comp. 2 Kings 
xxiii. 10). With this appears the embryo of the 
Gehenna, as it comes out in symbolic form in the 
Old Testament, Isa. Ixvi. 24. The Gehenna is 
thus a representation of the fire of Moleoh, and 
over it also the fire of judgment has at last come. 
Ver. 14. The Old Testament fire penalty was 
only symbolical, and involved no unnatural tor- 
ture, like the mediseval mimicry of the flames of 
hell. In this case, the ofi'ender was first put to 
death ; and the same is true of the Old Testament 
hanging. 

"Seventh and Eiohth Cases. — Copu- 
lation with a beast, either l)y a man or a woman. 
With the beastly human being, the beast itself 
was also to be destroyed. For examples, see 
Knobel, p. 507. [Vers. 15, 16.] 

Third Class. 

" First Case. — Copulation with a half-sister." 
[This also, as in xviii. 9, necessarily covers the 
case of a full sister, for she was both the daugh- 
ter of the father and the daughter of the mother. 
— F. G.] "They shall be cut off in the 
sight of their people. — Thus they should form 
a warning spectacle." Here the crime is de- 
scribed as ion and p^ disgrace and misdeed, 
[Ver. 17.] 

" Second Case. — He that lay with a menstru- 
ous woman, who in such wise uncovered the 
fountain of her blood— so to speak — exposed 
her life-spring. The penalty of death is for 
both. The sentence sounds with a more gentle 
expression : destruction out of the midst of the 
people." [Ver. 18. The punishment here refers 
to the act knowingly committed; in xv. 24 the 
light penalty is given for the same act uninten- 
tionally committed. — F. G.] 

"Third Case. — Intercourse with an aunt on 
either the father's or the mother's side. They 
shall bear their iniquity. — Thus sounds the 
sentence indefinitely, in transition to the follow- 
ing. [Ver. 19.] 

"Fourth Case. — If one takes the wife of his 
brother, it is mj (it induces the curse of the 
first degree); The penalty is childlessness, and 
is thus entirely a divine dispensation (ver. 21). 
Here, as has been said, the prohibition can, in 
the case of the Levirate marriage (Deut. xxv. 5- 
10), become a command — an evidence of the 
nicety of the law." [On the meaning of the pe- 
nalty of childlessness see the preliminary note 
to ch. xviii. It would be entirely out of analogy 
with the Divine dealings with man to suppose a 
perpetual special interposition through all the 
ages of Israel's history in every case of violation 



CHAP. XX. 1-27. 



157 



of this law, and there is nothing in the character 
of the forbidden relation to induce childlessness 
under those ordinary Divine appointments which 
we call natural laws. It is also much more in 
accordance with the general character of this 
chapter that the penalty should be understood 
of something inflicted by statute law, — the reck- 
oning of the issue of such marriages to another 
than the actual father. So rightly S. Augustin, 
Qu. 76 in Hept. It is a striking fact that this 
penalty was still carried out in the one case of 
the prohibited degrees, when the prohibition was 
changed to a command. In the Levirate mar- 
riage no heirs were begotten to the actual fa- 
ther, but they were reckoned to the deceased 
brother.— F. G.] 

"In conclusion, another exhortation follows 
which, in the first place, marks out the ordi- 
nances as judgments (ideas) ; secondly, ex- 
presses the incongruity between the unnatural 
behaviour and the nature of the land of God, for 
which even Israel could be spued out from it ; 
and this brings out, in the third place, that for 
such very things the heathen were thrust out of 
the land. To this threat a promise is appended 
in conclusion. [Ver. 24.] And with this is 
connected a noble idea: in the separation of clean 
beasts from the unclean, the separation of Israel 
from the heathen is to be symbolically mirrored 
forth. The closing sentence [ver. 27] would be 
unintelligible as a repetition (from chap. xix. 
31); evidently it is the germ of the prohibition 
of false enthusiasm and prophecy in Israel itself 
(see Deut. xix. 11 sqq.)." [In xix. 31, in ac- 
cordance with the general character of chaps, 
xviii. and xix., we have simply the prohibition 
on the spiritual ground of the opposition to God's 
will, without mention of specific punishments ; 
here we have throughout civil penalties attached 
to the various offences as against the theocratic 
state. Accordingly those that have familiar spi- 
rits or are wizards require to be mentioned again 
in order that the death penalty may be denounced 
against them. — F. 6] 

"Ver. 25 is particularly important, since it 
contains the key to the understanding of the Le- 
vitical distinction between clean and unclean 
animals. Men have sought for physiological 
reasons for this distinction, and quite lately an 
Israelitiah author has referred to the discovery of 
the Trichina as the foundation of the prohibition 
of swine's flesh. In regard to many of the un- 
clean animals, there is indeed the reason of the 
physiological unhealthiness of the flesh, or of the 
physical aversion to their hateful appearance ; to 
which may be added, as connected, something of 
the physical effect of the blood of wild beasts. 
Also the limitation of Israel to the use and sacri- 
fice of domestic animals must have an economic 
significance, and be, so to speak, for the benefit of 
the State, since it worked against the dissipa- 
tions of the ancient hunting and the luxury of the 
heathen, and with the cultivation of the land, 
furthered at the same time domestic simplicity 
and contentment." [This must be understood to 
apply only in a limited degree to the Israelites; 
for they were allowed freely to hunt and eat all 
clean wild animals, as the "roebuck and the 
hart" (Deut. xii. 15, etc.). In regard to all 
physiological and other reasons, it is always to 



be remembered that no animals are intrinsically 
unclean ; none were excepted from the grant to 
Noah, and none from the Christian abrogation 
of the distinction. The law was wholly tempo- 
rary, added "because of transgressions," to 

constitute Israel a peculiar people F. G.] 

" But the symbolic meaning of the animal world, 
as a representation of Israel among the Gentiles, 
is here expressly brought out as the religious 
main reason. Israel was to have a constant re- 
presentation of its separation from the heathen 
world in the separation of the clean animals, and 
thus also the heathen world, by which it was 
surrounded, and from which it was to understand 
that it differed in religion and in morals, was 
to be represented in the sphere of the unclean 
animals. The sacred observance of the laws of 
food was thus a constant reminder for Israel of 
its theocratic sanctity and dignity. Thus it is 
plain that the old distinction between clean and 
unclean animals must fall away after the bound- 
ary between Israel and the heathen has fallen. 
But it is also to be recollected that Judaism 
clung very strongly to the old distinction, as it 
did no less to the prohibition of the use of blood; 
and the Apostolic ordinance in regard to the last 
particular and cognate subjects is explained to 
mean that these laws, which had been ended as 
religious dogmas, must yet continue for a time as 
Christian customs for the sake of a united Chris- 
tian fellowship. The shadowing forth of the 
heathen world in the world of unclean beasts, 
which is here exprestly brought out, is denied by 
Keil, in opposition to Kurtz, without reason (p. 
95)." [Much as we may admire the beauty and 
force of the symbolism here presented by Lange, 
it is difficult to see how it "is here expressly 
brought out," or eveo in any way alluded to in 
the text. Certainly the observance of the dis- 
tinction among animals is placed upon a religious 
ground, and this observance would contribute to 
make of Israel that separate people which God 
had called them to be. Naturally then might 
the Israelites themselves have compared the 
heathen to unclean animals ; but so far is such 
an idea from finding countenance in the word of 
God that it is only recognised to be removed, 
and the heathen are first represented as un- 
clean animals in the vision of St. Peter (Acts x. 
10-16) at the moment when such distinctions 
were forever to be done away. The object of 
the law was to make the distinction of animals 
fixed and unalterable; but in regard to the 
heathen, to encourage them to ofl'er sacrifices 
and partake in the worship of God, and thus to 
be drawn into ever increasing nearness of rela- 
tion to Him.— F. G.] 

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAI.. 
I. In chap, xviii. the law is given simply as 
the will of God. Here punishments are attached 
to disobedience as to civil offences against the 
theocratic state. There seems no reason why 
these two chapters should have been separated 
except to mark this distinction emphatically. 
Obedience to God's law is required simply be- 
cause it is His will, and this is set forth by it- 
self; afterwards and separately, punishments 
are provided for those among His people who re- 
fuse to be guided by Him. 



158 



LEVITICUS. 



II. In the frequent expression his or their 
blood shall be upon bim or them is a plain 
intimation that the offender alone is responsible 
for the evil that comes upon him. The divine 
law, whether natural or revealed, is inexorable, 
and he who thrusts himself across its path neces- 
sarily incurs its penalties. There is no occasion 
for a Divine interposition to punish, and there is 
no room for tho charge of severity ; the offender 
braves an irresistible will, and in doing this 
must himself alone be held responsible for the 
result. 

III. The beast involved in the guilt of man or 
woman must be put to death with them. There 
could be no moral guilt on the pirt of the beast, 
because there was no moral responsibility ; but 
yet he must perish because he had been associated 
in human sin. Whether this was in order to re- 
move the tool of sin from sight simply, or whe- 
ther it was because of the association of human 
sin with the beast; in either case it is plain that 
it was commanded not for the sake of the beast, 
but of man. Here we have one of the many in- 
stances in the law in which human associations 
and feelings are cared for and protected, and 
used also as means for the advancement of ho- 
liness. 

HOMILETICAL AND PEACTICAL. 
Lange: "The chapter of the great theocratic 
rigor (chap, xx.) forms a contrast to the chapter 



of the great theocratic mildness and purity of 
life. Here the various measures of punishment 
come into consideration. Burning with fire, as 
a symbolical addition to the punishment of death, 
is only connected with the dead body which has 
been put to death by stoning. Then follows the 
particular capital punishment; and next to this in- 
definite forms of punishment, he shall bear his 
Iniquity ; and finally the punishment of child- 
lessness, in wbioii also we are certainly to sup- 
pose a physical basis. The conception of the 
abominations is the conception of that which is 
against nature (Rom. i.), of that which, even 
according to natural instinct, is perverse, hor- 
rible, and a revolt against the moral law in man's 
nature; b\it in regard to this, indeed, nature it- 
self comes to the j udgment like a spirit of retri- 
bution." 

The law of this, as of many other chapters, is 
enforced on the ground that the Israelites were 
called to be » holy people. With how great ad- 
ditional force must this apply to Christians. Not 
only the Israelite, but the stranger also, defiled 
God's sanctuary and profaned His holy name by 
sin. The same thing must be trnealways; there 
is no escape from responsibility because one 
chooses not to acknowledge allegiance to God. 
The Divine commands still rest upon him. Only 
he has less help and support in keeping them 
while he remains aloof from the commonwealth 
of Israel. 



PART SECOND. 

Holiness on the Part of the Priests and Holiness of the Offerings. 

" The sacred observance of the priestly position, of the sacrifice, and of the priestly calling" Lanqb. 

Chapteks XXI., XXII. 

A.—" THE DESECRATION OF THE PRIESTLY POSITION AND 
THE PRIESTLY CALLING."— Lahoe. 

Chapter XXI. 

1 And the Lord said unto Moses, Speak unto the priests the sons of Aaron, and 

2 say unto them, There shall none be defiled for the dead among his people : but for 
his kin, that is near unto him, that is, for his mother, and for his father, and for his 

3 son, and for his daughter, and for his brother, and for his sister a virgin, that is 

4 nigh unto him, which hath had no husband ; for her may he be defiled. But [omit 
buC] he shall not defile himself, being a chief man' among his people, to profane 

TEXTUAL AND GEAMMATICAL. 
' Ver. 4. VBj^S 7j?3 NBH' X/- Tho interpretation of this obscure clause is very various. The LXX., mistakiug 
1J12, read ov iiiayQ^aeTat e^an-ii/a ep Tui >.ao> atfToiJ, meaning that the priest shall not deflle himself rashly or lightly. 
The Syr. and Tlllg. have transferred the preposition 3 from VBjt? to ^^3 and read bat he shall not be defiled far apntux, 
etc., a sense adopted by several oitposltors. The A. V. has followed the Tnrg. of Onk. and th« Arab., which Is interpreted to 
mean that the priest, as occupying a high official position, head of a family, etc., should not deflle himself; if this sense can 

be sustained, it throws some light upon the occasional use of \T\2 tor primie. It is adopted by many expositors as Von 
Gerlach and Keil. The Targ. Jonathan, and several Jewish expositors (Kalisch also, and Knobel) understand hV^ t* 
mean hwihcmd, a sufficiently well-established meaning of the word, and one which is followed in the margin of the A. V.( 



CHAP. XXI. 1-24. 



169 



5 himself. They' shall not make baldness upon their head, neither shall they shave 

6 off the comer of their beard, nor make any cuttiogs in their flesh. They shall be 
holy unto their God, and not profane the name of their God : for the offerings of 
the LoED made by fire, and [omit and'} the bread of their God they do offer : there- 
fore they shall be holy.* 

7 They shall not take a wife thai is a whore, or profane : neither shall they take a 

8 woman put away from her husband : for he^ is holy unto his God. Thou shalt 
sanctify him therefore ; for he offereth the bread of thy God : he shall be holy unto 

9 thee : for I the Loed, which sanctify you," am holy. And the daughter of any 
priest, if she profane herself by playing the whore, she profaneth her father : she 
shall be burnt with fire. 

10 And he that is the high priest among his brethren, upon whose head the anointing 
oil was poured, and that is consecrated to put on the garments, shall not uncover 

11 his head, nor rend his clothes ; neither shall he go in to any dead body, nor defile 

12 himself for his father, or for his mother ; neither shall he go out of the sanctuary, 
nor profane the sanctuary of his God ; for the crown of the anointing oil of his God 

13, 14 is upon him : I am the Lord. And he shall take a wife in her virginity. A 
widow, or a divorced woman, or profane, or' an harlot, these shall he not take: but 

15 he shall take a virgin of his own people to wife. Neither shall he profane his seed 
among his people : for I the Lord do sanctify him. 

16, 17 And the Loed spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto Aaron, saying. Whoso- 
ever he be of thy seed in their generations that hath any blemish, let him not ap- 

18 proach to offer the bread of his God. For whatsoever man he be that hath a blem- 
ish, he shall not approach : a blind man, or a lame, or he that hath a flat nose, or 

19, 20 any thing superfluous, or a man that is brokenfooted, or brokenhanded, or crook- 
backt, or a dwarf,* or that hath a blemish in his eye, or be scurvy, or scabbed, or 

21 hath his stones broken ; no man that hath a blemish of the seed of Aaron the priest 
shall come nigh to offer the offerings of the Loed made by fire : he hath a blemish ; 

22 he shall not come nigh to offer the bread of his God. He shall eat the bread of 

23 his God, both of the most holy, and of the holy. Only he shall not go in unto the 
vail, nor come nigh unto the altar, because he hath a blemish ; that he profane not 

24 my sanctuaries :' for I the Loed do sanctify them. And Moses told it unto Aaron, 
and to his sons, and unto all the children of Israel. 

bnt thia requires /or hia wife to be supplied, for which therein no warrant, and it al^o eeeros highly improbable that mourn- 
ing should be permitted for the relations mentioned in vers. 2, 3, and forbidden for the wife, Miohaelis understands the 

high-priest to be intended by S y3 ! but his conduct is the special subject of vers. 10-12. On the whole, no other interpre- 
tation seems sufBciently well-established to take the place of that In the A. V., although even that can hardly be considered 
as satisikctory. In any case it is better to omit the interpolated tut at the beginning of the Ter=e, . , , ^, „ , 

a Vers. 6. The K'ri inlp' indicated by the Masoretic punctuation of the text iiriTp' is sustained by the bam. and 

all the versions, . , , ^ ^ , v , ,_ , r, ^. -^^ a 

' Ver. 6. The sense is rather obscured than helped by the interpolated mi, which is better omitted. 

1 Ver. 6. The Hsb. has ttflp in the sing., doubtless to be understood as an abstract term. The Sam. and all the ver, 

""s v™8. r,%^ TtaeMaiioffe of numbers creates a slight obscurity, but the A. V. faithfully follows the Heb. 
• Ver. 8. The Sam,, LXX,, and Vuls:,, have the pronoun in the third person 
' Ver 14. The missiuK conjunction is supplied in the Sam. and the versions. ,, ^ ^, . ,.. . , 

8 Ver. 20. pT signifies something smaS or (km. The text of the A. V., seems preferable to the margm, as it is scarcely 

ta he supposed that the case of the dwarf woold be omitted. Fuerst, however, renders it cmsumptm ; Vulg., Uear-eyed, 
and so Onk., and apparently the LXX. e<()ijAii5. Syr. = WUe. j i j j. . -j; »i, v, i „i „„ ^^n n,^ v,„i» 

9 Ver 23. The LXX. has the sing, to oiyiov. The plural is generally understood to signify the holy place and the holy 
•f holies ; some interpreters, however, (Boothroyd, Bosenmueller) would transhvte my hallowed Oivngs. 



BXEGETICAL AND CEITICAL. 

Lange: "The symbolic side of the Levitical 
law, which was brought out so powerfully at the 
close of the last chapter, is likewise not to be 
mistaken in the commands for keeping holy the 
priestly calling. Owing to the symbolic mean- 
ing of these commands they are connected by 
manifold analogies with heathen laws and cus- 
toms enacted to secure the priestly dignity. 
Compare the references on this subject in Kno- 



bel, p. 617 sqq. ; Keil, p. HI." [Trans, p. 430, 
432. " The testimonies which Knobel and seve- 
ral of the older commentators have collected to 
show that the priests of the Egyptians, Greeks, 
Komans and other nations avoided funerals and 
contact with the dead, afford but an imperfect 
parallel to these Levitical laws concerning 

the priests Wherever this feeling 

was recognized in a ceremonial usage, the priest, 
from his office, would naturally be expected to 
observe the highest standard of purity. But the 
laws which regulated the priesthood of the chosen 



160 



LEVITICUS. 



people had a deeper basis than this. They had 
to administer a law of life. ... St. Cyril truly 
observes that the Hebrew priests were the in- 
struments of the divine will for averting death, 
that all their sacrifices were a type of the death 
of Christ, which swallowed up death iu victory, 
and that it would have been unsuitable that they 
should have the same freedom as other people to 
become mourners. Olaphyra in Lev., p. 430." 
Clark.— F 6.]. 

" In the first place it is to be noticed that there 
is here brought out a gradation of the symbolism 
that the laws in regard to dignity are stronger 
in the case of the high-priest than in the case 
of the sons of Aaron, the common priests. While 
these, who were at first Aaron's sons, were ele- 
vated above the common people (as this also out- 
ranked the heathen in its sanctity), so the high- 
priest again was raised above his sons ; he 
formed the symbolical centre and summit of the 
personal sanctity towards God, and of exclusion 
as respects the unclean or that which was Levi- 
tically 'common.' " Lange. 

With this chapter begins a new Parashah, or 
Proper Lesson of the law extending through 
ch. xxiv. " The parallel Haphtarah, or Proper 
Lesson of the Prophe s, is Ezek. xliv. 15-31, 
which contains ordinances for the priests, and 
is the best commentary on the present chapter." 
Wordsworth. 

The purity and holiness required of the priest- 
hood in this chap, is evidently a necessary con- 
sequence of the peculiar relation in which they 
stood to God and the people. It is substantially 
the same as that required of all the holy people, 
but is emphasized and extended somewhat be- 
yond that which the people generally were able 
to bear, because it especially devolved upon them 
to " draw nigh unto the Lord." For the same 
reason still more strict obligations are laid upon 
the high-priests. In vers. 1-6 they are forbidden 
to defile themselves by touching the dead, or by 
signs of mourning ; in 7-9 they are required to 
contract a spotless marriage and maintain purity 
in their families; in 10-15 the same duties, some- 
what extended, are still more emphatically re- 
quired of the high-priest; and in conclusion, 
vers. 16-24, the physical impediments to the ex- 
ercise of the priestly office are detailed. 

Vers. 1-4. The priest may not defile himself 
on account of a dead person (tJ'3p lit. a soul), 
with an exception however in the case of the 
very nearest of kin. The virgin sister, as yet 
unbetrothed, is included in the list ; but after 
her betrothal or marriage, she passed into the 
family of another, and the exemption ceases. 
The principle of the exception seems to be sim- 
ply a regard for human feelings. The fact that 
the tent or house was defiled, ipso facto, by the 
presence of a dead body, and therefore the priest 
could not avoid defilement in such cases (Keil) 
forms no sufficient explanation of the exception ; 
for this would be true when a slave died in the 
house, which is not included, and would often 
not be true in the case of a father, which is in- 
cluded. It is remarkable that there is no men- 
tion of the wife — the Rabbins sny because she 
and her husband were " one flesh." Lange (see 
below) makes a distinction between a passive 



defilement which was inevitable in the case of a 
death in the house, and which is too self-evident 
to require especial mention ; and the active de- 
filement of proclaiming one's grief, using the 
customary marks of mourning and burying the 
dead, which he considers wore forbidden to the 
priest, as belonging to the class of the chief men, 
on occasion of the death of his wife. It seems 
more probable that the instances mentioned in 
ver. 2 are of the nature of limitations, and that 
the marriage relationship is not mentioned be- 
cause it is nearer than any of them, and there- 
fore included within them all. Notwithstanding 
the permission in the cases mentioned above, the 
priest, by contact with the dead, still became 
defiled for seven days, and was then required to 
offer a sin offering (see Ezek. xliv. 25-27). No 
penalty is provided for a violation of this law. 
On ver. 4 see Textual Notes. 

Vers. 5, 6. The prohibition to the priests of 
the marks of mourning for the dead, customary 
among the surrounding nations, is extended in 
Dent. xiv. 1 to the whole body of the people. 
The command to the priests is expressly made to 
rest upon their official duties. On the expres- 
sion bread of their God see on iii. 11. DhS 
is indifferently rendered in the A. V. food, bread, 
and meat. Only the last is objectionable on ac- 
count of the change in the use of the English 
word. 

Vers. 7-9. The marriage of the priests and the 
life of their families likewise must not be allowed 
to present a contrast to their holy calling. They 
might marry any reputable woman, whether Is- 
raelite or foreigner, excepting of course women 
from those idolatrous tribes of the Canaanites 
which were forbidden to all the people. Exod. 
xxxiv. 16 ; Deut. vii. 3. In after times this law 
was made more stringent, Ezek. xliv. 22. They 
might not take to wife a common prostitute, nor 
one profane, i. e., a woman who had fallen, or 
as some Jewish authorities hold, oilc of illegiti- 
mate birth. Briefly, their wives must be of un- 
blemished and spotless character, and hence they 
were forbidden to take one already repudiated. 
In ver. 8 the change of person is gene.-ally held 
to indicate a change of address to the people of 
Israel; but this is unnecessary. It is simply 
the ordinary form of direct command. Because 
it was the priest's office to offer the bread of 
thy God, therefore his life and surroundings 
must be in harmony with his holy calling. The 
priest's family, also, by a propriety felt in all 
ages, must be ordered in accordance with his 
sacred duties, and the outrageous violation of 
this in his daughter's becoming a prostitute must 
not only be punished with death, but the dead 
body be visited with the symbolical punishment 
of burning. 

Vers. 10-15. The same commands are applied 
with greater emphasis, and with some extension, 
to the high-priest. He is described by the pecu- 
liar fulness of the anointing he had received 
(vers. 10, 12), and by his being consecrated 
to put on the garments, viz., those appointed 
for the official costume of the high-priesi, in 
which Aaron had been arrayed at his consecra- 
tion, and which descended to his successors. To 
him the accustomed marks of mourning, and all 



CHAP. XXI. 1-24. 



161 



coataot with a dead body, even that of the near- 
e^it relative, are forbidden. He must not go out 
of the sanctuary for this purpose (not that 
the sanctuary was to be his constant abode, Bahr 
and Baumgarten), nor profane the sanctuary 
by this defilement of his person. He was also 
restricted in marriage to a virgin of Israel, ver. 
14; by any other marriage he would profane 
his seed, 

Lange : " Whatever may belong to the defile- 
ment by the dead, it is certainly to be noticed 
that nothing is here said in any way of dying 
persons, or of death itself, but of dead bodies. 
The recollection of Egypt, especially of the Egyp- 
tian cultus of dead bodies comes here into the 
foreground. The defilement by the dead in- 
cluded not merely the touching in itself, which 
is so natural to excited grief, but also the parti- 
cipation in the burial, and the customs of mourn- 
ing. But that which among the heathen was an 
expression of horror, so that it was said even of 
Apollo himself. Let him shun the scenes of death, 
appears here rather as a prelude of the subli- 
mity of the Christian view of death. The hor- 
ror would indeed appear strongest at the sight 
of the dead body of a blood relative, yet here 
humanity places itseVf on the opposite side as a 
limit of the symbolism, and allows the defilement 
in the case of the nearest family relations with 
the exception of the married sister who now be- 
longs to another family circle. Ver. 4 certainly 
appears to say that a man as a husband shall 
not defile himself for the dead body of his wife, 
as the foregoing specification and determination 
concerning the married sister might already in- 
timate. Concerning this, see below," [above 
under ver. 4]. " The reason is well expressed 
in ver. 6 : for the offerings of the LORD 
made by fire, the bread of their God they 
do offer. — Since they know, or at least have 
some idea of what the sacrifice signifies — an en- 
tire resignation to the living God, — they cannot 
mourn and despair as those who have little or 
no hope, without strengthening the delusion of 
despair, by which the Israelites would dishonor 
the name of their God, .Jehovah. There is an 
extravagance of lamentation which takes the ap- 
pearance of a resentment and contention with 
God in regard to the dead ; among the people of 
God this shou'd be excluded by the feeling of 
reverence : — the Lord has done it. 

" Three kinds of women are excluded from 
the priestly marriage : the ^yhore, the profane, 
the divorced. To the high-priest the taking 
of a widow is also forbidden. We call to mind 
Thamar, Rahab, Ruth, and Bathsheba, who be- 
came ancestors in Israel (Matt, i.), and it is thus 
plain that4;he subject is here a purely Old Tes- 
tament regulation of symbolical signification. 
By the marriage of the priest with a virgin is 
signified that the theocratic marriage could and 
should be consecrated to the rearing up of the 
hereditary blessing (see Jno. i. l.S, 14). Thus 
also he was to appear to the people as a conse- 
crated personality. But the dark contrast is the 
ruined priestly family,* and the saddest instance 
- is the ruined priest's daughter ; if she has only 

• "Or also 'he family of a pastor. In a poem by Heine it 
1« depicted witli dark touohas." 



begun to be a whore, she has fallen under the 
judgment of fire. 

" The third division treats of the sons of the 
priests having bodily defects, or afilioted with 
corporeal blemishes (wherein spiritual reasons 
are evidently included). Here also the prevail- 
ing symbolical purpose is not to be mistaken. 
The sacrificers must appear as the type of per- 
fection, as also the sacrifice in the following sec- 
tion. Hence the blind and lame, the sons of 
Aaron with misshapen noses and limbs, having 
some bodily defect in hand or foot, etc. (vers. 18- 
20) correspond to the faulty sacrificial animals, 
oh. xxii. 23-25. The strong exclusion demanded 
by the cultus for the sake of its symbolism was 
compensated by the compassionate provision 
that they should have their portion of all sacri- 
ficial food of the active priests, whereby they are 
in some sort to be compared with Emeritus offi- 
cials who draw their full salary. They do not 
offer the bread of their God, as the offerings 
are collectively called, inasmuch as these culmi- 
nated in the shew-bread ; but yet they eat the 
bread of their God, as well of the most holy 
as of the holy, i. e., not only of the wave offer- 
ings, firstlings, etc. (Num. xviii. 11, 19, and 26- 
29) but also of the peculiar priestly portion of 
the sacrifices, the oblations, etc. See Keil, p. J?4 
[Trans, p. 433]. But if the priestly access unto 
the vail and unto the altar is denied them, 
it appears that this is here spoken of their offi- 
cial functions. Moreover it is emphasized that 
Moses communicated these commands not only 
unto Aaron and to his sons ; but unto all 
the children of Israel who ought to kuow how 
their priests should conduct themselves." Lange. 

A death in a dwelling defiled every thing in 
the dwelling, and every one who entered it. 
Deaths, however, must necessarily occur in 
priestly families beyond the limits of the allow- 
able cases of defilement, and also in the house 
of the high-priest to whom no defilement what- 
ever was allowed. Lange therefore well says, 
" i distinction must be made between passive 
sorrow and defilement, which might happen even 
to the high-priest in his own house, and active 
uncleanness which came about by the rending 
of the clothes and going to the dead body." 
Accordingly the prohibition to the high-priest is 
couched in terms (vers. 10-12) indicating the ac- 
tive defilement. 

Vers. 16-24. These directions concerning the 
descendants of Aaron who should have any bodily 
defect are founded upon the general principle, 
appearing in every part of the law, that what- 
ever is devoted to the service of God should be 
as perfect as possible in its kind. "As the spi- 
ritual nature of a man is reflected in his bodily 
form, only a faultless condition of body could 
correspond to the holiness of the priest; just as 
the Greeks and Romans required, for the very 
same reason, that the priests should be 616iiXr)poL, 
integri corporis (Plato de legg. 6, 759 ; Seneca ex- 
cerpt, controv. 4, 2; Plutarch qusest. rom. 73). 
Consequently none of the descendants of Aaron 
in their generations, i. «., in all future gene- 
rations (see Ex. xii. 14), were to approach the 
vail, i. e., enter the holy place, or draw near to 
the altar (in the court) to offer the food of Jeho- 
vah, viz., the sacrifices." Keil. Persons thus in- 



162 



LEVITICUS. 



capacitated for the exercise of the active duties 
of the priesthood are yet especially allowed to 
partake of the priests' portion of the sacrifices 
(ver. 22), and doubtless received their share of 
the tithes for the support of the priests. By 
custom they were employed in many duties per- 
taining to the priesthood which did not require 
the prohibited approach to the altar or entrance 
into the holy place ; such as the examination of 
leprous persons, houses, and things, the carrying 
of the ashes without the camp, and many duties 
of a similar character. 

At the beginning of the chapter Moses is di- 
rected to make this communication to the 
priests the sons of Aaron; at the end (ver. 
24) we read that he told it not only to them, but 
unto all the children of Israel. This is in 
accordance with the whole character of the law. 
Each particular communication is immediately 
addressed to those whose duties it concerns ; but 
at the same time, no part of the law was to be 
the exclusive possession, or under the exclusive 
guardianship of any class. Every part of it was 
to be diligently taught to every Israelite. The 
Divine law was the common heritage of all, and 
all were interested in seeing that it was observed. 

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL. 

I. All the precepts of this chapter tend to a 
single point — the peculiar purity and symbolical 
holiness required of those who ministered before 
God. From the centre of the absolute Divine 
holiness spread out ever-widening circles, and to 
each is attached a minimum of symbolical holi- 
ness without which it cannot be entered. The 
heathen in the outermost circle, as human beings, 
still had the light of nature and conscience; 
these laid upon them duties for the violation of 
which they were cast out of their homes and de- 
stroyed; the people of Israel formed an inner 
circle of higher obligations ; but those chosen 
from them to draw nigh to God on their behalf, 
must come under a still stricter rule. All this 
points unmistakably to the holiness of Him who 
is the centre of all, and shows that the partaking 
of His holiness is the necessary condition of ap- 
proach to Him. 

II. The families nf the priests were so inti- 
mately associated with their own proper person- 
ality, that something of the requirements for the 
priests themselves must also be demanded of 
them. This rests upon a fundamental principle 
of fitness, and is again repeatedly insisted upon 
in the New Testament in regard to the Christian 
minister. See 1 Tim. iii. 11, 12; Tit. i. 6. 

III. The absolute holiness required of those 
who presented oiferings to God could be only 
symbolical ; but the fact that it was symbolical 
points to One who fulfilled the symbolism, even 
to Christ, who was alone perfect in holiness ; 
therefore through Him alone can any acceptable 
gifts be offered to God. 

V. Physical blemishes, because they symbo- 
lized spiritual defects, hindered the priests from 
ministering before God on man's behalf; yet 
these did not prevent their eating of the sacri- 
fices, thus at once receiving their own support, 
and representing God in the receiving of that 
which the sacrifioer offered. Thus is brought 
out the two-fold relation in those who minister 



for the people toward God : on the one hand they 
may only draw nigh to Him on the basis of per- 
fect holiness, and for sinful man this can be ac- 
complished only through the mediation of Christ; 
on the other, the grace proceeding from Him is 
not hindered by the unworthiness of those 
through whom it comes. Always we must "have 
this treasure in earthen vessels." The feeble 
stream from man to God would be turned back 
by the obstacles in its channel but for the all- 
availing efficacy of the intercession of Christ; 
but the full flow of God's mercies in Christ ia 
powerful enough to sweep by all such barriers. 

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL. 
" The person, life and house of the'priest must 
especially be kept holy. For this, the law of 
God knows a more human way than the law of 
the Pope (xxi. 13). The features of the symbo- 
lical consecrated state of the priest are spiritu- 
ally explained. The fearful picture of a dese- 
crated, profane, or very vicious priestly house. 
How far also can the sacrifice be designated as 
the bread of God ? In reference to the Being of 
God Himself, the true sacrifice is an object of 
His good pleasure. In reference to the power 
of God, it is the noblest and most fitting means 
of drawing near to His fire. In reference to the 
idea of God in the world, it is a perpetual means 
of freshening, deepening, and strengthening it." 
Lange. 

The priestly requirement of holiness, symbo- 
lical of old for those whose office it was to draw 
near to God, must rest now in its literal force 
upon all Christians, " a royal priesthood." who 
must ever draw near by the new and living way 
consecrated for them. As the headship of the 
priest over his household required that they also 
should present no striking contrast to his purity ; 
so, on the same principle, it must be incumbent 
upon all men that those over whom they have 
influence and control should be so ordered in 
their lives as not to present to the world a con- 
trast to the principles they themselves profess. 

Excessive mourning is forbidden to the priests; 
all mourning is restricted to the circle of the 
nearest relations, and to the high-priest is for- 
bidden altogether. Thus is clearly shown that 
however on earth something may be conceded to 
the weakness of sorrowing humanity, yet sorrow 
for the departed is not the proper garb in which 
to draw near to God. This is more fully de- 
clared through Him who is the Resurrection and 
the Life, and the Christian cannot sorrow for 
those who sleep in Him as men without hope. 
Thus the reproof of excessive indulgence in sor- 
row, so plainly brought out under the new dis- 
pensation, is here foreshadowed by the laws 
of the Mosaic covenant. 

In ver. 24 we see that, although the priests 
were separated from the people by their special 
divine appointment, the laws for their govern- 
ment were yet communicated to all the people 
that they might be under the observation of the 
whole community in their conduct. So it must 
ever be if the ministry is to be preserved in its 
purity ; and the germs of deoay are already sown 
in that body which refuses to recognize its re- 
sponsibility to the public opinion of the Chris- 
tian community. 



CHAP. XXII. 1-33. 163 



B.— "KEEPING HOLT OP THE SACRIFICE, OR OF WHAT HAS BEEN HALLOWED."— 

Lanqe. 

Chapter XXII. 1-33. 

1, 2 And the Loed spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto Aaron and to his sons, 
that they separate themselves from the holy things of the children of Israel, and 
that they profane not my holy name in those things which they hallow unto me : I 

3 am the Loed. Say unto them, Whosoever he be of aU your seed among your 
generations, that goeth unto the holy things, which the children of Israel hallow 
unto the Loed, having his uncleanneas upon him, that soul shall be cut off from 

4 my presence : I am the Loed. What man soever of the seed of Aaran is a leper, 
or hath a running issue ; he shall not eat of the holy things, until he be clean. 
And whoso toucheth any thing that is unclean by the dead, or a man whose seed 

5 goeth from him ; or whosoever toucheth any^ creeping thing, whereby he may be 
made unclean, or a man of whom he may take uncleanness," whatsoever uncleanness 

6 he hath ; the soul which hath touched any such shall be unclean until even, and 

7 shall not eat of the holy things, unless he wash [bathe'] his flesh with water. And 
when the sun is down, he shall be clean, and shall afterward eat of the holy things; 

8 because it is his food. That which dieth of itself, or is torn with beasts, he shall 

9 not eat to defile himself therewith : I am the Loed. They shall therefore keep 
mine ordinance,* lest they bear sin for it, and die therefore, if they profane it : I 
the Loed do sanctify them. 

10 There shall no stranger eat of the holy thing : a sojourner of the priest, or an 

11 hired servant, shall not eat of the holy thing. But if the priest buy any soul with 
his money, he shall eat of it, and he* that is born in his house : they shall eat of 

12 his meat [food*]. If the priest's daughter also be married unto a stranger, she 

13 may not eat of an offering of the holy things. But if the priest's daughter be a 
widow, or divorced, and have no child, and is returned unto her father's house, as' 
in hor youth, she shall eat of her father's meat [food*] : but there shall no stranger 

14 eat thereof. And if a man eat of the holy thing unwittingly [inadvertently*], then 
he shall put the fifth part thereof unto it, and shall give it unto the priest with the 

15 holy thing. And they shall not profane the holy things of the children of Israel, 

16 which they offer' unto the Loed ; or suffer them to bear the iniquity of trespass, 
when they eat [or, lade themselves with the iniquity of trespass in their eating'"] 
their holy things : for I the Loed do sanctify them. 

TEXTUAL AND GEAMMATICAL. 

> Ver. 5. The Sam. and LXX. supply the word malean. According to the law, the " creeping thing " could only com- 
municate uncieannesa when dead. 

^ Ver. S.jRosenmiiller translates : or a man who may ie unclean on accoutU of U, so. the creeping thing. Ho refers the 
pronoun in V? to V'^K'. 

8 Ver. 6. vni- ' See Textual Note »> on xiv. 8. 

* Ver. 9. ^n^DlffD~n&5 ^IDE'. The want of an appropriate verb and noun from the same root in English makes it 

impossible to give the full force of this phrase so often impressively repeated. See Gen. xxvi. 6 ; Lev. viii. 36 ; Num. iii 
7; ix. 19. Lange uses a paraphrase : Ond sie soUtn beobachten^ viag gegen mich m beobachten ist. 
5 Ter. 11. The Sam., LXX. and Chald. have the plural. 

' Ver. 11. IBnSa. See Com. on xxi. 6. On the dagh^h in the H Bee Textual Note M on iv. 13. 

7 Ver. 13. Sixteen' MS3. for the particle of comparison 2 liave 3. 

8 Ver. 14. njJE'3. See Textual Note ' on iv. 2. 

9 Ver. 15. ^D''^''', lit. which they heave or lift tip; but evidently the reference is more general than to the heave-ofifer- 

Ingp, and the of^r of the A. V. ia by all means to be retained. 

1" Ver. 18. The aenae of this verse ia doubtful. The A. V., Patrick, Pool, Keil and others refer the pronouns them and 
they til the people, and understand the precept that the prieats ahould prevent the people from eating of the holy things 
wiiich it bplonged to the prieats to eat; on the other hand, the margin of the A. V., Calvin, Knobel, Znnz, Kigga and Lange 
- underfltiind it as mr^anin : lode thi'manlvs with the iniquity of tre-fpass in their eating. The latter ia more in accordance with 
the general subject of the chapter, and is preferable. Bo the hXX. understood by the use of eauTous. So Eoubigant. 



164 



LEVITICUS. 



17, 18 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying. Speak unto Aaron, and to his sons, 
and unto all the children of Israel, and say unto them, Whatsoever he be of the 
house of Israel, or of the strangers" in Israel, that will offer his oblation [offering"] 
for all [any of] his vows, and for all [any of J his free-will offerings, which they 

19 will offer unto the Lord for a burnt offering ; ye shall offer at your own will [for 
your acceptance"] a male without blemish, of the beeves, of the sheep, or of the 

20 goats. But whatsoever hath a blemish, that shall ye not offer : for it shall not be 

21 acceptable for you And whosoever offereth a sacrifice of peace offerings unto the 
LoED to accomplish his vow, or a freewill offering in beeves or sheep [of the flock"], 

22 it shall be perfect to be accepted : there shall be no blemish therein. Blind, or 
broken, or maimed,'' or having a wen [or ulcerous'*], or scurvy, or scabbed, ye 
shall not offer these unto the Lord, nor make an offering by fire of them upon the 

23 altar unto the Lord. Either a bullock or a lamb [one of the flock''] that hath 
anything superfluous'* or lacking in his parts, that mayest thou offer for a freewill 

24 offering ; but for a vow it shall not be accepted. Ye shall not offer unto the Lord 
that which is bruised, or crushed, or broken, or cut; neither shall ye make any 

25 offering thereof [make «i6cA'°] in your land. Neither from a stranger's^ hand shall 
ye offer the bread of your God of any of these ; because their corruption is in them, 
and blemishes be in them : they shall not be accepted for you 

26, 27 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, When a bullock, or a sheep, or a 
goat, is brought forth, then it shall be seven days under the dam ; and from the 
eighth day and thenceforth it shall be accepted for an offering made by fire unto 

28 the Lord. And whether it be cow or ewe [female of the flock''], ye shall not kill 
it and her young both in one day. 

29 And when ye will offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving unto the Lord, offer it at 

30 your own will [for your acceptance"]. On the same day it shall be eaten up ; ye 
shall leave none of it until the morrow : I am the Lord. 

31 Therefore shall ye keep my commandments, and do them : I am the Lord. 

32 Neither shall ye profane my holy name ; but I will be hallowed among the chil- 

33 dren of Israel : I am the Lord which hallow you, that brought you out of the land 
of Egypt, to be your God : I am the Lord. 

" Ver. 18. Tho Sam., 14 MSS , and all the ancient versions snpply thai aojoum. 
12 Ter. 18. pip. See Textual Note 2 on ii. 1. 

" Ver. 19. DDJyiS. See Textual Note » on i. S. Comp. also ver. 21. 

" Vor. 21. [NS3 includes both ehtep (A. T.) and goats (marg.). It is better therefore to use the ordinary comprehen- 
sive term. 

" Ver. 22. On the precise sense of Vllfli the authorities differ. LXX. y\a<riTaTij.iiTov=having the tongue cut; Targ. 

Jojt.^having the eyfUds torn; Jerome, cicalricem hdbem. The A. V. has followed the Targ. Onk. in a sense which may ho 
considered aa sufficiently general to include all the others. 

'» Ver. 22. O 73 j "^j- ft™, from 73'='o fio^- It is an-, kty., but there seems no doubt of its meaning. 

" Ver. 23. T\\0 is neither specifically a lamb (A. V.) nor a hid (marg.), but may be either. See Textual Note " on 
ver. 21. Gesen. : " a noun of unity corresponding to the collect. [XX, a flock, «o. of sheep or goats." 

18 Ver. 23. ^^^Uf is an animal which has an inequality between the corresponding parts, as the two legs, or two 
eyes, so that one of them is longer or larger than it should be ; while t2>h p, on the other hand, signifies one having such 
part smaller than its normally developed fellow. 

10 Ver. 24 According to all authorities the preceding clause refers to the four ways of castration practised .imnng the 
ancienta (see Aristot. hUl. cm. ix. 37, 3, and the other aiithoritii i cited by Knoliel and Keil); the latter clause contains, inci- 
aentally, an ahsoluto prohibition of such customs in the land, and has nothing to do with sacrifice, there hein» no word 
for offermg m the Ueb. Such Is the interpretation of Josephus (Ant. iv. 8, 40) and of the Jewish authorities generally, 
so also the JjXX., the Targs., and the Vuig. The sense of the A. V., however, is found in the Syr., and is enstiiined by 
ILnoUel end Lame who says expressly: "It is particularly to be noticed that castration of animals was not universally 
loroioaen in Iniael. only no castrated animals might be offered in sacrifice." 

Ver. 25. 1JJ |3, a different word from the II of ver. 10 and the 1J of ver. 18, and probably referring to a for- 
eiener, not even sojou-ninK in the land. 

21 Ver. 28. See Note " on ver. 23. 'ija-riNl "inS in masc. form; but Rosenmuller notes that in regard to brute ani- 
mals, the verbs, as well as the nouns and ac^eotives, take no note of sex. 

ter was (1) that no priest who had become nn- 

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL. "'**" ^"^ '° ^°'^°^ °'" ^^^ "'«" (^^'S. 2-9), and 

_, ' (2) that no one was to eat of them who was not 

ihe analysis of this chapter given by Keil is a member of the priestly family (vers 10-16). 

a very clear one. "Vers. 1-16. Reverence Vers. 17-33. Acceptable Sacriaoea." Lange 

lor tniugs sanctified. — The law on this mat- introduces the chapter thus: "The keeping 



CHAP. XXII. 1- 



165 



holy of the eacnfioe was to correspond to the 
keeping holy of the priesthood, since this Is 
indeed at the bottom an expression of keeping 
the priesthood holy. It was most strongly in- 
sisted upon." The centre, however, of the 
whole LeTitical system is rather the sacrifice 
than the priest, and the priest is for the sake of 
the sacrifice, as is distinctly brought out in this 
chapter, rather than the reverse. Certainly the 
sacrifice was earlier, and the necessity for it 
more fundamental. The symbolical holiness of 
the priesthood must therefore be considered as 
an essential requirement in order to their ofiFer- 
ing of acceptable sacrifices. Lange thus ana- 
lyzes the chapter: "a. In relation to the con- 
duct of the priest, vers. 3-9. 6. In relation to 
the conduct of the laity, vers. 1016. c. In 
relation to the coaditlon of the sacrificial ani- 
mals, and especially to the fact that everything 
defective was excluded, vers. 17-25 ; but also 
that every proper offering vras to be offered to 
the Lord in the right way, or to be eaten as a 
thank-offering, vers. 26-33." 

The chapter consists of three Divine commu- 
nications, all given to Moses, the first (vers. 
1-16) to be communicated to Aaron and his sons, 
prescribing under what conditions the priests 
are not to touch the offerings (1-9), and who 
beside the priests might partake of them (10-16) ; 
the second (17-25) is to be communicated not 
only to Aaron, but unto all the children of 
Israel, determining the quality of the victims ; 
while the third (26-33) is to Moses alone, pre- 
scribing certain conditions to be observed with 
all victims, and concluding the chapter. 

Vers. 1-9. For his view of the diflBcult passage 
In ver. 2, Lange refers to his translation, which 
runs thus : that they profane not my holy 
name — even they, virho have it in charge 
to keep holy for Me," thus referring the 
relative T^^ to the name. Other commenta- 
tors refer it to the holy things of the chil- 
dren of Israel, as in the A. V., LXX. and 
Vulg. (Rosenmiiller, Knobel, Kaliach, Murphy, 
Keil, Clark, etc.). The sense of the whole verse 
is certainly that the priests should not profane 
the holy gifts of the people by approaching them 
when themselves in a condition unlawful for 
priestly ministrations. The expression sepa- 
rate themselves from the holy things is 
clearly to be understood as meaning under the 
circumstances mentioned below. " 1J.^i7 with 
jp, to keep away, separate one's self from any- 
thing, i. e. not to regard or treat them as on a 
par with unconsecrated things." Keil. The 
Divine acceptance of the sacrifices was expressed 
by the priests' eating certain parts of them as 
the representatives of God. These were allowed 
to be eaten by those who were permanently dis- 
qualified by physical defects from offering the 
sacrifices (xxi. 22) ; but if consumed by those 
in a state of uncleanness, would be a profanation 
of the name of the Lord. The prohibition ex- 
tends not only to the eating, but to the touching 
them at all. Ver. 3. Shall be cut off from 
my presence is considered by Rosenmiiller 
and others as equivalent to the expression " shall 
be cut off from the midst of his people." A bet- 
ter interpretation (Knobel, Clark) is that it 



means : " shall be excluded from the sanctuary" 
— 'deprived of his priestly office. Lange, how- 
ever, interprets it that " the penalty of death is 
pronounced upon every one of the priestly family 
who approaches the holy things in a state of 
uncleanness, whether it be to offer or to eat the 
priestly sacrificial food." But he afterwards 
adds : " With the positive death penalty is con- 
nected at the same time a. mysterious destiny 
of death, which Jehovah reserves to Himself. 
The legislation has as yet no idea of the ruder 
forms of desecration of the sacrifice in the future 
as e. g. 1 Sam. ii. 12 sqq." This was the pe- 
nalty attached to the violation of any of the pre- 
cepts in this paragraph. The uncleannesses 
mentioned in vers. 4-6 have already been treated 
in their appropriate places. They are only 
mentioned here as showing that they excluded 
the priest from contact with holy things. Vers. 
6, 7, prescribe for the priest, as for the people 
in similar cases, the simplest forms of purifica- 
tion, and when these are observed, limit the 
time of the uncleanness to the going down of the 
sun. In accordance with tbe considerate cha- 
racter of the Divine legislation, it then allows 
him to eat of the sacrifice, because it is his 
food. In ver. 8 the eating of that which had 
not been properly slain, and was therefore still 
contaminated with the blood, is forbidden with 
especial emphasis to the priests whose office was 
to make atonement wiih the blood. This had 
already been forbidden to all the people (xi. 39, 
40) with but a slight penalty for transgression. 
Here the transgression for the priest comes 
under the heavier sentence of ver. 3. Calvin 
notes that such a special prohibition was needed 
lest the priests might think themselves, in virtue 
of their office, exempt from the laws binding 
upon the rest of the people. Ver. 9. Lest 
they bear sin for it, and die therefore, 
gives the penalty in general of a priestly ne- 
glect to keep God's ordinance, but is not 
necessarily to be understood of the penalty for 
the breach of each particular precept mentioned. 
The command here, as everywhere, is made to 
rest upon the consideration, I the LORD do 
sanctify them. 

Vers. 10-16. This forms the second part of 
the first Divine communication, and prescribes 
who beside the priests themselves might or might 
not eat of the holy things. It has nothing to do 
with the most holy things which could be eaten 
only by the priests themselves. "The "11 is 
the stranger relatively ; accordingly those who 
are not Israelites, not Levites, not relatives; 
here, those who are not priests. He might not 
eat of the holy food of the offerings, however 
near he might stand to the priest as a neighbor, 
or a day laborer; but on the other hand, the 
purchased slave, since he had bersome by cir- 
cumcision an Israelite and one of the household 
of the priest, might certainly eat of it, together 
with those born in the priest's house. And here 
again the house appears in its full theocratic signifi- 
cance. (Comp. Com. on Matt., p. 14t).) It re- 
sults from this, that the married daughter of 
a priest is excluded ; she belonged to another 
house (if it were a priestly house, she might of 
course eat there with them). Her right revives 



166 



LEVITICUS. 



again, however, if she cornea back to her father's 
house as a childless widow or divorced ; but if 
she had children, she formed with the children 
another bouse. If one who had no right ate of 
the holy things by mistake, he must make resti- 
tution to the priest for what he had eaten, and 
add a fifth part thereto. "The verse refers only 
to something unimportant, for in the case of 
greater things he was commanded, moreover, to 
offer a trespass oifering (oh. v. 15)." Knobel. 
The difference is in this, that here the subject is 
the transgression of eating the priestly portion 
of the heave offering ; there, of heedless injury 
done to the sanctuary in regard to the portion 
hallowed to Jehovah." [It seems more proba- 
ble that the case here referred to is exactly 
included under that in v. 15, 16, and that the 
trespass offering is not expressly mentioned here 
because it is only necessary to show that this 
case comes under the category of those for which 
the trespass offering was required. Calvin well 
observes that this prohibition was necessary to 
prevent the "holy things being regarded as 
common food." — F. G.] " Here too the law is 
led back to I the LORD do sanctify them. 
The history of David (1 Sam. xxi.) and the New 
Testament explanation of it (Matt. xii. 3) show 
that necessity provided exceptions to this rule. 
But the rule rests upon the truth that religion 
must be kept holy, in the strongest sense, even 
in its sacrifices, otherwise guilt will accumulate 
upon the people who profess the religion (ver. 
16). When deceit is practised against Jehovah 
in any way, e.g. by feigned fasts, by asceticism, 
joined with secret sins, by fanatic faith joined 
with a life of plunder, the manliness itself of 
the natural man is buried more and more, and 
the intercourse of the people loses more and more 
of its saving salt of moral truth — not to speak 
of the refining fire of the spirit of the new birth. 
— When they eat their holy things. — That 
which as holy things belonged to them no long- 
er." Lange. On the meaning of the last clause 
see Textual Note 10. The provision in regard 
to the purchased servant in ver. 11 is of impor- 
tance as showing how completely such servants 
became identified with the house of their mas- 
ters. The command was given only about a 
year after the Exodus when the tribes of Israel 
doubtless included a large number of the cir- 
cumcised descendants of the servants of the 
patriarchs; but there can be no stronger iden- 
tification than is here given in allowing the pur- 
chased servants of the priests from whatever 
nation, in contradistinction to a servant hired 
from any other family in Israel, to eat of the 
priestly portion of the holy things. 

Vers. 17-26. Moses is directed to convey this 
communication unto all the children of 
Israel, because it was imnortant to have them 
all entirely familiar with the conditions neces- 
sary to an acceptable victim. They were to 
know all the laws ; but their attention would 
naturally be more fixed upon those which were 
immediately addressed to them. The law in 
regard to the victims necessarily applies to all 
cases, whether they were offered by persons of 
the house of Israel, or of the strangers 
(ver. 18), because it prescribes what was re- 
quired in the victim itself in order to its accept- 



ance. The burnt offering is first treated of 
(vers. 18-20), and then the peace offering. Vow 
and free-will offerings might be made of either 
kind of sacrifice ; but the regulations concern- 
ing the victim differed. If it was a burnt offer- 
ing, it must be a male, as well as v7ithout 
blemish, according to the. law of the burnt 
offering in i. 3, 10; if it was a peace offering, 
there was no law concerning the sex of the vic- 
tim ; but it was still required (ver. 21) there 
shall be no blemish therein. The rigidness 
of the law was, however, somewhat relaxed in 
case of the free-will offering (ver. 23), so that 
for this purpose a victim was allowed to have 
some thing superfluous or laclzing in his 
parts. For ttie distinction between the vow 
and the free-will offering, see Com. on vii. 15. 
Ttie other kind of peace offering, the thank 
offering, is not mentioned here; being the high- 
est of all, it of course required the perfect vic- 
tim. Among the Gentiles also a sense of natural 
fitness generally required that the victim should 
be integrus and tsXeIoq. See abundant references 
in Rosenmiiller and Knobel here, in Outram L. 
I. c. 9, and Bochart Hieroz. I. L. 11. o. 46. Ver. 
24 absolutely prohibits the offering in sacrifice 
of any castrated animals. See Textual Note. 
Lange: "The minute, precise definition of this 
defect requires the perfect fitness for breeding 
in the male animals, without which it lost in a 
great degree its signification of a worthy resig- 
nation." In ver. 25 the priests are forbidden 
to accept even from a stranger's hand victims 
marked with any of the defects that have been 
enumerated, because their corruption is in 
them, i. e. because these deftots render them 
unfit for sacrifice. The bread of your God 
" must be derived from a perfect victim to rep- 
resent that which is acceptable to God, which 
in moral things is perfect righteousness." Mur- 
phy. 

Vers. 26-33. The final communication made 
to Moses alone. Lange: "Even in the case of 
sacrificial animals without blemish, there yet 
appear particular conditions of acceptableness 
for the offerers. First, the victim must be eiotht 
days old ; it must be kept seven days under 
the dam to enjoy the full pleasure of existence." 
See the same law in Ex. xxii. 30 in regard to 
firstlings. " The reason for this was, that the 
young animal had not attained to a mature and 
self-sustained life during the first week of its 
existence." Keil. It is noticeable that the age 
at which the animal became admissible for sac- 
rifice is the same as that at which man was 
received into covenant relation by circumcision. 
At this age, too, the animal first began to be 
eatable, and this fact doubtless had its signifi- 
cance in the laws for the symbolical food of 
Jehovah. Similar restrictions of age were in 
use among the Romans, Pliny Nat. Hist. viii. 77. 
The prohibition in ver. 28 of killing both dam 
and offspring on the same day is analogous to 
the thrice repeated precept: "Thou shalt not 
seethe a kid in its mother's milk" (Ex. xxiii. 
19; xxxiv. 26; Deut. xiv. 21), and rests upon 
the same principle as the prohibition to take 
from a bird's neat the mother together with the 
young (Deut. xxii. 6, 7). All these precepts 
were of an educational character and imposed 



CHAP. XXII. 1-33. 



167 



upon the Israelites the duty of keeping sacred, 
even among the lower animals, the relation 
which God has established between parent and 
offspring. The law could not have been for the 
sake of the brute, but was altogether for man's 
sake ; be must not allow himself to violate the 
finer susceptibilities implanted in his nature, 
even when mere utilitarian reasoning conld see 
no use in the command. The Targ. Jon. pre- 
faces the command with the words: "As our 
Father is merciful in heaven, so be ye merciful 
on earth." The connection here applies the 
precept especially to killing for sacrifice ; but it 
is noticeable that the word used is the more 
general Dnttf, as if the command was meant to 
apply to all killing whatever. In ver. 30 the 
law for eat'ng the thank offering on the same 
day on which it is presented is repeated from 
vii. 15. Such repetitions, if not of necessity, 
are yet at least highly desirable in a lengthened 
code of laws. The conclusion, vers. 31-33, is 
like that of chapters xviii. and xix., and rests 
upon ihe fact that He who gives the commands 
ia Jehovah — Jehovah who sanctifies them, and 
who has brought them up out of the land of 
Egypt. Lange : " I am Jehovah is said 
again to seal this command, and the following 
explanation shows plainly the educational view: 
that Jehovah seeks to bring them up to be a 
holy people of God by means of these fixed 
directions. The educational idea is negative : 
only certainly no kind of dishonor, or deceit, or 
faithlessness is allowable in matters of reli- 
gion." 

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL. 

I. "The symbolical and definite thought of 
the whole chapter has the highest meaning for 
every form of religion, but particularly for the 
Christian Church. It seeks a faultless, normal 
priesthood, a priesthood which does not darken, 
but glorifies religion, the service of God. When 
we think of the sad fact that priests have often 
altogether, or in a great degree, corrupted their 
religious community, or are now corrupting it, 
that so many spiritual and hierarchical cripples 
of every kind darken and disfigure so many 
congregations, the contents of our section will 
give us a strong witness against a laxity and 
untruth which is guilty especially of the corrup- 
tion of the religious life. The church training 
was to be before all things self-training, the 
ladder of the churchly life. How many reflec- 
tions in regard to the choice of the theological 
profession, the tests, the ordinations, and the 
ecclesiastical visitations belong to this chapter. 
Also the family circumstances of spiritual per- 
sons are here estimated according to their sig- 
nificance." Lange. 

II. The relation of the priests to the people is 
here again distinctly brought out. They were 
under precisely the same laws as others, became 
unclean from the same causes, and were to be 
purified in the same way ; in short, they were 
fully citizens of the commonwealth of Israel. 



But inasmuch as they had also special duties 
toward God, they were incapacitated for their 
performance by this uncleanness. 

III. The identification of the household with 
its head, always strongly marked in the Hebrew 
polity, appears in the case of the priest with 
especial clearness. The family is the unit of 
the Hebrew commonwealth and the basis of the 
Mosaic legislation. On this see Maine's AncipM 
Law. 

IV. The law of the conditions of the accepta- 
ble victim was precisely the same for the Israel- 
ite and the stranger. The law thus intimates 
not obscurely that in their approach to God .all 
men stand on precisely the same footing. 
" There is no distinction of persons." 

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL. 

Lange: "Chap. xxii. is concerned with the 
pure conduct of the priests face to face with the 
sacrifice of the congregation ; observances of 
cleanness of the most varied kind, and especially 
of sacrifices according to their spiritual mean- 
ing." 

As symbolical cleanness was required of thosn 
who partook of the sacrifices which typified the 
death of Christ, so is spiritual cleanness neces- 
sary in those who feed upon the memorial of 
the same. See 1 Cor. xi. 28, etc. Wordsworth. 
The whole house of the priest was sanctified 
through him to partake of the holy things ; so 
is the whole house of the Great High Priest 
sanctified through Him, even His body, the 
blessed company of all faithful people. 

But to be partakers of the table of this Great 
High Priest men must not be merely sojourners 
in His house, or serving Him as hired servants 
for gain, but truly identified with Him, and 
forming an actual part of His household. Words- 
worth. 

Again and again the law insists that the vic- 
tim for the acceptable sacrifice must be without 
blemish. Whatever is offered to God must be 
of the best; especially must the offering of the 
heart be perfect and complete. Christ Himself 
is described as having offered Himself " without 
spot," and the Church which He presents unto 
Himself must "be holy and without blemish." 
Bph. V. 27. 

By forbidding the Israelites to kill on the 
same day the dam and its offspring God taught 
them, and through them the church in all ages, 
to be merciful ; not only merciful to those who 
can understand and appreciate it, but to exer- 
cise this virtue for its own sake — to be merciful 
always and everywhere, even as our Father in 
heaven is merciful. 

Calvin draws from the often repeated and 
here extended precept that the sacrifice must be 
perfect and without blemish, this lesson: that 
whatever we offer to God must be whole-hearted 
and true. We cannot serve God and mammon. 
He applies this to prayers in which the heart is 
not engaged, and a multitude of other things in 
which man may undertake to offer an imperfect 
and divided, and tlverefore unacceptable service. 



168 



LEVITICUS. 



PART THIRD. 



Sanctification of the Feasts. 

holy the theocratic times and places, the feasts and their culttis, the most holy name 
of the covenant God and His holy land." — Lanoe. 

Chaps. XXIII.— XXV. 



FIRST SECTION. 
Of the Sabbaths and Annual Feasts. 

"The Holy Seasons, Laws of the Feasts. Sabbath, Easter, Pentecost, the Seventh New-Moon or Sabbath 
of the Year, the Day of Ato7iement and the Feast of Tabernacles." — Lanqe. 

Chap. XXIII. 1-44. 



PRELIMINARY NOTE. 



The following, under Lange'a Exegetical, mny 
properly be placed here. " The foundation of 
these developed ordinances for the feasts has 
already presented itself in Ex. xx. 8-11 and xxxi. 
14" [add Ex. xxiii. 14-19; xxxiv. 21-26, and in 
regard to the Passover, the full account of its 
institution, Ex. xii. 3-27, 43-50,— P. G.] ; "the 
section, Num. xxviii, xxix., contains more spe- 
cific directions about the sacrifices which were 
(o be offered on the feast days." [The three 
great festivals are also described in Deut. xvi. 1- 
17. and the reading of the law required at the 
feast of tabernacles in the Sabbatical year, Deut. 
xxxi. 10-13. — F. G.]. "Here the treatment is 
of the organic appearance of the whole festivity 
of Israel in the unity of its collective holy feasts, 
with the ordinance of the festal cultus (" Feast- 
calendar," Knobel says, which is set aside by 
Keil) ; in the Book of Numbers the sacrifices are 
plainly specified as the requirements of the the- 
ocratic state, an indication that they were not 
the principal things in the ideas of the cultus. 

" Upon this important section the article Festc 
in Winer and others, is to be compared, as well 
as the rich literature in Knobel, p. 541, to which 
add Kranold, commentatio de anno Hebrseorum Ju- 
hilmo. Gottingse, Dietrich, 1838." [See also 
Philo vtpX T^g 'E^Sdfitjc: Baehb, Si/mboli.k hk. 
iv.; EwALD Alterthiimer ; Kalisch on Ex. xx., 
etc. ; MiCHAELis Laws of Moses, Art. 74-76, 194- 
201 ; BoOHABT, Hieroz. ; and the appropriate 
articles in Smith's Bible Diet., Kitto's Cyclop, 
of Bib. lit., Hbrzoo's Real-Encykl., and the vari- 
ous literature cited in these. — F. G.]. 

" The Hebrew festivals are to be regarded es- 
pecially in a two- fold aspect: 1. The holy sea- 
sons (Vi\r\] nj;iD). 2. The ideas of the differ- 
ent feasts, the holy convocations (''K'^pp 



"The holy seasons are, according to their 
prevalent fundamental number, the number 
seven, collectively, memorial feasts of the cre- 
ation ; the Sabbath, as the seventh day ; Pente- 
cost, as the feast of the seventh week ; the se- 
venth new moon, with its following Day of 
atonement and feast of tabernacles, as the feast 
of the seventh mouth; the Sabbatical year, as 
the festival of the seven Sabbath years ; and the 
Praise year or year of Jubilee ; the 50th year, 
as the festival of the completed seven, the seven 
times seven, the prophetic festival of the new 
eternal festal season, (ch. xxv.). 

" Even through the single feasts the number 
seven runs again : seven days of unleavened 
bread, seven days in tabernacles, and no less in- 
deed is it reflected in the sevenfold number of 
the festal sacrifices. 

" The datum, however, from which the whole 
construction of the festal season proceeds, on 
which the whole building rests, is the datum of 
the typical deliverance of Israel (ver. 15). The 
line of feasts culminates indeed in a festival 
[Tabernacles, the last feast of the year] which 
plainly, as a symbol of the completed deliverance 
stands over against the [Passover as a symbol 
of the] beginning of deliverance." [From an- 
other point of view the Passover (which, as such, 
is not mentioned in this chapter) is generally 
regarded as a memorial of the deliverance from 
Egypt in its totality, and in its typical signifi- 
cance it points forward to the deliverance from 
sin through the death of Christ; and this again 
has its memorial in the Lord's Supper, pointing 
forward to the feast of the Lamb in heaven. The 
feast of tabernacles, on the other hand, was ex- 
pressly commemorative of the very temporary 
dwelling in booths (n'l3Q = huts made of 
branches; the DSD is to be distinguished from 



CHAP. XXIII. i-44. 



169 



the 7nx = tent, the comparatively permanent 
dwelling of the wilderness) see vers. 42, 43, and 
comp. Ex. xii. 37; xiii. 20.— F. G.]. * * * 

"With regard to the natural aspect of the Is- 
raelitish feasts, they are diTiJed into pre-Mosaio, 
Mosaic (for that the feasts here appointed belong 
to the original Mosaic legislation is adm tted 
by Knobel), and later feasts. 

" In the first class, however, can only be placed 
with certainty a tradition of the Sabbath, the 
feast of the new moon, and the harvest feast. 
Upon the heathen festal seasons see the full 
notes of Knobel, p. 537 sqq. 

" It is however in the highest degree note- 
worthy, that the Israelitish ordering of the feasts 
forms an unmistakable contrast to the heathen 
customs. At the time of the Spring feast the 
Jewish Easter was kept, which, in connection 
with its unleavened bread, expresses a very so- 
lemn meaning, and is not at all to be judged by 
the Christian Easier. At the time of the autum- 
nal equinox, however, when the Syrians (and 
the Egyptians) mourned over the death of Ado- 
nis the summer sun (like the Germanic Baldur), 
the Jews kept their most joyful feast, and freely 
used the green branches of summer before they 
faded." [The contrast would bear to be even 
more strongly expressed, for the feast of Taber- 
nacles occurred more than a month later than 
the autumnal equinox. — F. G.]. " It was as if 
they had wished to celebrate the triumph of the 
theocratic spirit over the natural sadness for the 
death of beautiful nature ; as they certainly ac- 
cent the blessing of God and His judgment in 
this present life in contrast to the dark Egyp- 
tian necromancy with its prophecy inspired this 
side the grave, and in contrast to the melancholy 
cultus of the world of death beyond the grave. 

" As to the explanation of the apparently su- 
perfluous days in the seven day feasts, the eighth 
day of unleavened bread, and the eighth day of 
the feast of Tabernacles (a question which also 
concerns the 50th week of the 50th year as a year 
of Jubilee), it is certainly sufficient to say, that 
the festal close of such great days or weeks and 
years was to be particularly emphasized. (Comp. 
Knobel, p. 549). 

" The second Easter day as the feast of the 
first beginning of the harvest, the beginning of 
the barley harvest, the feast of the ears (Abib, 
ear month), corresponds to the completed wheat 
harvest which was celebrated at the feast of Ta- 
bernacles (later, Pentecost because fifty days 
were reckoned from Easter to its celebration), 
and both these harvest feasts, of the necessities 
of life and of the abundance of life, form a con- 
trast to the harvest feast of joy [feast of Taber- 
nacles] for the refreshing and comforting gifts 
of God, the fruit, the oil and the wine. 

"A strikingly isolated position is given to the 
feast of Pentecost between the other feasts. Since 
as the chief harvest feast it seems to be only a 
natural feast, there was sought, and later, there 
was also found, in addition to its natural aspect, 
a holy and theocratic aspect also, in that this 
feast has been described as the feast of the law 
(since Maimonides. See on the other hand Keil, 
p. 151") [Translation p. 444, note]. * * * 

" The increased sacrifices of the yearly feasts 
26 



must form a symbolical expression of the self- 
surrender of the nation to Jehovah, renewed by 
the feasts, as it was elevated by the thanksgiving 
for His gifts, — the ever new gifts of creation, the 
ever new gifts of atonement and of deliverance. 

"That which makes feasts to be feasts is as 
follows : 1) They are high seasons appointed by 
God, seasons of the fulfilment of Divine promise 
and of human hope. 2) Seasons in which the 
union of God and man, as well as of men with 
one another, and thus fellowship with God and 
brotherhood with man was celebrated. 3) Sea- 
sons in which nature, together with man, ap- 
pears in the dress of theocratic sanctificalion. 
4) In which the highest happiness of human 
fellowship arises from the highest joyfulness of 
sacrifice to Jehovah. 6) Seasons which have a 
great sequence, and form a chain from the feast 
of deliverance in the night of judgment and of 
fear (Passover) to the feast of holy freedom and 
joy (Tabernacles)." Lange. 

In regard to the times of the festivals, it is to 
be remembered that God in His dealings with 
man always shows a tender regard for the na- 
ture with which He has constituted man. The 
Hebrew festivals were therefore so arranged as 
to combine the most important religious memo- 
rials and types with the occasions of national 
and social need. The Passover was the greatest 
of all the annual festivals of the Hebrews, and 
was the only one resting upon a distinct histo- 
rical and miraculous event, and the only one, 
too, the neglect of which was accompanied with 
the penalty of excision (Num. ix. 13). The ob- 
ligation to observe it was so urgent upon every 
adult circumcised Israelite, that alone of all the 
feasts it had attached to it a second observance 
at the same time in the following month for those 
who were prevented from keeping it by absence 
on a journey, or by defilement from contact with 
a dead body — the only causes which interfered 
with the eating of the paschal lamb. Histori- 
cally, it was far more generally observed than 
either of the other festivals. Attached to this, 
and often included in the general name of Pass- 
over, was the week of unleavened bread ; but 
the strictness of the command for the observance 
of the Passover itself did not apply to this. See 
Deut. xvi. 7. The Passover was celebrated in 
the month Abib or Nisan ; and this month, as the 
month of the great national deliverance from 
Egypt, became the first of the ecclesiastical year. 
Just at this time occurred the beginning of the 
barh'y harvest, and the festival for this was ac- 
cordingly so associated with the Passover, that a 
sheaf of the first-fruits was to be waved before 
the Lord on the morrow after the Sabbath. The 
time of the feast of weeks, or Pentecost, was de- 
termined by the Passover, from which it was 
distant just fifty-two days, as we still reckon from 
Good-Friday to Whitsunday ; for seven weeks 
complete, or forty-nine days were reckoned from 
"the morrow after the Sabbath," or the second 
day after the eating of the Paschal lamb itself, 
making fifty-onC days, and then the feast was to 
be held on the following day. The symbolism 
of the sevens is therefore to be sought rather in 
the means of computing the time than in the re- 
lation of the festivals lo one another. Pentecost 
occurred at the close of the grain harvest, and 



170 



LEVITICUS. 



was celebrated as a thanksgiving, with especial 
liberality to the poor and needy in remembrance 
that thelsraelites themselves had been bondmen 
in Egypt. (Deut. xvi. 9-12). This feast con- 
tinued but a single day, and its distinguishing 
rite was the waving before the Lord of two ha- 
vened loaves prepared from the first fruits of the 
wheat. 

With the coming in of the seventh month the 
civil year began. Of the existence of this year 
as distinguished from the ecclesiastical year, 
there can be no reasonable doubt. It has iudeed 
been called in question ; " but the form of ex- 
pression in Ex. xii. 2, the commencement of the 
Sabbatical and Jubilee years in the month 
Ethanim, or Tisri, the tradition of both the rab- 
binical and Alexandrian Jews, and the fact that 
the new moon festival of Tisri is the only one — 
not excepting that of Nisan — which is distin- 
guished by peculiar observance, seem to bear 
sufficient testimony to a more ancient computa- 
tion of time than that instituted by Moses in 
connection with the Passover. Another argu- 
ment is furnished by Ex. xxiii. 16." Clark. 
Accordingly, as generally in all times and among 
all nations, the New Year was ushered in by a 
special observance. Among the Hebrews this 
took the form of "the Feast of Trumpets." This 
was marked by " an holy convocation ;" but at- 
tendance upon it was not obligatory. On the 
tenth day of the same month occurred the solemn 
fast of the Day of Atonement already treated in 
ch. xvi. Both these continued but a single day. 
On the fifteenth day of the same month (which 
was thus far more marked by religious solemni- 
ties than any other), began the Feast of Taber- 
nacles, continuing for seven days with "an holy 
convocation" following on the eighth day. Tlie 
attendance obligatory at this would naturally 
have led to a large presence of the people on 
the Day of Atonement, only five days before. 
It was the great harvest festival at the close of 
the agricultural season, corresponding to our 
Thanksgiving day, and was very joyfully cele- 
brated. It was also connected with the theo- 
cratic system by the injunction to dwell in 
booths in memory of the Exodus from Egypt. 

With all these, and pervading them, was the 
weekly Sabbath, a remembrancer in its recur- 
rence of God's rest from the work of creation 
(Ex. XX. 11), and in its determination to the 
seventh day of the week of the deliverance from 
Egypt (Deut. v. 15). 

In regard to (he detail of these several festi- 
vals, see the Exegetioal. 

The Jews were prohibited by the law from all 
work only on the fifty-two weekly Sabbaths and 
on the Day of Atonement ; they were also pro- 
hibited from all servile work on the days of holy 
convocation, vie. two each in connection with 
the Passover and the Feast of Tabernacles, one 
at the Feast of Pentecost, and one at the New 
Moon of Tisri, the seventh month. There is no 
prescription in the law in regard to cessation 
of work on the other New Moons; but from 
Amos viii. 5 they appear to have been, at least 
in later times, observed as Sabbaths. These 
would make in all seventy days, which would be 
reduced somewhat by the occurrence of some of 



the other days, and especially of the festival 
Sabbaths, one year with another, upon the 
weekly Sabbath ; but on several of these days 
the prohibition extended only to servile work, 
and the feasts were probably largely used like 
European fairs, for purposes of trade. See a 
slightly different computation in Miohaelis, 
Law», Art. 201. 

The three greater festivals, Passover, Pente- 
cost and Tabernacles, were required to be ob- 
served by the assembling of the whole adult 
male population at the place of the sanctuary. 
This was doubtless fully carried out during the 
life in the wilderness, but does not appear to 
have been ever completely observed in subse- 
quent history. All these festivals were, how- 
ever, attended by large numbers, and the de- 
vouter part of the people went up to the sanctu- 
ary at least once in the year (1 Sam. i. 3, 21 ; 
Luke ii. 41, etc.), which appears to have been 
most commonly at the Passover. The women 
were not obliged, but were allowed to attend, 
and frequently did so, as well as partake of the 
Paschal lamb. 

Besides these annual feasts, there were the 
Sabbatical years, when the land was required to 
lie fallow, and all fruits were common property. 
This command could hardly have been complied 
with at all until after the return from the cap- 
tivity (see 2 Chron. xxxvi. 21), and the exist- 
ence of such an unobserved law is a strong 
proof of the genuineness of the Mosaic legisla- 
tion. There was also the Tear of Jubilee, the 
fiftieth year, which as it afi'ected the tenure of 
land that had been sold, is likely to have been 
more continuously observed. It certainly was 
recognized in the days of Jeremiah (Jer. xxxii. 
6-15). On the question whether it had conti- 
nued to be observed in the intervening time, see 
Maimonides and Ewald in the affirmative, Mi- 
ohaelis (Laws, Art. 76) and Winer (sub voce), 
who are in doubt, and Kranold (p. 80) and Hup- 
frtld (pt. iii., p. 20), who confidently deny that 
the provisions for this year ever came into actual 
operation. 

Precisely what was meant by an holy con- 
vocation we have no means of ascertaining, 
except from the word itself Doubtless in the 
wilderness life it would have meant a general 
assembling of the people for the purposes of the 
day, and the same sense may be held to apply 
to the three great festivals when all malps were 
required to appear at the place of the sanctuary, 
but this cannot be true, after the settlement ia 
Canaan, of the weekly Sabbath and of the Day 
of Atonement. Probably there were on these 
days gatherings for religious edification accom- 
panied with rest from work in the various towns 
and villages throughout the land, just as there 
were in the Synagogues after the return from 
the Captivity. There were also probably such 
gatherings at the time of the Convocations of the 
greater festivals of those who did not go up to 
tne Sanctuary. 

Besides the weekly Sabbaths, there were in 
all seven Convocations in the year : the first and 
last days of the feasts of unleavened bread, and 
of Tabernacles, the days of Pentecost and of 
Atonement, and the Feast of Trumpets. 



CHAP. XXIII. 1-44. 171 



Chaptee XXIIl. 1-44. 

1, 2 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, 
and say unto them, (Jonoeming the feasts of the Lord, which ye shall proclaim to 
he holy convocations, even these are my feasts [unto them, The appointed times of 
the Lord which ye shall proclaim as holy convocations, these are my appointed 
times']. 

3 Six days shall work be done : but the seventh day is the sabbath of rest,' an holy 
convocation ; ye shall do no work therein : it is the sabbath of the Lord in all 
your dwellings. 

4 These* are the feasts of the Lord, eoen [These appointed times' of the Lord are] 
holy convocations, which ye shall proclaim in their seasons [appointed times']. 

5, 6 In the fourteenth rfat/* of the first month at even is the Lord's passover. And 
on the fifteenth day of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread unto the 

7 Lord : seven days ye must eat unleavened bread. In the firsfr.day ye shall have 

8 an holy convocation : ye shall do no servile' work therein. But ye shall ofier an 
ofiering made by fire unto the Lord seven days : in the seventhvday is an holy con- 
vocation : ye shall do no servile work therein. 

■ 9, 10 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, 
and say unto them, When ye be come into the land which I give unto you, and 
shall reap the harvest thereof, then ye shall bring a sheaf of the firstfruits of your 

11 harvest unto the priest : and he shall wave the sheaf before the Lord, to be ac- 

12 cepted for you : on the morrow after the sabbath the priest shall wave it. And ye 
shall ofier that day when ye wave the sheaf an he lamb [a ram'] without blemish 

13 of the first year for a burnt ofiering unto the Lord. And the meat ofiering [ob- 
lation'] thereof shall he two tenth deals of fine fiour mingled with oil, an offering 
made by fire unto the Lord jor a sweet savour : and the' drink offering thereof 

TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL. 

1 Ver. 2. The word nj?1D according to all authorities means primarily ajized, appointed time (Ggii. xxi. 2 ; Jer, viii. 7, 

etc.) and it is so translated in ver. 4 in their seaaovs. Thence it came to he used for the festivals occurring at set times (Zech. 
viii. 19). Besides these meanings the word has the divided signification of the assembly which came together at these 
times, and then the assembly or congregation generally (whence the expret-s'on Tabernacle of congregation), and then also 
the place of the assembly. The derivative significations are here out of the question. It occurs in this chapter five times, 
and is not elsewhfre used in Lev. except in the phrase Tabernacle of cimgregation. With the same exception, it is uni- 
formly translated time or aeason (set or appointed) in Gen, and Ex., and generally in Num. The translation four times by 
feaets in this chap, is therefore exceptional and supported only by a few instances in Num. It is bettor therefore to con- 
form the translation here to the usage. There is a difficulty with either translation in the &ct that a lll©ly convoca- 
tion was not proclaimed on the Day of Atonement ;— that is broadly applied to all, which was strictly true of nearly all 
the particulars mentioned. But/ea«te labora under the further disadvantage that the Day of atonement was a fiist. 

' Ver. 3. The translation necessarily fails to convey the full force of the Hob. tin3E^ TS^ » fery strong expression 
used only of the days and years of rest appointed in the Mosaic legislation. 

' Ver. 4. The Heb. haB nHs, the Sam. prefixes 1. According to Houbigant the former refers to what has preceded, 
the latter to what follows. In this case the Sam. reading is preferable. , 

* Ver. S. The missing DV is supplied in 15 MSS. and the Sam. 

s Ver. 7. " mij? HJxSd, occupation of a work, signifies labor at some definite ocenpation, e. j, the bnilding of the 
tabernacle, Ex. xxxv. 24 ; 'xxxvi. 1, 3; hence ocenpation in connection with trade or one's social calling, such as agricul- 
ture, handicraft, etc. ; whilst TIOkSd is the performance of any kind of work, e. g., kindling fire for cooking food (Ex. 

T T ; 
xxxv. 2, 3)." Keil. 

• Ver. 10. IDJ'. The A V. is probably right in translating here sMaf, which according to the lexicographers is the 

primary meaning of the word. See Dent. xxiv. 19 ; Bnth H. 7, 15, etc. It is so translated by the LXX., Vu)g., and Luther, 
as well as by Gesen., FUrst, Lee, and others. On the other hand Josephus (Ant. iii. 10, 6), and the Mishna, tak« it in its de. 
rivod and more usual sense of an Omer, to., of the flour frcim the grain, offered with oil pud frankincense as an oblation. 
Perhaps in later times the omer of the fiour was substituted for thu original sheaf of the grain. 

' Ver. 12. i2'33. See Textual Note 6 on iii. 7. Here the sex is indicated. 

8 Ver. 13. ^jinjD. See Textual Note 2 on ii. 1. The pronoun is masc. with reference to the sex of the sacrifice. 

8 Ver. 13. The A. V. here and in the previous clause substitutes the def. art. for the masc. pronoun. The Heb. tell 
rl3DJ i8 pointed in accordance with the l^ri OO J which is also the Sam. reading. 



172 LEVITICUS. 



14 shall be of wiue, the fourth part of an hin. And ye shall eat neither bread, nor 
parched corn [grain], nor green ears, until the selfsame day that ye have brought 
an offering unto your God : it shall be a statute for ever throughout your genera- 
tions in all your dwellings. 

15 And ye shall count unto you from the morrow after the sabbath, from the day 
that ye brought the sheaf of the wave offering ; seven sabbaths'" shall be complete : 

16 even unto the morrow after the seventh sabbath" shall ye number fifty days ; and 

17 ye shall offer a new meat offering [oblation'] unto the Lord. Ye shall bring out 
of your habitations two wave loaves" of two tenth deals : they shall be of fine flour ; 

18 they shall be baken with leaven ; they are the firstfruits unto the Loed. And ye 
shall offer with the bread seven lambs [rams'] without blemish of the first year, 
and one young bullock, and two [full-grown"] rams : they shall be for a burnt of- 
fering unto the Loed, with their meat offering [oblation*], and their drink offer- 

19 ings, -even an offering made by fire, of sweet savour unto the Loed. Then ye shall 
sacrifice one kid [buck"'] of the goats for a sin offering, and two lambs [rams'] of 

20 the first year for a sacrifice of peace offerings. And the priest shall wave them 
with the bread of the firstfruits for a wave offering before the Loed, with the two 

21 lambs [rams'] : they shall be holy to the Loed for the priest. And ye shall pro- 
claim on the selfsame day, that it may be an holy convocation unto you : ye shall 
do no servile work therein : it shall be a statute for ever in all your dwellings 
throughout your generations. 

22 And when ye reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not make clean riddance 
of the corners of thy field when thou reapest, neither shalt thou gather any glean- 
ing of thy harvest : thou shalt leave them unto the poor, and to the stranger: I am 
the Loed your God. 

23, 24 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying. Speak unto the children of Israel, 
saying, In the seventh month, in the first day of the month, shall ye have a sab- 
bath [a sabbath rest'*], a memorial of blowing of trumpets,'* an holy convocation. 

25 Ye shall do no servile work therein, : but ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto 
the Lord. 

26, 27 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Also on the tenth day of this seventh 
month there shall he [only the tenth of this seventh month is'*] a day of atonement : 
it shall be an holy convocation unto you ; and ye shall afflict your souls, and offer 

28 an offering made by fire unto the Loed. And ye shall do no work in that same 
day : for it m a day of atonement, to make an atonement for you before the Loed 

29 your God. For whatsoever soul it be that shall not be afflicted in that same day, 

30 he shall be cut off from among his people. And whatsoever soul it be that doeth 
any work in that same day, the same soul will I destroy from among his people. 

31 Ye shall do no manner of work : it shall be a statute for ever throughout your ge- 

10 Ter. 15. Some critics (Kcil, Clark, aDd others) would render here and in xxt. 8 geven weeks, in accordance with the 
use of nSiy iu the Talmud, and of o-a)3/3aToc in the N. T. The word seems to be used here, however, rather by a figure of 

speech as in xxT. 2, 4, etc., and the definite meaning of week to be of later origin. The n'o'DO on which Keil relies, 
agree"? with the main idea. 

" Ver. 17. The Sam. here supplies the word Hlvn which is uniformly translated cakei in the A. V , and may indicatt 
the kind of bread used. 

12 Ver. 18 DTK indicatps strong and full-grown rams of maturer age than the D''!£'33 of the first clause. The Sam. 
3 MSS. and LXX. add " without blemish." 

w Ver. 19. U^jy-yy'i,. See Textual Note a on iv. 23. 

" Ver. 24. I'lnaK' here stands by itself without the n3^ nsed in ver. 3. When thus used by itself Eosenmllller sayi 
" do lis tantnm feriis dicitur, qnse non in septimum hebdomadis diem, qui t\2W, ceasatio ab opere icar' efoxV dicitnr, in- 
cidit." It should therefore be rendered by another term, and the one suggested by Clark is adopted. 

15 Ver. 24. There is nothing in the Heb. corresponding to the words oftrumrets, which should therefore be in italics. 
The Heb. reads simply n^.l-|n [n Jt = a inemorial of a joyful noise. T\^i,-\r\ is frequently used in couuection with va- 
rious kinds of trumpets and other instruments (Num. xxxi. 6 ; Lev. xxv. 9 ; Ps. cl. 5), denoting the clangor of those instra- 
""*"..!' „"* '' '" ™ I'l't^as frequently used without reference to an instrument of any kind (Num. xxiii.21-. Job \iii. 21|; 
xxxiii. 26 ; Ezra iii. 11, 13, e(c.). The silver trumpets of the temple were however blown on all the festivals, including the 
now moons (Num. x. 10), and there is no reason to question the tradition that on " the feast of trumpets " horns or cornets 
dT^maimtub^^^ '^ generally throughout the land. The LXX. has iiv7,ix6,7vvov a-a\iriyyo^y, the Vulg. memoriaU 

10 VcT. 27. ^N is a particle of limitation, and thus in this case of emphasis. It is better to omit the italicised words 
there shall be, and translate according to the usual construction of a Heb. clause ending with NIPI. 



CHAP. XXIII. 1-44. 173 



32 Derations iu all your dwellings. It shall be unto you a sabbath of rest,' and ye shall 
afflict your souls ; in the ninth day of the month at even," from even unto even, 
shall ye celebrate your sabbath [your rest'']. 

33, 34 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, 
saying. The fifteenth day of this seventh month shall be the feast of tabernacles fov 

35 seven days unto the Lord. On the first day shall be an holy convocation : ye shall 

36 do no servile work therein. Seven days ye shall ofier an ofiering made by fire unto 
the Lord : on the eighth day shall be an holy convocation unto you ; and ye shall 
ofier an offering made by fire unto the Lord : it ia a solemn assembly,'' and ye 
shall do no servile work therein. 

37 These are the feasts [appointed times'] of the Lord, which ye shall proclaim to 
be holy convocations, to offer an offering made by fire unto the Lord, a burnt of- 
fering, and a meat offering [an oblation*], a sacrifice, and drink offerings, every 

38 thing upon his day : beside the sabbaths of the Lord, and beside your gifts, and 
beside all your vows, and beside all your freewill offerings, which ye give unto the 
Lord. 

39 Also [Only''] in the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when ye have gathered 
[at your gathering in™] in the fruit of the land, ye shall keep a feast unto the Lord 
seven days : on the first day shall be a sabbath, and on the eighth day shall be a 

40 sabbath. And ye shall take you on the first day the boughs [fruit''] of goodly 
trees,'"' branches of palm trees, and the boughs of thick trees,^ and willows of the 

41 brook ; and ye shall rejoice before the Lord your God seven days. And ye shall 
keep it a feast unto the Lord seven days in the year. It shall be a statute for ever 

42 in your generations : ye shall celebrate it in the seventh month. Ye shall dwell in 

43 booths seven days ; all that are Israelites born shall dwell in booths : that your 
generations may know that I made the children of Israel to dwell in booths, when 
I brought them out of the land of Egypt : I am the Lord your God. 

44 And Moses declared unto the children of Israel the feasts [appointed times'] of 
the Lord. 

" Ver. 32. The word aiVS = at mm ia omitted in one MS., LXX., and Vnlg. 

18 Ver. 32. The margin of the A. V. is more correct than the text. The Hob. is D3P|E' ?n3tyn- 

» Ver. 86. rnSi> is a word the signification of which has been much questioned. The translation of the LXX, ei6&l6r 
liTTi. meaning the'doZ of the festival, is defended by FUrst, and adopted by Patriclt ; so also Theodoret, referring not only 
to this feast, but to the whole cycle of feasts, to tj^os ™v ioprav, and so also Keil. Michaelis, using an Arabic ftymology, 
interprets it otpreidng mt the grapes. The sense of the margin of the A. V. day of rodraint is said to be advocated by Ikm 
n aTp-cial dis-frtatjon (Con. Ikenii VissertaU. Ludg. Batay. 1749) and is adopted by Abarbanel and other Jewish writers. 
The tSxt of the A. V. as^Wy is defended by BosenmilUer (3d Ed.), advocated by Geaemus and is that g ven by Onkelos, 
the Vnlg,, and Syr. The LXX. also elsewhere translites the word 7rav,v"P's (Amos v, 2) and <ri/voSo! (Jer ix. 2). |he 
word ocSurs but ten times, in five of which it refers to the last day of one of the great feasts, f ■> " ™;°*J" 'f "^-Jf-if M 
it clearly means assembly. Josephus (Anl. iii. 10, 6) applies it as a customary phrase to the feast of Pentecost. It is the 
day referred to in Jno. yii. 37 as " the last day, that great day of the feast. 

to Ver. 39, DJSDNa. It is better to preserve the indefiniteness of the original which does not determiM whether the 

harvest was already fully gathered. Clark thinks that this oonld rarely have been the case. 

n Ver 40 The Heb., as noted in the margin of the A. V., i.i /ru!(, and it is better to retain the word even if it be ex- 
plained (KeU) of "the shoots and branches ot' the trees." According to the most a^nclent traditions, however, it was cue- 
ternary at this feast to carry in one hand some fruit, and the word is retained in all the anc.ent versions. 

22 Ver. 40. mn Y}!, lit. oraomente! trees, a generic word including the various kinds specified Just below. So the 
Sam LXX., Syr.^'a'nd Vnlg., the lexicons, and most interpreters, Jewish tradition, however, incorporated into the Tar- 
gums' and Josephus (Ant. xiii. 13, 6) understands it specifionUy of the Otrim. 

23 Ver, 40. nh;?-VJ?- The rendering of tho A. V, is sustained by almost all authorities, meaning trees of various 
kinds having thick foliage. The Targuma all interpret it specifically of myrte which cannot be right, as In the account 
of the celebration of this feast in Neh, viii. 15 the myrtie and the IMch trees are distinguished. 



EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL. 

Tliia chapter consists of five Divine communi- 
cations to Moses, beginning respectively with 
vers. 1, 9, 23, 26 and 33, all of which, except 
that concerning the day of Atonement, ver. 26, 
he is directed to speak unto the children 
of Israel. The first of these (1-8) relates to 
the weekly Sabbath, the Passover, and the fol- 
lowing feast of unleavened bread; the second 
(9-22) to the wave sheaf in connection with the 



last feast, and the feast of weeks, or Pentecost ; 
the third (28-25) to the civil New Tear, or the 
New Moon of the seventh month of the ecclesi- 
astical year; the fourth (26-32) to the great 
Day of Atonement ; the last (38-44) to the feast 
of tabernacles, 

Ver, 2 forms the heading or introduction to 
the whole chapter. This is a full list of all 
those days and years, all the appointed times 
which the Lord had marked out as to be sepa- 
rated and distinguished from the ordinary course 
of the daily life; yet it does not include the 



174 



LEVITICUS. 



ordinary new moons on whicli special sacrifices 
were also to be offered. Num. xxviii. 11-15. 

Ver. 3. First of all comes the weelily Sabbath, 
a day to be observed by a total cessation from 
all work and by an holy Invocation. On 
the last expression see the close of the prelimi- 
nary note. The weekly Sabbath is placed in 
the same way before the annual appointed 
times in Ex. xxiii. 12-17; Num. xxyiii. 9— 
xxix. No reason is here given for this obser- 
vance. It was certainly pre-Mosaic, and in the 
fourth commandment is made to rest upon the 
example of the Divine cessation from the works 
of creation. But this refers only to the obser- 
vance of rest in a proportionate part of the 
time — one day in every seven, and therefore has 
no bearing upon the actual length of the crea- 
tive work. In the repetition of the command- 
ments in Deut. f., the observance of this rest on 
the particular day of the week, Saturday, is 
grounded on the deliverance from Egypt, that 
great mark of the Divine favor and national 
birth-day which enters more or less into nearly 
all the feasts. 

A great part of Lange's Exegetical under this 
chapter has been already given in the prelimi- 
nary note. All that follows what is given there 
will be found below. 

"1. The Sabbath. — The six days of work 
ure the foundation and the condition of the rest 
of the seventh day. The prohibition not only 
of servile labor {Tnh^,), but also of the higher 
and freer business (njS/D), forces the nobler 
sort of men directly to look in upon themselves, 
to devotion, and so to celebrate the feast. The 
Sabbath Sabbalhon (the Sabbath feast) has, how- 
ever, been here already appointed for the as- 
sembling in the Sanctuary, a thing which was 
possible in the desert journeys, and later in 
Canaan, was fulfilled by the substitution of the 
synagogues (see Winer, Synagogen), and thus 
was the germ of all festivals." Lange. On the 
interval of nearly a thousand years between the 
desert journeys and the institution of Syna- 
gogues, see preliminary note. 

The weekly Sabbaths are in a sense included 
among the appointed times of ver. 2, but 
yet are distinguished from them by the fresh 
heading of ver. 4 and by vers. 37, 38. They 
were indeed appointed times, but appointed 
from the creation of man, not first prescribed 
by the Mosaic law. The expression a( the close 
of the verse in all your dwellings is inter- 
preted by the Jewish writers to mean everywhere, 
in or out of the Holy Land. Certainly it is thus 
comprehensive ; but the expression is more im- 
portant as distinguishing the convocation of 
these days from those of the annual festivals. 
These were to be celebrated at home, in each 
town and village and hamlet, and thus "kept 
alive the knowledge and piety of the simple yeo- 
man in all the land This single verse 

affords an interesting prospect of the unwritten 
history of Israel's rural piety." Murphy. 

Vers. 4-8. Ver. 4 is simply the heading in 
substance of ver. 2 repeated to distinguish the 
annual from the weekly festival. Vers. 5-8 
relate to the Passover and the feast of unleavened 



bread, which are here, as in Ex. xii. and Num. 
xxviii. 16, 17, clearly distinguished from each 
other. The same distinction is observed by 
Josephus {Ant. III. 10, 5), but both names came 
to be used interchangeably as in the New Test., 
especially in St. John. Of all the annual festi- 
vals the Passover came first in the cycle of the 
ecclesiastical year, first in the great historic 
event it commemorated, first in its obligation, 
and first in its spiritual and typical significance. 
The Paschal lamb was to be slain on the 14th 
Nisan "between the evenings," and eaten in the 
following evening, i. e. according to the Hebrew 
division of the days, on the beginning of the 
15th. But with the 15th began the first day of 
holy convocation, so that the two feasts were 
thus actually blended into one. Lange: "2. 
The feast of unleavened bread. — With this 
begin the feasts in the more peculiar sense, 
which were proclaimed, and in Canaan are also 
feasts of convocation of Israel at the sanctu- 
ary (for the male youth and men) The 

15th day is particularly the feast of Mazzolh, 
which lasts seven days, but in such wise that 
only the first and last day are in the more strict 
sense festival days which exclude all business. 
To these two feasts was appended in a certain 
sense as a third the preliminary feast of the 
harvest. It speaks for the antiquity of the text 
that this feast was postponed to the future. 
Not until they came into Palestine could Israel 
gather in harvests and offer sheaves of the first 
fruits. The first sheaf cut from the first field 
produce is meant, viz. barley (on the barley 
harvest in Palestine, see Keil, p. 148)." [Trans., 
p. 439. Keil refers to Philo and Josephus for 
the statement that the sheaf was of barley, and 
says this is not expressly mentioned because it 
was a matter of course. " In the warmer parts 
of Palestine the barley ripens about the middle 
of April, and is reaped in April or the beginning 
of May, whereas the wheat ripens two or three 
weeks later (Seetzen; Robinson's Pal. ii. 263, 
278)." F. G.] " The sheaf was to be waved 
before Jehovah. Does this mean : hallowed in- 
deed to Jehovah, but given to the priest ? So 
it seems from ver. 20. But according to Ex. 
xxix. 24, 27, that which was waved was in part 
brought to the altar and in part designated as 
for Moses [i. e. for Aaron and his sons]. So 
the sanctificatiou to Jehovah was to be the prin- 
cipal idea of the waving, but certainly with the 
secondary idea that it was only ideally offered 
to Jehovah for the use of the priest. The fir.st 
day of the Mazzolh was reckoned as a Sabbath, 
and the sheaf of the first fruits was presented 
on the second of the seven days. That day was 
distinguished by a festal sacrifice. But the sai^- 
rifice is small, for the year is yet poor — of less 
value than the later sacrifices : one lamb for the 
burnt offering, fwo tenths (of an Ephah) of 
wheat flour moistened with oil for the oblation, 
to which was added the fourth part of an 
hin for a drink offering. Under this condition 
only was Israel acceptable in its preliminary 
feast of the harvest, and the prohibition is a 
very prominent thing : before Jehovah has re- 
ceived His sheaf of the first fruits nothing of the 
new bread can be eaten. A law for posieri y 1 
says the legislation in the wilderness." [The 



CHAP. xxm. l-i4. 



175 



first Divine communicatioD of this chapter cloaes 
with ver. 8. It contains the command for the 
observance of the Sabbath, of the Passover, and 
the general direction for the observance of the 
feast of unleavened bread. Here it ends, and a 
now communication begins with ver. 9, and ex- 
tends to ver. 22 containing the commands for 
ihe wave sheaf, which was a part of the feast 
of unleavened bread, and for the feast of Pente- 
cost. The reason for this apparent dislocation 
of the logical arrangement is obvious: what 
was directed in the first communicaiion was to 
be immediately observed during the wilderness 
life, while the wave sheaf and Pentecost could 
not be, and were not intended to be observed 
until the entrance upon the land of Canaan. 
There is here therefore an incidental, but very 
strong evidence of the date of this legislation. 
At any other time than during the wilderness- 
life, all the precepts for the feast of unleavened 
bread would certainly have been arranged in 
the same paragraph. Ver. 11. On the mor- 
row after the Sabbath. — Various opinions 
have been held in regard to this Sabbath. Ac- 
cording to the Boethoseans (see Lightfoot on 
Luke vi. 1) the beginning of Ihe ecclesiastical 
year was so arranged that the PMSSover always 
fell on the Sabbath, and consequently " the 
morrow after the Sabbath" and the feast of 
Pentecost were always observed on the first day 
of the week. This opinion has been adopted by 
several modern authorities, as Hitzig, Hupfeld, 
Knobel, Kurtz The two former of these think 
that the sheaf was waved after the conclusion 
of lae feast on the 22d of the month ; the two 
later, on the 15th, the first day of holy convo- 
cation. It has been confuted by Bahr and 
Weiseler, and is rejected by Keil and- Clark on 
the ground that such an arrangement would in- 
volve a broken or partial week almost invariably 
at the close of the year, which is of course inad- 
missible. It may be added further that the first 
day and the seventh day of the feast could not 
possibly have both fallen upon the weekly Sab- 
bath, and that the provision for both is the 
same (vers. 7, 8) forbidding only servile work. 
Another opinion is that the Sabbath was that 
weekly Sabbath which must occur on one of the 
days of the feast. This was the view of the 
Sadducees and of the Karaite Jews, but while it 
rests upon no positive support, seems suflBciently 
refuted by the argument of Keil (note, p. 440) 
that "if the Sabbath was not fixed, but migbt 
fall upon any day of the seven' days' feast of 
Mazzo'h, and therefore as much as five or six 
days after the Passover, the feast of Passover 
itself would be forced out of the fundamental 
position which it occupied in the series of an- 
nual festivals (comp. Banke, Peniateueh II. 108)." 
The better view is that found in the LXX., 
Philo, Josephus, the Targums, and the Rabbini- 
cal writers generally, and which seems most 
in accordance with the text itself, that the Sab- 
bath was simply the festival Sabbath, the 15th 
Abib, on whatever day of the week it might 
happen to fall. So Lange below. The sheaf 
of first fruits was then waved on the 1 6th. and 
from that day the time was reckoned to the 
feast of Pentecost. "By offering the sheaf of 
first fruits of the harvest, the Israelites were to 



consecrate their daily bread to the Lord Iheii 
God, and practically to acknowledge that they 
owed the blessing of the harvest to the grace of 
God." Keil. The offerings of vers. 12, 13, were 
especially connected with the wave sheaf, and 
were additional to the regular feast day sacri- 
fices prescribed in Num. xxviii. 19-24. The ob- 
lation was doubled (see Ex. xxix. 40 ; Num. xv. 
4; xxviii. 21) as was appropriate to a harvest 
festival ; but the drink ofi'ering (which in Le- 
viticus is mentioned only here and in vers. 18, 
37) remained as usual. Ver. 14. Bread .... 
parched grain .... green ears are the three 
forms in which grain was commonly eaten, and 
the expression is equivalent to forbidding its use 
in any form whatever before the waving of the 
sheaf of first-fruits. — F. G.]. 

" 3. The Feast of Weeks. [Vers. 15-22]. De- 
termination of the time : From the second day 
of the Mazzoth seven Sabbaths were counted, i. p., 
forty-nine days. The following day, the fif- 
tieth, is the feast of weeks (nj;?2' JH). The 
leading thought is the new oblation which was 
brought to Jehovah from the completed grain 
harvest. It was to be brought out of all dweil- 
ings, and thus not out of the regular temple re- 
venues : fwo Twave loaves of two-tenths (of 
an Ephah) of fine wheaten flour. The baked 
bread must be leavened, which shows thatleaveu 
does not, in and of itself, signify the evil (comp. 
Comm. on Matt. p. 197) [xi. 33, Am. Ed., p. 245]. 
This was the first-fruits of the whole grain har- 
vest which must be hallowed to Jehovah before 
the bread from the new harvest might be eaten." 
[This is not stated in the Text, and while it was 
undoubtedly true in regard to the wheat, must 
not be understood to include also the barley 
which it became lawful to use immediately after 
the offering of the wave sheaf during the feast 
of unleavened bread. — F. G.]. "The year has 
now become richer, and hence seven lambs must 
be offered for a burnt offering besides a young 
ox (bullock) and two rams, and with all these 
the proportionate drink offerings. Besides the^e 
there was a he-goat for the sin offering — hardly 
with reference to the unleavened bread (accord- 
ing to Keil, p. 151), but certainly with reference 
to the sins which were wont to accompany the 
harvesting." [The precise remark of Keil, 
(trans, p. 443) is as follows : " The sin offering 
was to excite the feeling and consciousness of 
sin on the part of the congregation of Israel, (hat 
whilst eating their daily leavened bread they 
might not serve the leaven of their old nature, 
but seek and implore from the Lord their God 
the forgiveness and cleansing away of their sin." 
It is to be observed that this sin offering was 
neither that required for a definite sin of the 
whole congregation, a bullock (Iv. 14), nor yet 
that for an individual, a she-goat (ib. 28), but 
was the same as that required for a prince [ib 
23). The reason for it is to be sought, not in 
any especial and definite sin, but in that general 
and continual sinfulness which the chosen people 
were commanded to recognize on all occasions 
of especial solemnity.— F. G.]. " Finally two 
Iambs as a peace offering, or thank offering, 
closed the feast. These peace offerings were 
waved with the loaves of first-fruits, i. e., were 



176 



LEVITICUS. 



Banotified to Jehovah, and then fell to the priest. 
A principal direction for even this day is that it 
was proclaimed as a convocation of the sanc- 
tuary, and that on it even domestic work itself 
was forbidden as well as servile labor." [The 
text however (ver. 21) contains only the prohi- 
bition of servile vsrork. It is noticeable that 
this Pentecostal offering of two young rams was 
the only peace offering required of the whole 
congregation in the Mosaic ritual. — F. G.]. 
" With this memorable religious command is 
connected the humane one, that the reaper of 
the harvest must let some remain in the borders 
of the field, and that gleaning was forbidden in 
favor of the poor (comp. Ruth). It is plainly 
said again with this command : I am the Lord 
your God." [This feast was not to be observed 
until ye be come into the land which I give 
nnto you, and Theodoret (Qu.32 in L'v.), says 
that it then " renewed the memory of the en- 
trance into the land of promise." Since Maimo- 
nides (see Lange above) it has been customary 
10 connect it with the giving of the law. Nei- 
ther of these associations, however, rest on any 
sure foundation. In Ex. xxxiv. 22 this festival 
is more particularly described, as indeed is im- 
plied here, as the first-fruits of the wheat har- 
vest. The loaves differed from all ordinary ob- 
lations in being leavened, as an offering from (he 
people's daily bread to the Lord who had blessed 
the harvest (comp. ii. 11, 12), but in accordance 
with the general law, they were not to be placed 
upon the altar. " The iojunoiion out of your 
habitations is not to be understood, as Calvin 
and others suppose [so also Corn, a Lapide, 
and Lange above], assignifying that every house- 
holder was to present two such loaves ; it sim- 
ply expresses the idea, that they were to be 
loaves madeforthe daily food of a household, 
and not prepared expressly for holy purposes." 
Keil. A moment's reflection upon the immense 
mass of bread that would be required from the 
600,0t)0 men of Israel, to be eaten only by the 
priests and their families, is sufBcient to show 
that Keil's explanation must be right. The vic- 
tims to be offered, according to vers. 18, 19, differ 
from those prescribed in Num. xxviii. 28-31 for 
the same occasion iu two particulars: there is 
no mention there of the peace offerings required 
here (ver. 19), but this is merely a difference in 
the particularity of the command which fre- 
quently occurs ; and there two young bullocks 
and one ram are required, while here it is one of 
tlie former and two of the latter, the offerings in 
all other respects being the same. On this ac- 
count many commentators have supposed that 
the offerings in Num. were simply a festival en- 
largement of the daily burnt offering, while those 
here commanded were additional sacrifices ac- 
companying the special rites of the festival. It 
cvin hardly, however, be considered a rash con- 
jecture that in one place or the other the nu- 
merals may have changed places in the hands of 
the scribes. Josephus {Ant. iii. 10, 5) follows 
the statement in Num. Vers. 19, 20. The sin 
and peace offerings were to be waved. Accord- 
ing to Jewish tradition this was accomplished 
by leading the animals backwards and forwards 
according to an established custom. With the 
waving of the sin offering comp. the waving of 



the leper's trespass offering, xiv. 12. The flesh 
of both these offerings, unlike the ordinary peace 
offerings, was. to belong to the priest. Ver. 21. 
On the selfsame day. The feast of weeks is 
distinguished from the two other great festivals 
in lasting but^ a single day; but it is said to have 
been the custom in later times to give a festal 
character to the six days following, and to con- 
tinue to offer abundant sacrifices upon them. 
The feast is only described here as an holy 
convocation, and is ca.\\ei the feast of harvest 
in Ex. xxiii. 16, the feast of weeks, of the first- 
fruits of wh at harvest, Ex. xxxiv. 22 ; Deut. xvi. 
10, day of the first-fruils Num. xxviii. 26. The 
name Penter.ost belongs to a later time, and ap- 
pears in the Apocrypha (Tobit ii. 1 ; 2 Mace, 
xii. 32), and in the N. Test. (Acts ii. 1 ; xx. 16 ; 
1 Cor. xvi. 8). By Jewish writers it is fre- 
quently called n^Xi! (see Text. Note 19 on ver. 
86), Gr. 'Aaapdi. As in nature the ripening of 
the later grain was connected with tliat of the 
earlier, so in the law the time of the festival for 
the one was made dependent upon that of the 
other ; just .is when the type was absorbed in 
the Antitype the descent of the Holy Ghost was 
dependent upon the Resurrection of Christ, the 
First-fruits from the dead on the morrow after 
the Sabbath of the Passover ; and the commemo- 
ration festival of Whitsunday has ever been ob- 
served by the Christian Church in dependence 
upon Easter. In ver. 22 the command already 
given in xix. 9, 10, is appropriately repeated in 
connection with the harvest feast, and this is 
again reiterated in Deut. xxiv. 19 in connection 
with precepts of kindness to the needy. 

Vers. 23-25. Here begins a fresh Divine com- 
munication (the third of this chapter) because 
the present feast was, like those of the first, to 
come into immediate use. Lange: "4. 'The 
feast of Trombones, or the new-moon feast of 
the seventh day of the first month." [This is 
apparently a slip of the pen for the first day of 
the seventh month. — F. G.]. "The lesser new 
moon feasts are not mentioned here : they be- 
long more to the ordinary life of the people and 
to the State (hence Num. xxviii. 11). Also the 
seventh new moon is here only very briefly men- 
tioned, and significantly described as Sabbaihon 
Zikron, us a feast Sabbath which was to be a 
Sabbath of memorial. The festal remembrance, 
however, had respect to the new holy season 
which dawned with the seventh month. Thus 
as the first feasts — Easter, Mazzoth, and First- 
fruits — form a trilogy, so the great new moon 
feast makes also a trilogy with the following Day 
of Atonement and Feast of Tabernacles. It is a 
feast of joyous sounds (nj?nil) to awaken a na- 
tional festal disposition by means of a festival 
blowing, not however with 'trumpets' which 
were not ordered till Num. x., and with their 
clear piercing tone were fitted for the march of 
the army of God; but with the deep droning of 
horns, trombones, which like bells, rather affect 
deeply than arouse." There is nothing said in 
the text of any instrument, see Textual Note 15 
on ver. 24; but as the silver trumpets were to 
be blown on all the new moons, and on all other 
festal oci'asions (Num. x. 10), they must have 
been blown also ou this new moon, whatever 



CHAP. XXIII. 1-44. 



177 



other instruments may have been used besides. 
" In the modern service of the Synagogue, Ps. 
Ixxxi. is used at the feast of Trumpets." Clark. 
The general yiew of the Eabbinists is said to 
have been that it was a commemoration of the 
creation vfheu " all the sons of God shouted for 
joy," Job xxxviii. 7. Other commemorations, 
equally fanciful, have been proposed, but it is 
unnecessary to look beyond the fact that it was 
New Tear's day. This being a feast when it was 
not required that all the people should appear 
at the Sanctuary, the "holy convocation" was 
probably observed, like the weekly Sabbath, in 
each town and village throughout the land. Ne- 
vertheless a special burnt offering (ver. 26) was 
to be offered at the Sanctuary, and this is spe- 
cified in Num. xxix. 1-6, as consisting of a bul- 
lock, a' ram, and seven lambs, with their obla- 
tions and drink offerings. 

Vers. 26-32. A new oommunication is made 
in regard to the Day of Atonement, not for the 
reasons given before, but to mark the import- 
ance of the day. This subject has been so fully 
treated in ch. xvi. that little need be said here. 
It was on this day and not on the first of the 
month that the year of Jubilee was to be pro- 
claimed (xxv. 9). On this day also the peo- 
ple were not required to assemble at the Sanc- 
tuary, and the holy convocatioa must have 
been kept at their homes. Lange : " 5. The 
Day of Atonement. It is a noticeable anomaly 
that it falls upon the tenth day. Ten is the 
number of the closed history, the reckoning up 
of the double five, the well-used or badly-used 
freedom, the number of judgment. The Day of 
Atonement forms the climax as a day of purifi- 
cation, ch. xvi. ; here it is an introduction, a 
preliminary condition for the great feast of Ta- 
bernacles (this relation is shown by the ^X ver. 
27." ["By the restrictive IJX, the observance 
of the day of atonement is represented a priori 
as a peculiar one. The ^S refers less to the 
tenth day, than to the leading directions re- 
specting this feast." Keil]. Num. xxix. 7 sup- 
plies still a third meaning, as a social or political 
fist day. It was named the day of expiation 
tD'"}33n). Ye shall af&ict your souls ; Lu- 
ther translates arbitrarily : ' Ye shall afflict your 
body, mortify your body, mortify your bodies.' 
Certainly from the expression of the original 
text, the fast is meant in Isa. Iviii. 3, etc. In or- 
der that the neglect might be visible and could 
be punished, and that the limits might be fixed, 
it is said: from even unto even. For this 
feast also, as well as the former one, every busi- 
ness (not only labor) was forbidden." [This 
cannot be meant of the new moon of the seventh 
month, on which only servile work (ver. 25) was 
forbidden. — F. Q.]. " The great rigor is to be 
noticed with which the penalty of death was 
threatened for every transgression against the 
rest of the Sabbath and against the fast." 

Vers. 33-36. The ordinance for the feast of 
Tabernacles is given in a separate oommunica- 
tion since this was not to be observed until the 
entrance into the land of Canaan. Lange: "6, 
The feast of Taberuacles (nispn JH). The feast 
is made prominent by being celebrated upon the 
Ijth and not on the 14th day." [Just as the 



feast of unleavened bread began on the 15th of 
the first month. — F. G.]. "And moreover, by 
being completed by an eighth day (H'lS^), the 
closing festal assembly, see Jno. vii. 37." [There 
is here also an analogy to the feast of unleavened 
bread, the seven days of which were preceded 
by the day of the Passover. In strictness the 
eighth day was not a part of the feast which, in 
vers. 34 and 40, is declared to be of seven days, 
and in Deut. xvi. 13-15, and Ez. xlv. 25, there 
is no mention at all of tbe eightti day ; and it is 
also distinguished from the days of the feast pro- 
per by the much smaller number of the victims 
to be offered in sacrifice, Num. xxix. 36. More- 
over on this day among the Hebrews the booths 
were dismantled and the people returned to their 
houses.— F. G.]. "The first and eighth days 
are holy Sabbaths which exclude every kind of 
work." [The text, however, vers. 35, 36, only 
forbids servile vrork. — F. G.]. " But every- 
thing else which distinguishes the feasts of the 
Lord, burnt offerings, oblations, etc., (vers. 37, 
38) distinguish this feast abundantly," [These 
offerings are specified in Num. xxix. 12-38. They 
consisted of a he-goat for a sin offering and a 
burnt offering on each day. The latter included 
two rams and fourteen lambs on each of the 
days, with a varying number of bullocks. Be- 
ginning with thirteen on the first day, they were 
diminished by one on each successive day, until 
on the seventh only seven were offered. The 
burnt offering of the eighth day was only one 
bullock, one ram, and seven lambs. In all se- 
venty-one bullocks were wholly consumed upon 
the altar, together with fifteen rams and one 
hundred and five lambs. — F. G.]. " It is also 
again a double feast : in the first place the feast 
of the garnered harvest, the third harvest, which 
includes both the former ones, and especially 
hallows to the Lord the noblest produce of the 
land : the inspiriting fruits, for the children 
(fruit), for the old (wine), and for the priests 
(oil)." [The fruit, the oil, and the wine, were 
however all alike used by all classes in the com- 
munity. — F. G.]. " And then, in the second 
place, it was the feast of the memorial of the 
booths in which Israel had dwelt in the wilder- 
ness. The sojourn in the wilderness must have 
been a hardship during a great part of the year, 
and they usually dwelt in tents ; but then came 
the Spring and Summer time, when they could 
build booths, and such a time would be partiju- 
larly festive, a picture of a paradisaical life of 
nature. And it is plain that here the subject 
must be neither the lasting sufferings of the wil- 
derness nor the settlement in Canaan. Hence 
also the tents must be made from goodly trees." 
[The feast of Tabernacles did not itself occur in 
the Spring or Summer, but late in the fall, a 
month or more after the autumnal equinox. No 
evidence is adduced to show that the Israelites 
in the wilderness at any time lived otherwise 
than in tents, and indeed during a large part 
of their wanderings the construction of booths 
would have been impossible from ihe scarcity of 
trees. The reference to the booths (mccolh) 
seems to be rather to the first encampments of 
the Exodus (oomp. Ex. xii. 37 ; xiii. 20), when 
they must have been as yet very imperfectly sup- 
plied with tents. — F. G.J. " So the feast of ta- 



178 



LEVITICUS. 



bernaolea was the highest feast in Israel (a 
bright contrast to the feast of Purim introduced 
at'ierwards, which was darkened by fanaticism), 
and was a tjpe of the highest and most beaatiful 
Christian popular feasts. Upon the single feast 
coinp. the Lexicons, also Keil (p. 153 [Trans, p. 
44fi]), and Knobel (p. 549). That this feast 
could readily bring in peculiar temptations is 
shown by the story of the adulteress, Jno. viii." 
[This inference must depend upon the decision 
that the passage referred to is a genuine part of 
the Gospel, and is found in its proper place. It 
is also further to he noticed that the women of 
Israel were not required to dwell in the booths. 
— F. G.]. " But we may see also partially from 
Jno. viip, how it had been in the course of time 
endowed with the richest symbolism, as a preach- 
er-ftast, as a fountain-feast, as a feast of 
lights, the culmination of the Old Testament fes- 
tival seasons." [It is noticeable that this feast 
was the time chosen by Solomon for the dedica- 
tion of the temple, 1 Kings viii. 2. — F. G.]. 

" Upon the observance of the line of feasts in 
the sabbatical year and year of Jubilee, see ch. 
XXV. On the later Jewish feasts, see Bibl. Wor- 
tcrbuch fur das Christl. Volk under the article 
Fesle. So too the feasts of the later Jews in 
Herzog's Eeal-Encyclopddie." For additional 
matter concerning this feast, see under verses 
39-42. 

In vers. 37, 38, is a summary distinctly speci- 
fying that these appointed times, with their of- 
ferings, are additional to the weekly Sabbaths 
mentioned in ver. 3, and their offerings. Be- 
side the Sabbaths is comprehensive, including 
both the day and the sacrifice offered upon it. It 
means beside them in regard to the other ap- 
pointed days, and beside their offerings as re- 
gards the offerings belonging to these. 

Vers. 39-43 contain additional directions for 
the feast of Tabernacles. Nothing has been said 
in the previous verses of the dwelling in booths, 
as the object there was only to treat of it as an 
appointed time with its days of holy convoca- 
tion. Here, however, this is introduced by it- 
self, as a necessary direction, yet so as not to 
disturb the singleness of view in which the whole 
cycle of feasts has been presented. There is no 
occasion, therefore, to suppose that this is a dis- 
tinct document subsequently added. As this 
precept has reference simply to the dwelling in 
booths, there is no repetition of the command 
for the holy convocations, or for the sacrifices, 
and no mention of the eighth day, on which they 
returned to their houses. It was pre-eminently 
a joyous festival (ver. 40), as comported with its 
character as a harvest feast. On the Sabbatical 
year at this time the law was to be publicly read 
in the hearing of all the people of all classes, in- 
cluding the " strangers," Deut. xxxi. 9-13 ; Neh. 
viii. 18. 

In later times two significant customs were 
added to the daily observances of the feast. At 
the time of the morning sacrifice on each day a 
priest drew water from the pool of Siloam in a 
golden pitcher and bringing it in to the altar 
poured it out with the libation of wine. This 
probably suggested the words of our Lord in 
Jno. vii. 37, 38. Also in the evening the men 
and women assembled together in the court of 



the women to rejoice over the ceremony of the 
morning, the occasion being marked by great 
hilarity. At this time two tall stands were set 
up in the court, each bearing faur lamps of large 
size, the wicks being made of the cast off gar- 
ments of the priests, and the oil supplied by the 
sons of the priests. Many of the people also 
carried flambeaux, and the light is said to have 
been cast over nearly the whole city. This ce- 
remony seems to have called forth our Lord's 
words in Jno. viii. 12, "I am the Light of the 
world." During both these ceremonies the 
choiis of Levites chanted appropriate psalais, 
and the people participated by carrying in their 
hands green branches and fruit. There is a cu- 
rious contrast between the cycle of annual festi- 
vals in the Jewish and iu the Christian Church • 
in both of them the festivals extend through 
about six months, but in the former, iu which 
earthly blessings are everywhere prominent, it 
began with the 14th Nisan, and extended through 
the summer; in the latter, iu which the thought 
is more directed to spiritual blessings, it begins 
with the early winter and extend.s round to the 
summer. 

DOCTEINAI, AND ETHICAL. 

I. The weekly Sabbath is the beginning and 
foundation of all the festivals, for herein God is 
acknowledged as the Creator of all things and 
of man. By that the people were joined to God, 
and so made ready for keeping the other festi- 
vals of His appointment. This was fixed for the 
older church upon the seventh day, in memorial 
of their deliverance from Egypt, the era of their 
national existence; just as for the Christian 
Church it is fixed upon the first day in memorial 
of Christ's resurrection, on which rests the whole 
existence and constitution of that Church. 

II. By the offering of the first-fruits to Got! 
the whole harvest was sanctified, comp. Bom. xi. 
16. Until this had been done, no Israelite might 
partake of the harvest at all. God's gifts are 
freely bestowed upon men; but they may not « 
lawfully appropriate them to their own use until 
they have acknowledged the Giver. 

III. In the three harvest festivals the domi- 
nion of God over nature is emphatically asserted. 
It is asserted in opposition alike to that Pan- 
theism which underlay so much of the ancient 
heathen mythology, and which would worship 
the earth itself as the giver of its fruits, while 
here the homage is rendered to the Lord of the 
earth as distinct from and infinitely exalted 
above the earth; and it is asserted in opposition 
10 Deism, which would so separate the Deity from 
His works as to make them in a sense indepen- 
dent of Him, while here He is recognized aa 
their immediate Ruler and the Author of every 
earthly blessing. 

IV. Leaven, which is for the most part for- 
bidden in oblations, and altogether prohibited 
from coming upon the altar, is here oommandoJ 
for the- wave offering of the first-fruits of the 
wheat harvest, very plainly for the Express ob- 
ject of teaching that the ordinary food of the 
people is to be sanctified by an offering to God, 
and thus in all things He is first of all to be re- 
cognized. 



CHAP. XXIV. 1-9. 



179 



V. The peculiarity of a peace offering from 
the whole congregation marks the Pentecostal 
feast alone. At the beginning of the wheat har- 
vest, the principal harvest of human food, it was 
peculiarly appropriate that it should be marked 
by the sacrifice of communion with God. 

VI. In connection with the feast of the har- 
vest comes again into prominence the care for 
the poor in the prohibition of gleaning. God 
leaves the poor always with us that man may 
learn through them to imitate Himself in giving 
freely to those who need out of the abundance 
He has given to us. 

HOMILETIOAL AND PRACTICAL. 

Lange : " The feasts of the Lord and the festal 
ordinances (ch. xxiii.). Their double basis: 1) 
the work, 2) the Sabbath. The Sabbath is the 
end of the trouble of labor, as Sunday is the be- 
ginning of festal work. The Old Testament 
feasts in the light of the New Testament. The 
Jewish Passover is a double feast; a type of 
Christmas and of Easter. The Jewish and the 
Christian Pentecostal feast. The Jewish feast 
of Atonement and the Christian Ascension-Day 
(comp. Heb. ix. 24). The Jewish feast of Ta- 
bernacles and the Christian harvest feast. The 
threefold Jewish harvest feast, Easter, Pentecost 
and Tabernacles, a threefold type of the Divine 
blessing in the kingdom of nature, and in the 
kingdom of grace (the first-fruits, the daily bread, 
the festival wine). The great Day of Atonement, 
as a day of repentance, and as a day of the Gos- 
pel. Comparison between the Day of Atonement 
and Good-Friday, between Christmas and the 
feast of Tabernacles. How all feasts by their 
historical significance are linked with one an- 



other, and by their spiritual significance play 
into one another. The feast is made gay with 
green boughs." 

As the Sabbath is made the foundation of all 
festivals, so must the sanctification of the weekly 
day of rest ever be the condition of all accepta- 
ble consecration of "appointed times" to the 
Lord. The days on which no work at all might 
be done are only the weekly Sabbaths and the 
Day of Atonement ; but the additional days on 
which no servile work might be done were nearly 
half as many more. These last therefore were 
days of rest to the slave and the hired laborer. 
The law would have days when the hard labor 
of life must cease without suspending its activity 
altogether, and gives its most numerous days of 
rest to those who must be employed in life's 
drudgery. 

The rejoicing before the Lord which is here, 
ver. 40, and in Deut. xvi. 11 commanded with 
especial reference to the feasts of Tabernacles 
and of Pentecost, is elsewhere made into a more 
general duty, Deut. xii. 12, 18; xxvii. 7. If joy 
was a commanded duty under the Old Dispensa- 
tion, how much more under the Christian. See 
Phil. iv. 4, etc. 

The three great festivals were occasions of 
gathering all the males of Israel together, and 
promoting the sense of their common brother- 
hood. The effect in this regard of united wor- 
ship is very plain. But especially at the feast 
of Tabernacles, all were required to dwell in 
booths, and for the time distinctions of rank and 
social position were levelled. Thus, as every- 
where under the Old Dispensation, principles of 
the Gospel were taught by symbolical acts, and 
the brotherhood of all the people of God pre- 
sented in sensible type and act. 



SECOND SECTION. 

Of the Holy Lamps, and the Shew Bread. 

Chapter XXIV. 1-9. 

1, 2 And the Loed spake unto Moses, saying, Command the children of Israel, that 
they bring unto thee pure oil olive beaten for the light, to cause the lamps to burn 

3 continually. Without the vail of the testimony, in the tabernacle of the [omit the] 
congregation, shall Aaron' order it from the evening unto the morning before the 

4 Loed continually : it shall be a statute for ever in your generations. He shall 
order the lamps upon the pure candlestick before the Lord continually. 

5 And thou shalt take fine flour, and bake twelve cakes thereof: two tenth deals 

6 shall be in one cake. And thou shalt set them in two rows [piles'^], six on a row 

7 [pile"], upon the pure table before the Loud. And thou shalt put pure frankin- 
cense' upon each row [pile''], that it may be on* the bread for a memorial, even an 

TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL. 

1 Ver. 3. The Sam. aad LXX. here inSHrt and his sons from Ex. xxvii. 21. 

2 Vers. 6 7. The Heb. 7131J7Dj referring etymologically to an orderly arrangement, means either a row or a pUe, and 

is nsed in both senses. The size of the loaves, however, containing each about six pounds and a quarter of flour, sa com- 
pared with the size of the table, two cubits long by one bioad, makes it more probable that ijite was intended here. Joso- 
phus (Ant III. 6, 6 ; 10, 7) expressly says, that this was the arrangeluent. 



180 



LEVITICUS. 



8 offering made by fire unto the Lord. Every sabbath he shall set it in order before the 
LoED continually, bdng taken from the children of Israel by an everlasting covenant 

9 And it shall be Aaron's and his sons' ; and they shall eat it* in the holy place: 
for it is most holy imto him of the offerings of the Lord made by fire by a perpe- 
tual statute. 

3 Ver. 7. The LXX. adds and saZ(, which is probably to be understood in accordance with ii. 13, or the salt may liaTe 
been used in malting up the loaves. 

* Ver. 7. □nS'?- The force of the preposition is questioned. Both the seuees o« and /or are true in themselves. The 

incense was placed' np-m the piles, according to Josephus (ubi sup.) in golden cups, and it waa also burned for the bread u 
a memorial. The latter sense, however, is sufficiently expressed by the wor Is for a memorial. 
6 Ver. 9. The pronoun, wanting in the Heb., is supplied lu the Sam, and in 8 MSS. 

removed from the table they might be eaten only 
by the priests in a, holy place. The action of 
Abimelech therefore in giving them to David (1 
Sam. xxi. 4-6) was a clear violation of the law, 
and is justified by our Lord (Matt. xii. 4) on the 
principle that there are cases of urgency which 
override the technical provisions of the statute. 

Langc : " The holy candlestick, with the shew- 
bread, here makes the tabernacle the inner cen- 
tre of all consecrations, the holy place /car" e^oxWi 
which moves forth unJ spreads far into the holy 
land ; and the innermost principle of this centre 
is the name of Jehovah which comes to be 
spoken farther on. 

"On the holy candlestick see the particular 
directions, Ex. xxv. 30 ; xxxvii. 17, and Num. 
viii. 2 ; ccfnip. Zeoh. iv. 2. But it is mentioned 
here the second time, not because according to 
the first command only Aaron was fitted for the 
function ; but because it here forms the soul of 
the cultus, as farther on, in Num., it becomes 
the very climax of the theocratic political life, 
the light of the nation. Even less here than be- 
fore can one speak of the lamp of good works. 
There is a strange propensity to place human 
attributes in place of Divine in the very house 
of God, even as far as to the Cherubim in the 
holy of holies.* The candlestick is the seven- 
fold figure of the revelation of Jehovah, the type 
of the Seven Spirits, Rev. i. But it must be no- 
tici d that the congregation bad to furnish the 
anointing oil" [Salbol, i. e., the oil for this sa- 
cred use, not the oil for anointing the priests, 
— F. G.], " for the congregation was to be the 
substratum of all illuminations, not the priest- 
hood alone. In like manner is the command 
significant that the lamps were to be lit forever 
and ever. 

"The shewbread is called 'bread of the pre- 
sence,' ' of my presence ' (Ex. xxv. 30) in that 
they lay before the presence of Jehovah, who, 
in a symbolical sense, here holds a meal with 
His priests (see Rev. iii. 20) as they in the first 
place represent the twelve tribes of (he holy 
people. On this account, then, the loaves were 
twelve, and since they were arranged in two or- 
dered rows of six opposite six loaves (differing 
from the twelve precious stones of the breast- 
plate) they were called also the loaves of the 
ranging together, the table of the succession and 
similarly. Keil, p. 158." [Trans, p. 452. Keil 

* Keil : " This service consisted in the fact, that in the oil 
of the lamps of the seven branched cancileatick. which burned 
before Jehovah, the nation of Israel manifested itself as a 
congregation which caused its light to shine in the darkness 
of this world ; and that in the shewbread it offered the fruits 
of its labor in the field of the Idnsdnm of God, as a spiritual 
sacrifice to Jehovah." [Trans, p. 451J, 



EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL. 

The commands for the holy lights and the 
shewbread here follow in a special communica- 
tion, to complete the provisions for the typical 
holiness of the Hebrew cultus. The former has 
already been given, almost verbatim in Ex. xxvii. 
20, 21, prospectively in connection with the pro- 
visions for the whole service of the sanctuary. 
Now the command is actually given, and in Num. 
viii. 3 its fulfilment is recorded. The phrase- 
ology of ver. 2, Command the children of 
Israel that they bring, with that in ver. 8, 
taken from the children of Israel, shows 
that both the oil and the flour for the shewbread 
were of the nature of oblations, gifts to the Lord 
from the people continually. Vers. 2-4 relate to 
the oil and the lamps; vers. 5-9 to the shew- 
bread. 

Ver. 2. Pure oil olive beaten — pure in 
being freed before the berries were crushed from 
all leaves, twigs, dust, etc.; and beaten in con- 
tradistinction to pressed in the oil-presses. By 
this beating the oil of the best quality flowed out 
nearly colorless. Continually, ver. 3, refers 
to the perpetuity of the ordinance, not to the un- 
interrupted burning of the lamps ; for according 
to the previous part of the verse, Aaron was to 
order it from the evening unto the morn- 
ing, and according to Ex. xxx. 7, 8, he was to 
dress the lamps in the morning and to light them 
at even. The pure candlestick of ver. 4, like 
the pure table of ver. 6, refers to the pure gold 
with which they were made, and which was of 
course kept free from all stain. 

Vers. 5-9. Pine flour always means of wheat. 
The frankincense, as a gift from the people, 
must necessarily be the natural gum, and is to 
be distinguished from the compound incense 
which was burnt daily upon the altar of incense. 
Lange (see below) is inclined to admit the opi- 
nion of Knobel that the loaves of shewbread 
were leavened ; Josephus, however (Ant. III. 6, 
6; 10, 7), distinctly asserts the contrary and 
nearly all Jewish and other authorities agree 
with him. " Since the bread was brought into 
the Holy place (which was not the case with the 
Pentecostal bread) it almost certainly came un- 
der the general law of the meat off'erings, which 
excluded the use of leaven (ii. 11)." Clark. It 
may be added that the shewbread was changed 
only once a week, and leavened bread, exposed 
to the air, could hardly have been kept in condi- 
tion for eating so long. The loaves were twelve 
in accordance with the number of the tribes of 
Israel, They were most holy, so that when 



CHAP. XXIV. 1-9. 



181 



thinks that the loaves were placed in rows, but 
does not mention these names. On the arrange- 
ment, see Textual Note 2 ou ver. 6.— F. G.]. 
"And since it is known that leaven in itself con- 
tains nothing evil, although like honey it might 
not be placed upon the altar, the supposition of 
Knobel (Keil to the contrary) has nothing hazar- 
dous, that the shewbread was leavened. Un- 
doubtedly it is to be considered that among the 
later Jews they were unleavened; but against this 
must be weighed the fact that they formed an im- 
portant constituent of the food of the officiating 
priests who ate them as a most holy thing, after 
they were carried out, and that these loaves 
were never actually offered, but only hallowed 
to Jehovah, while their offering was signified by 
the incense which went with them as a memo- 
rial (ver. 7, Azkara). The view that the in- 
cense was not strewed upon the bread, but placed 
beside it in golden shells, is certainly strength- 
ened by the purpose of incense, which was 
burned as an offering made by fire unto Jeho- 
vah. It is the sacrifice of prayer which is espe- 
cially associated with the priestly communion, a 
"Grace" said before the Lord in the highest 
sense. 

" The supposition of Knobel and others that 
the table, with shewbread and kindred things, 
represented the house of God as an imitation of 
a human house, is a flat travesty of the holy 
house into that which is common ; it rests upon 
a misunderstanding of the religious symbolism 
of the house of God, and in it the sleeping cham- 
ber, e. g., the bed, and similar things must be 
missed." [To define the exact boundaries be- 
tween anthropomorphic language and representa- 
tions on the one hand, and pure statements of 
truth and pure symbolism on the other, is ex- 
tremely difficult, and will probably always re- 
main impossible, while man is still compelled to 
use so much of anthropomorphic terms even in 
the most abstract and philosophical discussion 
of Divine things. Undoubtedly the Hebrew mind 
was gradually led up to the conception of Di- 
vine realities by the exaltation of human expres- 
sions, and hence occur such forms as " the food," 
" the table," " the house of the Lord ;" in grosser 
minds these would have been associated with 
grosser ideas, while for those of higher spiritual 
elevation, there was just enough of symbolism in 
these terms to enable them, by their means, to 
rise above them to more spiritual and exalted 
conceptions. To this it was essential that the 
human imagery should be imperfect and wanting 
in many particulars. — P. G.]. 

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL. 

I. The symbolism of the seven-branched can- 
dlestick is applied in the Apooalyuse to the Holy 



Spirit. Meantime in its perpetual burning du- 
ring the night there is also the subordinate 
teaching that from the worship of God all dark- 
ness and obscurity are to be banished by the in- 
fluence of that Spirit. To this the people are 
themselves to contribute by bringing the pun st 
oil for the feeding of the lamps. The Holy Spirit 
ever works upon man through that which is in 
man, and man may receive the Divine Guest in 
his heart, or may grieve Him and quench His 
holy influence. 

II. In the shewbread, as the culmination of 
all oblations, is expressed on the one hand the 
consecration to God of all that belongs to man 
by placing bread, the staff of human life, con- 
tinually before His presence; and on the other, 
the condescension of God to communion wiih 
man in making these loaves the food of His 
priests. The incense, burned as a memorial, 
represented the Divine acceptance of the gift, 
and, as Lange has suggested, symbolized the 
prayer with which the priests must draw near to 
this communion. It is further to be noted that 
this was not the sacred incense of the sanctuary, 
but the frankincense of the people's offering. As 
the loaves represented the twelve tribes, so this 
frankincense represented the people's prayers ; 
and in this symbolic act of communion, the 
priests on God's behalf pratook of the food, as in 
the case of the sin offering. 

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL. 

Lange : " The proper maintenance for the can- 
dlestick in the house of God. The table of the 
Lord in the Old Testament and in the New Tes- 
tament forms. The Lord at His table : 1) as the 
Bread of heaven ; 2) as the Host ; 3) as the 
Guest." 

In the worship of God light and clearness are 
ever to take the place of darkness and obscurity. 
The clear shining of the Holy Spirit's direction 
is always to be sought in all approach to God, 
and to this end the pure oil is to be furnished by 
the people for the lamps ; an honest and good 
heart is to be prepared for the Spirit's dwelling. 

Through the grace of God man becomes a par- 
taker of the table of the Lord. This must be ac- 
companied with the Incense of prayer. It was 
to be a statute for ever, a perpetually recurring 
act of communion with God. 

Origen : The light of the Jews grew dim as the 
oil of their piety failed ; the foolish virgins were 
excluded from the marriage when their lamps 
were gone out for the want of oil; so Christians 
must furnish the oil of earnest effort after holi- 
ness, that the flame of the Spirit may burn in 
their hearts, so that men may see their good 
works, and that their lamps may be burning 
when the Master comes. 



182 LEVITICUS. 



THIRD SECTION. 

Historical. — The Punishment of a Blasphemer. 

" The keeping holy of the Theocratic Religion, and of the Name of Jehovah, by means of an explicit 

example^ — Vers. 10-16. 

" The keeping holy of punishnent, and of the distinction of punishment, whose 
culmination is stoning." Vers. 17—23. — Lanqe. 

Chapter XXIV. 10-23. 

10 And the son of an Israelhish woman, whose father was an Egyptian, went out 
among the children of Israel : and this son of the Israelitish woman and a man of 

11 Israel strove together in the camp ; and the Israelitish woman's son blasphemed' 
the name of the LORD [omit of the LORD^}, and cursed. And they brought him 
unto Moses : (and his mother's name was Shelomith, the daughter of Dibri, of the 

12 tribe of Dan:) and they put him in ward, that the mind of the Lord might be 
shewed them. 

13, 14 And the Lobd spake unto Moses, saying, Bring forth him that hath cursed 
without the camp ; and let all that heard him lay their hands upon his head, and 

15 let all the congregation stone him. And thou shalt speak unto the children of 

16 Israel, saying. Whosoever curseth his God shall bear hia sin. And he that blas- 
phemeth the name of the Lord, he shall surely be put to death, and all the con- 
gregation shall certainly stone him : as well the stranger as he that is born in the 
land, when he blasphemeth' the name of the LORD [omit of the LORD''} shall be 
put to death. 

17, 18 And he that killeth' any man shall surely be put to death. And he that kUl- 

19 eth' a beast shall make it good; beast' for beast.' And if a man cause a blemish 

20 in his neighbour ; as he hath done, so shall it be done to him ; breach for breach, 
eye for eye, tooth for tooth : as he hath caused a blemish in a man, so shall it be 

21 done to him again. And he that killeth' a beast, he shall restore it : and he that 

22 killeth' a man, he shall be put to death. Ye* shall have one manner of law, as 
well for the stranger as for one of your own country : for I am the Lord your God. 

23 And Moses spake to the children of Israel, that they should bring forth him that 
had cursed out of the camp, and stone him with stones. And the children of Israel 
did as the Lord commanded Moses. 

TEXTUAL and GRAMMATICAL. 

1 Vers. 11, 16. 3pJ according to ail the best critical authorities, means to retrtle, to bhipheme ; the LXX. and Targnms, 

however, interpret it as meaning to utler distinctly, thus embodying the Jewish tradition of the nnlawfiilness of uttering the 
name of Jehovah. See the Bxeg. 

2 Vers. 11, 10. Tbe words in itaiics are better omitted, allowing the sense to stand exactly as in the Heb. and all the 
Ancient Versions, where tSie Name evidenily meana the Name jcar efox^i', the name of Jehovah. In ver. 16 th.i article 
is omitted iu the Hub., but supplied in the Sam, 

8 Vera. 17, 18, 21. The Heb. here u-es the word t^Sj very freely, as is in part indicated in the marginal readings of tbe 

A. V. Translating I^£]J soul, vers. 17, 18 will read litcally, And he that smiteth the soul of any man shall die the death, 

Hnd he that smiteth the soul of a beast shall make it good ; soul for soul. Similarly in ver. 21. A few MSS. omit the t£^£]} 

before beast in vers. 18 and 21. 

* Ver. 22. The Sam. has the sing. Seven MSS. of that version, however, follow the plural form of the Heb. 



EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL. 

The whole of Lange's Exegetioal is here given. 
"According to Knobel the foregoing section 
stands disconnectedly in this place. Bnt cer- 



tainly in this place ought to stand the principle 
of all consecrations, the name of Jehovah, and it 
fits in with the high importance of keeping this 
Name holy that the law, in its genesis, should be 
introduced with a fearful example. Similarly 
the history of the Sabbath-brealier is introduoei 



CHAP. XXIV. 10-23. 



183 



Num. XV. 82." [Of course the immediate reason 
for the introduction of the narrative is that the 
event actually occurred just at this point in 
the communication of this legislation to the 
people, and it thus constitutes one of the 
strong incidental marks of the time when 
that legislation was given. Lange shows 
that its mention was the very reverse of inop- 
portune. It is noticeable that the patronymic 
Israelite is found elsewhere only in 2 Sam. xvii. 
25 ; and the adjective laraelitwh occurs only here. 
It is used in opposition to Egyptian as the two 
terms are likely to have been used at the time 
in the camp. So in 2 Sam. xvii. 25 it is used of 
a man of the ten tribes in opposition to the two. 
— F. G.]. 

" The son of an Israelitish woman and an 
Egyptian man went out into the midst of the 
Israelites, i. e., he betook himself to the camp 
of the latter. He belonged to the strangers who 
journeyed with Israel (Ex. xii. 38). As an 
Egyptian, he dwelt certainly somewhat removed, 
since he was not a member of the congregation 
of Jehovah ; for only in the third generation was 
an Egyptian to be taken in (Deut. xxiii. 8)." 
[Although this law had not yet been announced, 
Lange's supposition is altogether probable, and 
the man doubtless formed one of the "mixed 
multitude " who lived on the outskirts of the 
camp, comp. Num. xi. 1, 4. — F. G.]. " The Is- 
raelites encamped according to the houses of 
their tribes" (Num. ii. 2). In the camp a strife 
arose ; " a quarrel sprang up between him and 
the Israelitish man, that is, between him and the 
men of Israel" (Knobel). Against the very ap 
propriate view that t^'X stands collectively, see 
the grammatical note of Keil, p. 168. 

" The history certainly tells us how the Egyp- 
tian offended in an ascending scale, even up to 
the blaspheming Jehovah. The text, ver. 10, 
shows that the Egyptian man had come in with 
a certain degree of impudence info the midst of 
the camp of Israel, where he did not belong. 
From this it is also to be concluded that he ex- 
cited here a religious quarrel, and it could only 
have been with one, as the issue proves." [In 
the entire absence of reliable knowledge of the 
cause of this quarrel the tradiuou embodied in 
the Targs. of Jerus. and Jon. may be noted. Ac- 
cording to these the Egyptian was the son of an 
Egyptian who had slain an Israelite in the land 
of Egypt and then had gone in to his wife. She 
had borne the child among the Israelites, being 
herself of the tribe of Dan. la the desert this 
man claimed the right to pitch his tent with the 
tribe of Dan, and the right being resisted by a 
man of that tribe, they look the case before the 
judge, where it was decided against the Egyp- 
tian. On coming out under this adverse judg- 
ment, he committed his offense. — P. G.]. " Thus 
his insolence rose to blaspheming "the Name." 
This expression: the Name, absolutely, raises 
the name of Jehovah above all names, and blas- 
phemy against it was not only blasphemy against 
the God of Israel, but also against the religion 
of His revelation, against the covenant with Je- 
hovah, and thus against the holy Source of all 
consecrations. So he was led before Moses. 
That he was put in -vraid shows that the mea- 
sure of punishment for this unheard of trans- 



gression had not yet been made clear. And it 
had not been settled for the reason that he did 
not belong to the commonwealth of Israel in the 
stricter sense. Hence the punishment was made 
known to Moses by an especial revelation from 
Jehovah. The greatness of the crime is shovpa 
by the following particulars : 

" 1. The punishment of stoning was to be so- 
lemnly performed by the whole congregation, 
because the blasphemy rested, like a curse, upon 
the whole congregation. 

" 2. All who had heard the blasphemy must 
lay their hands on the head of the criminal be- 
fore the execution. Until this expiation they 
are contaminated with a complicity in guilt (see 
ch. V, 1), which they must discharge from them- 
selves upon the guilty head." [Keil refers to 
the washing of hands in Deut. xxi. 6 as analo- 
gous. Knobel, however, considers that the com- 
mand is connected with Deut. xvii. 7, requiring 
the witnesses to throw the first stones. They 
were in either case thus to make themselves re- 
sponsible for the truth of the accusation. — F. G.]. 

" 3. The greatness of the guilt is in the first 
place to be compared with the lesser guilt of a 
man's cursing his God, i. e., his ELohim in His 
peculiar relation to him, wherein he might mean, 
e. g. that this Elohim had done him wrong. This 

77p may have very different degrees, even to 
speaking evil ; therefore he shall bear his sin : 
in the first place, his evil conscience ; then his 
sentence according to the judgment of the theo- 
cratic tribunal." [As this particular offender 
was an Egyptian, and as the law (ver. 16) in- 
cludes the stranger generally, many commen- 
tators have understood the expression his God 
to mean the Deity whom he is accustomed to 
worship. In confirmation of this it is urged that 
penalty for him that cursetb his God in ver. 
15 is only that he shall bear his sin ; while in 
ver. 16 he that blasphemeth (or revileth, a 
feebler expression than curseth) the name of 
the IiORD, he shall surely be put to death. 
For the last reason, others have maintained that 

D'mX does not here signify God at all, but hu- 
man magistrates. The reason, however, is of 
little weight. In ver. 15 is given the general law 
with the indefinite penalty; in ver. 16 it is re- 
peated for the sake of emphasis, with definite- 
ness in regard to every particular, the sin, the 
punishment, the executioners, and the applica- 
tion of the law to the stranger as well as the na- 
tive. The reference of ver. 15 to the gods of 
the strangers is peculiarly unfortunate. It can- 
not be imagined that the law of Jehovah should 
thus provide for the honor of those false gods 
whom it aims to bring into contempt. — F. G.]. 

" 4. This punishment of stoning should apply 
to the stranger as well as to the Israelite, be- 
cause in the first place, he entered the congre- 
gation of Israel as a blasphemer of its name; 
and in the second place, proved thereby that he 
did not do it unconsciously, but had an idea of 
the signification of this name. 

"5. If then the object of the ordinances for 
punishment next following was that the penal 
law of the Israelites should also apply to the 
stranger who sojourned in their community ; 



184 



LEViTICCS. 



yet the immediately following degrees of punish- 
nieat form a scale which gives one a clear idea 
of the greatness of the blasphemer's crime against 
Majesty. The death penalty for the murderer 
forma a basis. Behind this follow the various 
degrees, severe according to the law of compen- 
sation (Ex. xxi. 23), but yet the blasphemer 
stands pre-eminent, far above the murderer. 
The principal reason for this arrangement lies 
indeed in this : that the capital punishment of 
the Egyptian migbt easily excite a fanatical con- 
tempt and misusage of the stranger ; therefore 
it is here most fittingly made prominent that the 
Jews [Israelites] and strangers, stand under the 
same law, and that the murdering of the stranger 
must also be punished with death. With the 
elevation and hallowing of the punishment here 
appointed above all partisan fanaticism, it be- 
came self-evident that the same punishment must 
fall upon the Jews [Israelites]. How proper is 
it that the name of Jehovah should be again in- 
serted for the purpose that the stranger might 
have equal administration of justice with the 
Jew [Israelite]. Manifold misunderstanding 
has attached itself to this legislation. The Jew- 
ish misinterpretation of 3pJ (in the sense of 
to name, instead of to revile, to blaspheme) has had 
for its consequence the Jewish superstition that 
man may not pronounce the name of Jehovah, 
and the after effect no less that in the LXX. the 
name Kvpiog is in the place of Jehovah, and also 
the placing of the name Lord in the German Bi- 
ble " [and in the English, but here distinguished 
by small capital letters — F. G.], " also indirectly 
that the name Jehovah is now translated with 
the Jews : the Eternal. 

" The Mediseval misinterpretation drew over 
into the New Testament time the penal justice 
touching it, and the reflection thereof still shows 
itself in the history of the Church of Geneva. 
The mention of the mother of the blasphemer, 
Shelomith (the peaceable), daughter of Dibri 
(my word), of the tribe of Dan appears to be 
only a mark of definite remembrance. A com- 
munity which suffers the reviling of the prin- 
ciple of their community without reaction, is mo- 
rally fallen to pieces. This holds good also of 
the religious community. The reaction of the 
theocracy could not and should not transplant 
itself into the Church ; but since it was outstrip- 
ped by the middle ages, there has come in more 
recent time, over against this extreme, a fearful 
relaxation, which misses the dynamic reaction 
against the impudent and the blasphemers of 
the principle of the community." 

This chapter is founded upon the fact that 
among the Hebrews the child followed the con- 
dition of the father and not of the mother. It is 
probably only one of a multitude of instances of 
children born in Egypt of parentage of different 
nations, and many of the " mixed multitude " 
who followed the Israelites may have had Isra- 
elitish mothers. The doubt arising as to the 
punishment of a blasphemer who was not one 
of the covenant people, led to Moses' asking for 
Divine direction. In answer, not only this par- 
ticular case is settled, but the Hebrew law gene- 
rally is made applicable to the sojourner. In 
connection with the penalty for killing cattle is 



announced in express terms (vers. 18, 21), that 
which had only been implied before (Ex. xxi. 
33-3t>). The law for the punishment of blas- 
phemy in ver. 16 is perfectly clear ; it was from 
a wrong conception of the fact, not of the law, 
that the Jews stoned St. Stephen, and would 
gladly have stoned our Lord Himself. The ca- 
pital punishment of the murderer in vers. 17, 21, 
is not to be considered as a part simply of the 
lex talionis, but rather as a positive Divine com- 
mand given in accordance with Gen. ix. 6. The 
lex talionis on the other hand, of vers. 19, 20, is 
permissive and restrictive, like so much else in 
the Mosaic legislation. The fundamental prin- 
ciple which should govern man's conduct tow- 
ards his neighbor is given in xix. 18; but as the 
people were so little able to bear this, the an- 
cient indulgence of unlimited revenge is re- 
stricted at least to the equivalent of the injury 
suffered. After the announcement of these gen- 
eral laws, the people carried into execution the 
sentence pronounced upon the Egyptian blas- 
phemer. 

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL. 

I. The fundamental moral laws apply equally 
to all mankind. No one can be exempted from 
them on the ground that he is not in covenant 
relation with their author, or does not acknow- 
ledge himself to be bound by them. 

II. Blasphemy against God is a crime of the 
deepest character, and demands the severest 
punishment. 

III. Exact justice demands the restoration to 
one's neighbor of the precise equivalent of any 
harm done to him, and in case this is a personal 
injury, of a corresponding injury to the offender. 
The law of love comes in to forbid the exaction 
of this penalty on the part of him who is injured; 
but the same law should lead the offender to re- 
store in more ample measure. 

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL. 

Lange : " Blasphemy against the name of Je- 
hovah as the great mortal offence in Israel. Cul- 
mination of the revelation of salvation in Chris- 
tianity ; wherefore here especially the death 
penalty must fall away. The accusation of 
Christ, that He blasphemed God. The blas- 
phemy in the New Testament era, above all 
others, a blasphemy against the grace of God In 
Christ. The name of Jehovah is the witness of 
His covenant truth. — The fearful decree of death 
which lies in this blasphemy itself." 

The evil of marriages with the ungodly is here 
apparent ; also the influence of an ungodly fa- 
ther upon the life and character of Ms child. 
The law requires every accusation to be sub- 
stantiated by the most solemn act of the accu- 
ser ; no one has the right to bring a charge 
against another to the truth of which he cannot 
positively testify, and which he is not prepared 
to support in such wise that, if untrue, guilt 
must recoil on his own head. The equality of 
all men before the law of God is here, as every, 
where in the law, made very prominent. In the 
sufferance of the law of revenge, we see that 
God's will is not always to be known by what 



CHAP. XXV. 1-55. 185 



He may permit to einful man ; He suffers many 
things " for the hardness of their hearts." All 
these commands, and all commands given to man 
rest upon the ultimate ground I am the LORD 
your God. 



But little is said in the New Testament of 
blasphemy, God's displeasure at this sin having 
been expressed so plainly in the Old, and Hia 
will remaining always unalterably the same. 



FOURTH SECTION. 

Of the Sabbatical and Jubilee ^ears. 



"The keeping holy of the hallowed territory, the holy land, by the Sabbatical year ; of the consecrated 
inheritance by the jFubilee l^ear, and thtis also of those who had become impoverished, the Israel- 
ites who had fallen into servitude ; the keeping holy of the outward appearance of the holy land 
{streets and ways) ; of the public Sabbath feast and of the Sanctuary of the religion of the land. 
Ch. XXV. I — xxvi. 2." — Lange. 

Chapter XXV. 1-55. 

1, 2 And the Loed spake unto Moses in mount Sinai, saying, Speak unto the chil- 
dren of Israel, and say unto them, When ye come into the land which I give you, 

3 then shall the land keep a sabbath unto the Lord. Six years thou shalt sow thy 
field, and six years thou shalt prune thy vineyard [fruit garden'], and gather in 

4 the fruit thereof; but in the seventh year shall be a sabbath of rest unto the land, 
a sabbath for the Lord : thou shalt neither sow thy field, nor prune thy vineyard 

5 [fruit garden']. ' That which groweth of its own accord of thy harvest thou shalt 
not reap, neither gather the grapes of thy vine undressed :' for it is a year of rest 

6 unto the land. And the sabbath of the land shall be meat for you ; for thee, and 
for thy servant,* and for thy maid, and for thy hired servant, and for thy stranger 

7 that sojourneth with thee, and for thy cattle, and for the beasts [animals'] that are 
in thy land, shall all the increase thereof be meat. 

8 And thou shalt number seven sabbaths' of years unto thee, seven times seven 
years ; and the space of the seven sabbaths* of years shall be unto thee forty and 

9 nine years. Then shalt thou cause the trumpet of the jubile to sound [cause the 
sound of the cornet to go through the fawrf] on the tenth day of the seventh 
month, in the day of atonement shall ye make the trumpet sound throughout 

10 all your land. And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty 
throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubile' 
unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall 

TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL. 
1 Vers. 3, i. D13- See Textual Note • on xix. 10. 
> Ver. 5. The Sam., IXX. and Syr. prefix tlie conjnnction. 
' Vers. 5, 11. "Vti means primarily Ihe separated (see Gen. xlix. 26 ; Dent, xxxiii. 16), then (hi amiecrated. Except in 

the passages referred to, and in this chap , it is always nsed of the Namriie. It is applied to the Tine either as for this year 
consecrated, so LXX. ayiAiiiiam <rov ; or bj a figure of speech, (hy Nazarile vine, as having Its branches nnpruned like the 
unshorn looks of the Nazarite. The latter is generally preferred by the commentators. See Keil who refers to the Latin 
viridia eoma, TibuU. i. 7, 34; Propert. ii. 15, 12. Ten MSS , the Syr. and Vulg. read the word in the plural. 

* Ver. 6. The Sam. and Syr. read this and the three following words in the plural. 

* Ver. 7. n'nSl. See Textual Note i on xi. 2. 

» Ver. 8. Sabbatii is used here as in xxiii. 15 (a'e note there) rather in a figurative way than with the definite sense of 

t' Ver. 9. The word *73V=J«6»7e of ver. 10 does not occur in this verse, and there is no occasion for its Insertion. The 

ny^in ISity ^ the loud sound, clangor, of an instrument usually translated trumpet in the A, V., but occasionally (1 

Chron. XV. 28; 2 Chron. xv. 14; Ps. xcviii. 6, etc.) more correctly comet. It was either the horn of an animal (according 
t> the Misbna, of chamois or wild goat), or made of metal in the fashion of a horn. The LXX. renders {raKmyi, the Vulg. 

hucdna. I . , ., „ , »T ■ J 

8 Vers. 10, 11, 12, 13, efc. 73V is translated throughout this chapter and ch. xxvu , jubiU. So also Num. xxxvi. 4. 

In Ex. xix. 13 it is rendered trumpet (marg. comet), and in the only other places where it occurs, Josh. vi. 4. 5, 6, 8, 13, ramCa 
ftoras." Outside of the Bible the word is always vpfAt jubilee, but being here spelt yu&t^e, Clark considers that it was intended 
to bo pronounced as a dissyllable, making a close imitation of the Heb. word. Authorities differ as to its sense etymologi- 
cally See the subject discussed in liochart, Hieroz. I. c. 43 (vol. I., pp. 463-466 ed. Boson.), and Gesen. Thes. i. v. The 
LXX renders ai^«<r« with relation to what was to be done in this year lather than as a translation of the Heb. word. 

i27 



186 LEVITICUS. 



11 return every man unto his family. A jubile' shall that fiftieth year be unto you : 
ye shall not sow, neither reap that which groweth of itself in it, nor gather the 

12 grapes in it of thy vine undressed.' For it is the jubile;* it shall be holy unto 
) ou : ye shall eat the increase thereof out of the field. 

13 In the y^ ar of this jubile' ye shall return every man unto his possession. 

14 And if thou sell' ought unto thy neighbor, or buyest ought of thy neighbor's hand, 

15 ye shall not oppress [overreach'"] one another : according to the number of years 
after the jubile* thou shalt buy of thy neighbor, and according unto the number 

16 of years of the fruits he shall sell unto thee : according to the multitude of years 
thou slialt increase the price thereof, and according to the fewness of years thou 
shalt diminish the price of it : for according to the number of the years of the fruits 

17 doth he sell unto th6e. Ye shall not therefore oppress [overreach"] one another; 
but thou shalt fear thy God : for I am the Lord your God. 

18 Wherefore ye shall do my statutes and keep my judgments, and do them; and 

19 ye shall dwell in the land in safety. And the land shall yield her fruit, and ye 
'10 shall eat your fill, and dwell therein in safety. And if ye shall say, What shall 

we eat the seventh year ? behold, we shall not sow, nor gather in our increase: 

21 then I will command my blessing upon you in the sixth year, and it shall bring 

22 forth fruit for three years. And ye shall sow the eighth year, and eat yet of old 
fruit until the ninth year; until her fruits come in ye shall eat o/the old store. 

23 The land shall not be sold for ever :" for the land is mine ; for ye are strangers 

24 and sojourners with me. And in all the land of your possession ye shall grant a 

25 redemption for the land. If thy brother be waxen poor, and hath sold away some 
of his possession, and if any of his kin come to redeem it, then shall he redeem that 

26 which his brother sold. And if the man have none to redeem it, and himself be 

27 [has become'*] able to redeem it ; then let him count the years of the sale thereof, 
and restore the overplus unto the man to whom he sold it : that he may return 

28 unto his possession. But if he be not able to restore it to him, then that which is 
sold shall remain in the hand of him that hath bought it until the year of jubile:' 
and in the jubile' it shall go out, and he shall return unto his possession. 

29 And if a man sell a dwelling house in a walled city, then he may redeem it 
within a whole year after it is sold ; within a full year [a term of days''] may he 

30 redeem it. And if it be not redeemed with the space of a full year, then the house 
that is in the walled city shall be established for ever to him'* that bought it 

31 throughout his generations : it shall not go out in the jubile.^ But the houses of 
the villages which have no wall round about them shall be counted'^ as the fields 
of the country : they may be redeemed, and they shall go out in the jubile.' 

32 Notwithstanding [But concerning"] the cities of the Levites, and [omit and] the 

33 houses of the cities of their possession, may the Levitts redeem at any time. And 
if a man purchase of the Levites," then the house that was sold, and [in"] the city 

Joapphus (Jnl. HI. 12, 3) uspb the Heb. word t(D^^Xo5, which he explains as meaning liberty, e\ev9epiav Sh oTj^atvet Tovvofia, 
The Vulg. haBJvhileua. In Ezek. xlvi. 17 it is called I'll^PI nj^=''^ y«"^ o/ liberty, from which Josephna probably 

derived his interpretation. This accords well with the context in ver. 11, and also with the derivation from 73^=to j!ow 

~T 

frephj. 

8 Ver. 14. The Heb. hss the verb in the phiral ; but the Sam. has the s'ng. in accordance with the sing, pronouns fol- 
lowing. The word buy, njp, is "'f. i^bs., as in Gen. xli. 43. 

I It 

10 Ver. 14. ^Jiri-7X. The verb n^ in the Hiph. applies especially to that sort of civil oppression brought about 

^ TT 

by fraud, which is best^xpressed in English by the word overreach. 

11 Ver. 23. r\nD!^ 7, lit. for cuiling og (as in marg. A. V.), via. Irom all hope of redemption. In modern phrase, in |ier- 

pctuiiy. 

12 Ver. 26. The marg. liis hand hath attained andfovnd aVifficiency exactly renders the Heb.; but the text of the A. V. is 
a BufBciently good translation except in failing to bring out the idea that the ability to redeem has come about since the 
siile took place. The Jewish interpretation was accordingly correct, that the right of redemption sbonlil only accrue in 
case the ability to re-purchase was gained after the sale had taken place ; a merely voluntary sale must hold until the Jubi- 
lee year. _ ^^ 

13 Ver. 29. irivXJl nTin D^D^, lit- days ehaU its redemption be, i. e. the right of redemption shall continue for a 

T '. : . : - • T 

deiinite time and no longer, which time has been explained in the previous clause to be a year; it is better, however, to 
let the translation follow the Heb. than to paraphrase so much as has been done in the A. V. 

" Ver. 30. The k'ri Yj for the text kS is also the reading of the Sam. and of thirteen MSS. 
li> Ver. 31. OE^rr is sing. The Sam., LXX. and Syr. have the plural, 

i« Ver. 32. On this use of the particle 1 see Nordheimer's Heb. Or. § 1093, 6, c, h. It U evident that there is nothing 
said I'bout the redemption of the cities, which the form of the A. V. would seem to imply, but only of the houses in them. 
1" Ver. 33. There is much diversity of opinion as to the meaning of this clause. The text of the A. V. Is supported by 



CHAP. XXV. 1-55. 187 



of his possession, shall go out in the year of jubile :' for the houses of the cities of 

34 the Levites are their possession among the children of Israel. But the field of the 
suburbs of their cities may not be sold ; for it is their perpetual possession. 

35 And if thy brother be waxen poor, and fallen in decay with thee ; then thou 
shalt relieve him : yea, though he he a stranger [poor, and his hand trembles by 
thee, thou shalt hold him up as a stranger''], or a sojourner; that he may live^ 

36 with thee. Take thou no usury of him, or increase : but fear thy God ; that thy 

37 brother may live with thee. Thou shalt not give him thy money" upon usury, nor 

38 lend him thy victuals for increase. I am the Lord your God, which brought' you 
forth out of the land of Egypt, to give you the land of Canaan, and to be your God. 

39 And if thy brother that dwelleth by thee be waxen poor, and be sold unto thee ; 

40 thou shalt not compel him to serve as a bondservant : but as an hired servant, and 
as a sojourner, he shall be with thee, and shall serve thee unto the yearof jubile ■? 

41 and then shall he depart from thee, both he and his childreu with him, and shall 
return unto his own family, and unto the possession of his fathers shall he return. 

42 For they are my servants, which I brought forth out of the land of Egypt : they 

43 shall not be sold as bondmen. Thou shalt not rule over him with rigor; but shalt 

44 fear thy God. Both thy bondmen, and thy bondmaids, which thou shalt have, 
shall he of the heathen that are round about you ; of them shall ye buy bondmen 

45 and bondmaids. Moreover of the children of the strangers that do sojourn among 
you, of them shall ye buy, and of their families that are with you, which they begat 

46 in your land : and they shall be your possession. And ye shall take them as an 
inheritance for your children after you, to inherit them for a possession ; they shall 
be your bondmen for ever : but over your brethren the children of Israel, ye shall 
not rule one over another with rigor. 

47 And if a sojourner or stranger wax rich by thee, and thy brother that dwelleth by 
him wax poor, and sell himself unto the stranger or'^^ sojourner by thee, or to the stock 

48 of the stranger's family : after that he is sold he may be redeemed again; one of his 

49 brethren may redeem him ; either his uncle, or his uncle's son, may redeem him, 
or any that is nigh of kin'^ unto him of his family may redeem him ; or if he be 

50 able, he may redeem himself. And he shall reckon with him that bought him 
from the year that he was sold to him unto the year of jubile :* and the price of 
his sale shall be according unto the number of years, according to the time of an 

51 hired servant shall it be with him. If there he yet many years behind, accordirtg 
unto them he shall give again the price of his redemption out of the money that 

52 he was bought for. And if there remain but few years unto the year of jubile,^ 
then he shall count with him, and according unto his years shall he give him again 

53 the price of his redemption. And as a yearly hired servant shall he be with him : 

54 and the other shall not rule with rigor over him in thy sight. And if he be not 
redeemed in these years [by these means''^], then he shall go out in the year of jubi- 

the IiXX. and by the Targnms, and ia defended by Keil. A difficulty arises from the use of the word ^KT— redeem ; but 
Keil maintains, on the authority of the lUbbins, that this is used in the sense of njp='o Imy. He grounds the usage on 

TlT 

the fact that the Levitical cities were originally ass'gned to the tribes as a part of tbeir inheritancp ; they relinquished the 
houses, or a part of the houses in them (together with pasture grounds) to the Levites tordW' lling-piacts. When therefore 
one of another tribe purchased of a levite, he was in fact redeeming tlie inhiTitniice of his tribe. Su Murphy. On the other 
hand, the reading: If one of the Levites redeems a house in the city (according to the marg. of the A, V.), is preferred by CiJirk 
following Rosenmhller, I>e" Wette, Kranold, Herxheimer and others. The meaning will then be, that if a Levite has sold 
a house to one of another tribe, and aootht-r Levite redeem it, then in the Jubilee year it must revert to its original pos- 
serisor. But it is more than questionable whether the Levites had any such general right of redemption on behalf of their 
felliw Levites as this would suppose. The Vulg. inserts a nef^ative, 8i redfmploe (sc. cedes) von fuerint, and this is sustained 
b.v Houbigant, and preferred by Woide, Ewald, Bunsen and Knobel. It is adopted by Lunge in the translation and exege- 
sis ; but it is a serious objei^tion that it would require a change in the Ueb. On the whole, the text of the A. V. seems best 
sustained, and gives the clearest sense. 

13 Ver, 33. On the use of 1 in the figure Hendiadys see Gesen. s. v. 1, b. 

" Yer. 35. The particle ai is in<ierted here by the LXX., Yulg., Targnms, Luther, fi/c, and is recognized as to be sup- 
plied by many commentators, as Kei', Olark and others. So also Riggs. On the other hand the Syr. gives just the opposite 
sense : thou shalt not hold him for a sojourner or foreigner ; but he shall live with thee. Others, as Lange, adopt the sense 
expressed in the A. V. 

20 Ver, 35. ^Hl according to Keil, an abbreviation for ^Hl occurring only here. 

*i Ver. 47. The' missing wmjunction is supplied in ten MSS., the LXX. and Syr. 

2S Ver! 49. See Textual Note * on xviii. 6. 

2« Ver. 54. The Heb, does not express the noun at all. That supplied by the marg. of the A. V. is clearly more agree- 
able to the context than that in the text. So Lange, following the Syr. The other ancient versions do not supply the 
ellipsis, , 



188 



LEVITICUS. 



55 le,' both he, and his children with him. For unto me the children of Israel are 
servants ; they are my servants whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt : I 
am the Lokd your God. 



EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL. 

This chapter, with the first two verses of the 
following one, forms another Parashah or proper 
lesson of the law ; the parallel lesson from the 
prophets is Jer. xxxii. 6-27, concerning Jere- 
miah's redemption of Hanameel's field in Ana- 
thoth. This and the following chapter, which is 
the conclusion of the book proper, form a single 
Divine communication. " The institution of the 
jubilee years corresponds to the institution of 
the day of atonement (oh. xvi.). Just as all the 
sins and unoleannesses of the whole congrega- 
tion, which had remained uuatoned for and un- 
cleansed in the course of the year, were to be 
wiped away by the all-embracing expiation of 
the yearly recurring day of atonement, and an 
undisturbed relation to be restored between Je- 
hovah and His people ; so, by the appointment 
of the year of jubilee, the disturbance and con- 
fusion of the divinely appointed relations, which 
had been introduced in the course of time through 
the inconstancy of all human or earthly things, 
were to be removed by the appointment of the 
year of Jubilee, and the kingdom of Israel to be 
brought hack to its original condition." Keil. 
The systematic character and correspondence of 
the two great divisions of Leviticus are thus 
brought into view. 

The institution of the Sabbatical year occu- 
pies the first seven verses, and that of the year 
of Jubilee, with its effscts upon rights and pro- 
perty, the remainder of the chapter. The latter 
may be subdivided into the institution itself 
(vers. 8-12); the legal return of every man to 
his own land, and the efi'ect of this on contracts 
(vers. 13-34) ; and finally the emancipation of 
the Hebrew slave with its consequences (vers. 
35-55). "The Sabbatical year and the year of 
Jubilee belong to that great Sabbatical system 
which runs through the religious observances of 
the law. They were solemnly connected with 
the sacred Covenant." Clark. They are there- 
fore appropriately placed immediately after the 
"appointed seasons" of the previous chapter; 
yet they are also somewhat separated from these, 
as "they wpre distinguished by no religious ce- 
remonies, they were accompanied by no act of 
religious worship. There were no sacrifices, 
nor Holy Convocations belonging to them." Al- 
though forming a part of the Hebrew ecclesias- 
tical system, they were yet chiefly marked in 
their effects by their civil and social relations. 
As the whole civil polity of Israel was funda- 
mentally theocratic, so were these remarkable 
provisions in their national life placed upon a 
religious basis. 

" There are perhaps in the whole ancient world 
no institutions bearing comparison with the He- 
brew year of release and of Jubilee, either In 
comprehensiveness or in loftiness of principle. 
It is impossible to appreciate too highly the 
wonderful consistency with which the Sabbath 
was made the foundation of a grand aeries of 
celebrations extending from the Sabbath-day to 



the Sabbath-month, and the Sabbath-year, and 
lastly to a great Sabbath-period of years. And 
all these institutions were associated with ideas 
admirably calculated to foster both a sense of 
dignity and humility, both zeal in practical pur- 
suits and spiritual elevation, both prudence and 
charity." Ealisch. 

" The fundamental thought is: Jehovah is the 
Lord of the land of Jehovah, with all its bless- 
ings, with its soil and its harvests, with its inhe- 
ritances and its dwellings, with its rich and its 
poor, with its free and its slaves, its roads and 
its bye-ways, its holy seasons, the Sabbath days 
and its central holy place, the Tabernacle." 
Lange. 

Vers. 1-7. In monnt Sinai clearly means 
in the region about the mountain, as in vii, 38; 
xxvi. 46 ; xxvii. 34, etc. " Mount Sinai is em- 
phasized to allow the immediately following or- 
dinance to come into prominence as a prophecy 
of the distant future." Lange. Neither the Sab- 
batical nor the Jubilee year were to be observed 
until the settlement of the people in the promised 
land. On ver. 4 Lange quotes Keil as follows : 
" The omission of sowing and reaping presup- 
posed that the Sabbatical year commenced with 
the civil year, in the autumn of the sixth year 
of labor, and not with the ecclesiastical year, on 
the first of Abib (Nisan), and that it lasted till 
the Autumn of the seventh year, when the culti- 
vation of the land would commence again with 
the preparation of the ground and the sowing of 
the seed for the eighth year ; and with this the 
command to proclaim the jubilee year 'on the 
tenth day of the seventh month ' throughout all 
the land (ver. 9), and the calculation in vers. 21, 
22, fully agree." On the expression Sabbath 
Sabbathon of ver. 4, see Textual Note 2 on xxiii. 
8. In vers. 4-7 all agricultural labor is forbid- 
den for the Sabbatical year. Two questions 
arise: how were the wants of the people to be 
provided for during the year? and how was the 
time thus freed from its usual employments to 
be spent ? In n gard to the first, reference ia 
usually made to the great productiveness of the 
land, and to the fact that there would be a con- 
siderable spontaneous growth of grain, while the 
fruit trees and the vine would of course bear 
nearly as usual. Greater use would also have 
been made of animal food by those who pos- 
sessed cattle, or were able to purchase it, and 
the uncropped fields would have allowed of the 
support of herds and flocks in unusual numbers. 
These facts lessen the difliculty, and indeed re- 
move it altogether for the wealthy and for the 
poor also during several months of the year; all 
this spontaneous produce was common property, 
and might be gathered by any one for immediate 
use but not stored. Undoubtedly during the 
time of the ripening of the various cereals there 
would thus be abundant provision for the wants 
of the whole population. But after all, the main 
reliance must have been upon the stores laid up 
previously in view of the coming on of the Sab- 
batical year, and this is poiuted out in vers. 20, 
21. It ia also to be noticed that only agrioul- 



CHAP. XXV. 1-65. 



189 



tural labor was suspended, and that the com- 
merce of the cities went on as usual. In regard 
to the employment of the time: the command is 
given in Deut. xxxi. 10-12, that at the feast of 
Tabernacles in this year the law should be read 
in the hearing of all the people, including not 
merely the men who were alone required in other 
years to assemble at the feast, but also the wo- 
men and children. This provision, joined with 
the analogy of the seventh day, shows that the 
leisure of the Sabbatical year was to be improved 
in acquiring a knowledge of the Divine law, and 
doubtless in renewing family ties and associa- 
tions. It is distinguished not as an idle year, 
but as a year of intellectual and moral, rather 
than of manual occupation. Other passages in 
the law on this subject are Ex. xxili. 10, 11, and 
Deut. XV. 1-18. The latter is the most detailed 
of all, and provides for the release in that year 
of all debts due from Israelites, and of all Isra- 
elites in bond- service. The Sabbatical year 
was doubtless provided for the sake of man 
and its bearing upon bis spiritual welfare ; 
yet when the law pronounces (ver. 2) the land 
shall keep a Sabbath unto the LORD, 
we are forced to see a symbolical significance in 
the very rest of the land itself. " The earth 
was to be saved from the hand of man exhaust- 
ing its power for earthly purposes as his own 
property, and to enjoy the holy rest with which 
God had blessed the earth and all its productions 
after the creation. From this, Israel, as the na- 
tion of God, was to learn, on the one hand, that 
although the earth was created for man, it was 
not merely created for him to draw out its pow- 
ers for his own use, but also to be holy to the 
Lord, and participate in His blessed rest; and 
on the other hand, that the great purpose for 
which the congregation of the Lord existed, did 
not consist in the uninterrupted tilling of the 
earth, connected with bitter labor in the sweat 
of his brow (Gen. iii. 17, 19), but in the peaceful 
enjoyment of the fruits of the earth, which the 
Lord their God had given them, and would give 
them still without the labor of their hands, if 
they strove to keep His covenant and satisfy 
themselves with His grace." Keil. The law of 
the Sabbatical year was not to come into opera- 
tion until after the completion of the conquest. 
It is hardly probable that it was actually ob- 
served until (he Captivity, see 2 Chron. xxxvi. 
21, unless possibly a few times in the very be- 
ginning of the settlement in Canaan. Later, 
" there are found several historical notices which 
imply its observance. The Jews were exempted 
from tribute in the Sabbatical year by Alexander 
the Great (Jos. Ant. xi. 8, 6), and by Julius 
CsBsar {ib. xiv. 10, 6). The inhabitants of Beth- 
sura could not stand out when besieged by An- 
tiochus Epiphanes, because they had no store of 
provisions owing to the Sabbatical year (I Mace. 
vi. 49), and the inhabitants of Jerusalem suf- 
fered from a like cause when they were besieged 
by Herod (Jos. Ant. xiv. 16, 2 ; xv. 1, 2) " 
Clark. Tacitus also mentions the Jewish " sev- 
enth year given to indolence " (Siat. v. 2, 4), 
and St. Paul (Gal. iv. 10) charges the Judaizers 
with observing yearg as well as days and months. 
Vers. 8-12. The institution of the year of Ju- 
bilee. The present chapter contains the whole 



literature of the Jubilee year to be found in the 
Pentateuch, except the discussion of its effect 
upon fields dedicated to the Lord in xxvii. 16- 
25, and except also the allusion in the case of 
the daughters of Zelophebad, Num. xxxvi. 4. 
Lange: "The relation of the last Sabbatical 
year to the Jubilee year itself creates a special 
difSoulty. If the people did not sow or reap 
during two years, there would result a stoppage 
of four years." [This seems to overlook the 
fact that the Jubilee was proclaimed on the 10th 
Tisri, when the whole work of the agricultural 
year had been rounded out and completed, so 
that the break of two years, serious as this was, 
did not extend either forward or backward in 
its effects beyond those years themselves. — P. 
G.]. " On this acoouat it has indeed been sup- 
posed that the 49ih year itself was the Jubilee 
year (see Keil, p. 162 [Trans, p. 468]. Art. 
Sabbath and Jobeljahr in Herzog's Real-eneyclo- 
padie)." [This view was first advocated by R. 
Jehuda, and has been adopted by Scaliger. Usher, 
Petavius, Roseumiiller, and others, and hesita- 
tingly by Clark in his commentary. It is en- 
tirely rejected by Keil as contradictory to the 
plain language of the text, and by Clark in his 
Art. Jubilee in Smith's Bibl. Diet. The text 
(vers. 8-11) is perfectly plain, using the same 
forms of language as in regard to the feast of 
Pentecost after the completion of the seven weeks, 
between which and this Pentecostal year there 
is a clear analogy. Notwithstanding the autho- 
rity of the critics above referred to, it must be 
considered as certain that the Jubilee followed 
the seventh Sabbatical year, and that thus once 
in every half century two fallow years were to 
occur together. The provisions for food were 
the same in the one case as in the other : no 
agricultural labor was to be performed, but the 
spontaneous productions of the earth were the 
common property of the whole populatioa. Large 
reliance must therefore have been placed upon 
food previously stored and, perhaps, on foreign 
commerce. — P. G.] "We see from the book of 
Jeremiah that this feast was poorly kept in Is- 
rael, not on account of apprehended need, but in 
consequence of the hardening effect of proprie- 
tary relations, and the hard-heartedness of the 
powerful and great (Knobel, p. 563. Jer. xxxiv.). 
But the year of Jubilee formed the culmination 
of the ideal relations of Israel which the law 
aimed at without actually reaching. ... It is 
most full of significance that on the 10th of the 
7th month (at the end of the seven Sabbatical 
years on the great day of Atonement, without 
doubt immediately after the full accomplishment 
of the propitiation) the trombone was to sound 
through all the land to announce the year of Ju- 
bilee as a year of freedom (1^11.), the highest 
feast of the laborer, and of nature, the redemp- 
tion of lost inheritances, the ransom of the en- 
slaved, the year of the restoration of all things 
(Isa. Ixi.). Theinstrument of the announcement 
is the trombone, the horn (^^^t!'), the sound of 

which hiV had proclaimed also the feast of the 
covenant of the law." After the solemn quiet 
of the day when all the people must " afiliot their 
souls," and when the grsat rites of the annual 
propitiation had been completed, probably at the 



190 



LEVITICUS. 



time of the eveniag sacrifice, tlie sudden burst 
of sound proclaiming tlieyear of Jubilee must liave 
been peculiarly impressive. The proclamation of 
freedom was most appropriate just after the great 
reconciliation of the people with God had been 
symbolically completed. The chief allusions to 
this year in the prophets are Isa. Ixi. 1, 2 ; Jer. 
xxxii. 6-15; Ezek. vii. 12, 13; xlvi. 16-18. 

Vers. 13-34. la the year of Jubilee every man 
was to return to his inherited possession. The 
principle on which this law is based is given in 
ver. 23 : The land was the absolute possession 
of Jehovah alone; He had allotted it to the fa- 
milies of Israel as strangers and sojourners 
with Him, and however these allotmeois might 
be temporarily disturbed in the exigencies of 
life, in the Jubilee they must all be restored 
again. Ver. 14. Sell aught refers only to land 
and houses in the country. Personal property 
(except slaves) was not affected by the Jubilee 
as debts were by the Sabbatical year (Deut. xv. 
1-11). The price of the laud was determined 
(vers. 15, 16) by the value of the harvests re- 
maining until the Jubilee. **Ia the valuation 
of the harvest there was always opportunity for 
fraud ; therefore the earnest warning not to op- 
press [overreach] one's neighbor." L,ange. 
Vers. 20-22 relate in terms to the sabbatical year, 
but only in regard to the supply of food. This 
is of course, equally applicable to the Jubilee 
year, and thus both cases are covered. The 
question arises in connection with the latter, but 
needs also to be answered for the former, and is 
therefore arranged with reference to that as the 
more frequently recurring. The verses stand 
therefore quite in their proper place; if placed, 
as various critics would have them, just after 
ver. 7, the Jubilee year could only be provided 
for by a repetition. Vers. 23-28. Lange: " The 
land shall not be sold even to defeasance, i, e., 
compleiely. It shall also not be sold absolutely ; 
the form is not an hereditary lease, once for all, 
but a temporary lease for a course of years. — • 
For the land is Mine, Jehovah says, and ye 
are strangers and sojourners V7ith Me— 
Therefore ttie soil throughout the whole laud was 
placed under the law of redemption. Also re- 
demption could take place before the 50rh year 
if the nearest Gael or redeemer of the impover- 
ished man stepped in and bought back for his 
benefit that which had been alienated. If the 
redeemers (relatives, according to their degrees 
of relationship, having the ability and the will) 
failed, then the case was conceivable that the 
impoverished man himself might come into the 
possession of means before the 50ih year, and 
then the redemption was reserved to him accord- 
ing to the usufruct of the yet remaining years." 
If neither of these means of redemption were 
availed of, then the law of reversion absolutely 
and without consideration came into play in the 
Jubdee year. There could never be injustice in 
this, as all purchases had been made with a full 
knowledge of the law. The law, If thy bro- 
ther be ■waxen poor, throughout presupposes 
that no Israelite would Bell his inheritance ex- 
cept under the pressure of poverty. Comp. 1 
Kings xxi. 3. 

Vers. 29-34. The alienation and redemption 
of houses (a) of the people generally, vers. 29- 



31; (A) of the Levites, vers. 32-34. (a) Lange: 
"A dwelling-house within a walled city could 
be redeemed within the space of the first year, 
but not afterwards. The law could not be 
brought to bear upon the more fixed relationi 
of oitioD without prejudice to justice and order. 
Tho reason certainly is not that the houses in 
the cities belonged "to the full proprietorship 
of their possessors.'' The possessors themselves 
were really tenants of Jehovah." [The law of 
redemption relates to land, and is based upon 
the original division of the land among the fami- 
lies of Israel. In cities the original value of 
the land constituted but a small part of the value 
of a house; the rest was the creation of human 
industry. The property represented by the ori- 
ginal value of the land is recognized in the right 
of redemption for a year, which also concurred 
with the general purpose of the law in checking 
the Bale of real estate; but beyond this the 
house in the city was justly treated as of the 
nature of personal property. Calvin also ob- 
serves justly that there was not the same objec- 
tion to the falling of city houses into the hands 
of the wealthy as of those in the coun'ry. On 
the one hand, the expense of maintaining them 
was greater, and could be better borne by the 
wealthy ; and on the other, the possession of a 
house was not at all as necessary to a poor man 
in the city as in the country where he could 
scarcely otherwise find shelter. — F. G.] " But 
the houses in open places were put, as an appur- 
tenance to the farm, under the law of redemp- 
tion within the fiftieth year, or of reversion at 
the end of that period." (i) See the Textual 
Notes on vers. 32, 33. Lange, in hia translation 
and exegesis of ver. 83, follows the Vulgate, and 
objects to the view of Keil as too subtle, and as 
inapplicable to the clause : and the city of 
his possession. The latter objection is re- 
moved by consid-ring this as a hendiadys, and 
translating in the city. Lange considers that the 
clause " has something like these the senses: even 
houses of the Levites fall back again, even if 
they were the whole city. Or again: only by 
this means the Leviiical cities remain guaranteed 
as such," The pasturage of the Levites was 
absolutely inalienable, even temporarily (ver. 
34), and the reason for extending the law of 
redemption to their houses in the cities is evi- 
dently that they had no other inheritance, and 
it was therefore necessary in this to assimilate 
them to the rest of the people that they might 
enjoy the same safeguards against hopele-o 
poverty with their brethren. This provisio i 
applied to the priests also, who constituted one 
family of the Levites, and were in the same situ- 
ation as their brethren in regard to landed pro- 
perty. It 4S noticeable on the one hand that 
this is the only mention of the Levites in this 
book; and on the other, that the provision of 
cities for them had not yet been announced. 
Both facts admit of the easy explanation that 
the whole legislation had been communicated to 
Moses in the Mount, so that any part of it may 
presuppose another; but that he was to an- 
nounce it to the people in the order best adapted 
to their needs. The Levites are not therefore 
spoken of in this book, except thus incidentally 
in order to keep them distinct from the priests; 



CHAP. XXV. 1-55. 



191 



and the law in regard to the redemption of their 
houses in their cities is given to complete the 
law of Jubilee ; but the assignment of the cities 
themselves is reserved to the directions for the 
division of the land. 

Vers. 35-55. The emancipation of the Hebrew 
slave with its consequences. The main subject 
is still the law of Jubilee; but in connection 
with the effect of this upon the Hebrew slave, 
the treatment of the poor generally is spoken 
of. — And if thy brother, i. e. an Israelite, 
be w^axen poor, he was not to be treated as 
an outcast, but with the consideration shown to 
a resident foreigner, who also had no landed 
possession. Vers. 36, 37, forbid the taking of 
usury of him, or increase. In the latter 
verse this is applied also to the furnishing of 
food. It is entirely clear that the prohibition is 
not simply of what is now commonly called usu- 
rious interest, but of any interest whatever. 
There was no law regulating the amount of in- 
terest ; no interest was allowed to be taken of a 
Hebrew brother, and no limitation was put upon 
that which might be demanded of a foreigner. 
Lange, however, considers the words : a stran- 
ger or a sojourner (ver. 85) as in apposition 
with tlie pronoun him, and taking the view ex- 
pressed in the A. V., says: "It is very noticea- 
ble that this holds good also of the foreigner." 
See Textual Note 19. Lange adds: "Jehovah 
says this, the great Benefactor, who has deli- 
vered His Israel out of Egypt, and purposes to 
give him the whole land of Canaan, in order to 
make him, through thankfulness, like-minded 
with his God." (Ver. 88.) Vers. 39-43. He- 
brew servants to Hebrews. The law provides 
that such servants shall not be treated as ordi- 
nary slaves entirely dependent upon the will of 
their master, but rather as simply under a con- 
tract, like a hired servant. In Ex. xxi. 1-4 it 
has already been provided that the term of ser- 
_ vitude for the Israelites should not extend be- 
yond six years, and in the seventh they should 
go out free ; it is now further provided, as an 
almost necessary supplement to that law, that, 
whatever the number of years he might chance 
to have served, he should go free in the Jubilee 
when the land of his inheritance reverted to 
him, and would need his care. " Through this 
principle slavery was completely abolished, so 
far as the people of the theocracy were con- 
eerned." Oehler. In Ex. the freedom of his 
wife and children is also assured, unless the 
wife be one given him by his master, and there- 
fore his slave. In that case the wife and chil- 
dren remained the master's, and the same quali- 
fication is doubtless to be understood of ver. 41 
here. In Ex. xxi. 5, 6, provision is made for 
the case of a slave who preferred to continue 
with his master ; it would have been unneces- 
sary at any rate to mention this unusual excep- 
tion here ; but probably it applied only to the 
ordinary release in the seventh year of service, 
and was not intended to take place also at the 
Jubilee. If the slave freed at the Jubilee chose 
to go back to his master, he could of course do 
so but could only devote himself to perpetual 
servitude after another six years' service. Vers. 
42 48. Lange : " The Israelites were not allowed 
to become men's slaves, because they were God's 



slaves. The Jews could misinterpret these noble 
words in arrogance in opposition to the heathen 
(Jno. viii.); but Christian industry has read 
them too little." Vers. 44-46. Heathen slaves 
of Hebrew masters. The Israelites, in common 
with all nations of their lime, were permitted to 
hold heathen slaves. It was a patriarchal cus- 
tom of long standing, and the supply was kept 
up by natural descent, by purchase from for- 
eigners, and by captives taken in war. The 
people were not yet prepared for the abrogation 
of this, and in consequence the Mosaic law per- 
mits its continuance, but in many ways mitigates 
its rigor (see Ex. xxi. 16, 21, 2b, 27), especially 
by providing that the slave might adopt the reli- 
gion of his master, and be circumcised, and thus 
entitled to all the privileges of a Hebrew servant 
(comp. Ex. xii. 44). This had certainly been 
done with all the slaves of Abraham, and proba- 
bly with those of Isaac and Jacob. It is likely 
that no inconsiderable portion of the Israelites 
of the time of Vloses were the descendants of 
slaves thus manumitted. Vers. 47-55. Hebrew 
servants to foreign masters. By this addition 
all possible cases of servitude are covered. 
Lange: "The prohibition of oppressive power 
against an Israelite brother occurs again ver. 
43, and again ver. 46. So strongly were the 
Israelites now bound to charitableness and to 
the fostering of freedom; so strongly also was 
the power of the stranger and foreigner coming 
into Israel limited in relation to heathen en- 
croachments upon the Jewish right of freedom. 
If an impoverished Jew sold himself or his house 
to a foreigner, any one of his kindred might be- 
come his redeemer, the brother, the uncle, the 
uncle's son, or any blood relation ; also he might 
redeem himself, if he had laid by enough for the 
purpose. Everything breathed the tendency to 
freedom; but it was conditioned by law. The 
price of the redemption was fixed according to 
the years which he had yet to serve to the year 
of Jubilee, and according to the usual wages. 
In case there was no redemption, he was set 
free in the year of Jubilee. At the close occurs 
yet once more the soletnn sanction of the law, 
ver. 55." This law evidently contemplates the 
acquisition of wenlth by foreigners residing in 
Israel, and their living in undisturbed prosper- 
ity. The Hebrew slave of a Hebrew was released 
without redemption after six years of service, 
and also in the year of Jubilee whenever that 
might occur ; but apparently the law of Ex. xxi. 
does not apply to foreign masters, and here 
nothing is said of release, except by redemption, 
until the Jubilee. This would be a strong in- 
ducement to an impoverished Hebrew to sell 
himself to an Israelite rather than a foreigner, 
and concurs with the general tendency of the 
law to discourage any subjection to foreigners. 

Lange connects the first two verses of the fol- 
lowing chapter with this section as is done in 
the Jewish Parashah. They seem, however, to 
belong to the general conclusion of the book 
contained in the following chapter. 

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL. 

I. Lange (under Exegetical) : "The chosen 
land, seen from a distance, appears as a paradi- 



192 



LEVITICUS. 



gaical world, inexhaustible in fruitfulneaa. . . . 
But it is to be particularly noticed that the pre- 
scribed Sabbath rest of the land forced the peo- 
ple back again to the inexhaustible source of 
food in the breeding of cattle, and so far to sim- 
ple Idyllic relations ; the breaking the hardness 
of purchase and property relations would fur- 
ther the return of Idyllic simplicity, soften the 
differences of rank, and above all, avert the so- 
called proletarian relations, and glorify Jehovah 
as the gentle sovereign Lord and manor Lord 
of the families of Israel joined together in bro- 
therhood. By this also comfort was brought to 
the cattle, and even to the wild animal. In later 
times the turbulent, restless pressing on of in- 
dustry is not appeased by voluntary or legal 
times of rest and years of remission, but indeed 
by commercial crises, civil catastrophes and 
extraordinary helps in necessity ; but the proper 
ideas or ideal of the Sabbatical and Jubilee years 
have not yet come to be clearly seen in the 
Christian consciousness of the time." What is 
noted by H. Spencer as the rythmic flow of all 
things in the universe is provided for in regard 
to human activity in this wonderful legislation ; 
the disastrous consequences attending its absence 
are noted above by Lange. 

II. Lange (also under Exeg.): "The limita- 
tion of human proprietary right to the soil has 
also its permanent ideal significance. God chal- 
lenges to tlimself the royal right over terrestrial 
nature, as a clear idea of this is given indeed in 
the winter storm over the sea, the Alpine glacier 
and the deserts. Man is inclined, in his ego- 
tistical industry, to harass nature as his beast." 

III. "Looking at the law of Jubilee from a 
simply practical point of view, its operation 
must have tended to remedy those evils which 
are always growing up in the ordinary condi- 
tions of human society. It prevented the per- 
manent accumulation of land in the hands of a 
few, and periodically raised those whom fault, 
or misfortune had sunk into poverty to a posi- 
tion of competency. It must also have tended 
to keep alive family feeling, and helped to pre- 
serve the family genealogies But in its 

more special character, as a law given by Jeho- 
vah to His peculiar people, it was a standing 
lesson to those who would rightly regard it, on 
the terms upon which the enjoyment of the land 
of Promise had been conferred upon them. All 
the land belonged lo Jehovah as its supreme 
Lord, every Israelite as His vassal belonged to 
Him." Clark. 

IV. The law of slavery as understood among 
ancient nations generally is here essentially 
modified and softened, the Levitical precepts 
tending in the same direction with those of the 
Gospel which, after so long a time, have now 
nearly effected its abolition throughout the civi- 
lized world. But in regard to the Hebrews 
themselves, the law went much further, and 
substantially abolished slavery at once, reducing 
it to a six years' service, and even this inter- 
rupted by the year of Jubilee, and subject to 
many restrictions. It is still further to be re- 
membered that any foreign slave might be ad- 



mitted to the privileges ef the Hebrew, by 
becoming an Israelite through the reception of 
circumcision. Thus strongly did the law set its 
face against the institution of slavery. 

HOMILETICAL AND PKACTICAL. 

Lange (under Exeg.) : " The Sabbath year is 
the germ of the Jubilee year, as this is a type 
of the New Testament time of deliverance, resto- 
ration and freedom (Isa. Ixi. ; Luke iv. 18), and 
further, a prelude and a prophecy of the hea- 
venly and eternal Sabbath itself (Heb. iv.)." 

Lange (Homiletik): "The year of Jubilee of 
the theocratic land. The great year of rejoicing 
in the theocratic community. Ideals which 
have been scantily and scarcely fulfilled in the 
letter in Israel, but which in Christianity are 
continually being realized in the spirit. And 
this indeed in the commendable care of the fields 
and forests ; in the dread of a gross profit out 
of nature; in the limitation of the proprietary 
right of individuals over nature ; in customs of 
gentleness ; in the consecration of the social 
right of fellowship; the right of the poor, the 
right of the laboring man, the right of rent and 
purchase. The later dismal caricatures of these 
ideals. Seven years a period after which the 
administration of nature required a new revi- 
sion ; forty [fifty] years a period after which 
the arrangements of business required a revi- 
sion. The neglect of reform a source of revolu- 
tion. The Jubilee year a, type of the Gospel 
time of deliverance (Isa. Ixi. ; Luke iv. 16). 
The true preaching of the Gospel always a pro- 
clamation of the true Jubilee year. The Jewish 
and the Christian emancipation from slavery: 1) 
its common foundation, 2) its greater differ- 
ence, 3) its unceasing development in the world." 

As the law provided for a redeemer for the 
poor, so, says Wordsworth, Christ became the 
Redeemer for the spiritually poor, reinstating 
us in our lost estate, and delivering us from the 
bondage of sin ; and this He was entitled to do 
because by His incarnation He took our nature 
and became our Kinsman. 

By the prohibition of sowing and harvesting 
in the Sabbatical and Jubilee years was again 
taught that principle which the Israelites learned 
from the manna in the wilderness, and which 
the words of Christ make of perpetual validity, 
that "man doth not live by bread alone, but by 
every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of 
the Lord." 

Very full and striking are the provisions of 
this chapter for the loving care of the poor, not 
for the sake of the poor only, but for the sake 
of him who should show them kindness. That 
the blessing of this lesson might not cease with 
the Mosaic dispensation, God has provided that 
we shall have the poor always with us, and our 
Lord has elevated our ministrations to them into 
ministrations to Himself. Similarly kindness 
and consideration towards those who labor for 
us is taught by Moses, and is ever made one of 
the prominent practical duties of Christianity. 
See Eph. vi, 9, etc. 



CHAP. XXVI. 1-46. in 



PART FOURTH. 

Conclusion. — Promises and Threats. 
Chaptek XXVI. 1-46. 

1 Ye shall make you no idols' nor graven image,' neither rear you up a standing 
image,' neither shall ye set up any image of stone* in your land, to bow down unto' 

2 it : for I am the Lord your God. Ye shall keep my sabbaths, and reverence my 
sanctuary : I am the Lord. 

3,4 If ye walk in my statutes, and keep my commandments, and do them; then 
will I give you rain in due season, and the land shall yield her increase, and the 

5 trees of the field shall yield their fruit. And your threshing shall reach unto the 
vintage, and the vintage shall reach unto the sowing time : and ye shall eat your 

6 bread to the full, and dwell in your land safely. And I will give peace in the land, 
and ye shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid : and I will rid evil beasts 

7 [animals'] out of the laud, neither shall the sword go through your land. And ye 

8 shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword. And five 
of you shall chase an hundred, and an hundred of you shall put ten thousand to 

9 flight : and your enemies shall fall before you by the sword. For I will have re- 
spect unto you, and make you fruitful, and multiply you, and establish my cove- 

10 nant with you. And ye shall eat old store, and bring forth [clear away'] the old 

11 because of the new. And I will set my tabernacle [dwelling-place*] among you: 

12 and my soul shall not abhor you. And I will walk among you, and will be your 

13 God, and ye shall be my people. I am the Lord your God, which brought you 
forth out of the land of Egypt, that ye should not be their bundmen : and I have 
broken the bands' of your yoke, and made you go upright. 

14 But if ye will not hearken unto me, and will not do all these commandments; 
J.5 and'" if ye shall despise my statutes, or if your soul abhor my judgments, so that ye 

TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL. 

* Ver. 1. dVSn. See Textual Note ' on xix. 4. 

* Ver. 1. 7p3, from 7D3 to carve, is uatd of an image of any material, but Is here taken, as in Isa. xliv. 15, 17 ; xIt. 

20, of an image of wood. 

B Ver. 1. n^'^D lit. anything eel up. Hence used of a memorial stone, Gen. xxviii. 18-22; xxxt. 14; Isa. xix. 19; an. 
y ..- 

Bwering to the Aitfapoi Xiirapoi of the ancients. As these came to be used for idolatrous purposes the word obtained Its 

B9condary sense as in the text, (Ex. xxiii. 24 ; 2 Ki. iii, 2, etc.). The marg. of the A. V. follows the LXX. cttvAtjc. The Vulg. 

has titalum. 

* Ver. 1. n''3feyD tloes not elsewhere occur in connection with |3X, but its meaning by itself figure, imagery, is suflB- 

ciently well settled. The only question here is whether the phrase denotes an image of stone (A. V. so K-^il), or a alone with 
images sculptured upon it (A. V. marg. R'Seu,). The latter is probably the more correct view, but not sufficit-ntly certain to 
warrant a change in the text. LXX. \i6ov irKoirbv apparently in the sense of a prophylaclery, and of this the Vulg. lapl. 
Aem insignem may b^j a translation. Targ. Onk., and Jon. and Syr. stone of adoratimi ; Targ. Jerus. al^ne of error. 

* Ver. 1. The construction of 7J? here has somewhat perplexed the critics. Oeddes contends that as it never elsewhere 
precedes the object of adoration, it must here signify at, by, or ftpon. Keil explains it " on the groimd that the worshipper 
of a stone image rises above it (for 7^ in this sense, see Gen. xviii. 2)." But this fact is, at the least, very doubtful ; and 
the ordinary meaning of 7J^ as signifying motion towards, ctti, seems to be all that the connection requires. 

* Ver. 6. n'n. See Textnal Note 1 on xi. 2. 

T Ver. 10. ^X'3fin Is exactly rendered by the A. V., but the sense intended is better conveyed by the suggested emen* 

dation of Clark. 

s Ver. 11. 'JSiyD. Sec Textual Note s on xv. 31. 
• T : • 

I Ver. 13. " 71? ntob, ^^- tbe poles of the yoke (comp. Ezek. xxxiv. 27), i. e., the poles which are laid upon the necks 

of beasts of burden (Jer. xxvii. 2) as a yoke." K»il. For ^'p the Sam. and many MSS. have the fuller form I'lJ?. 

w Ver. l-*!. The conjuuction is wantin,^ in 6 MSS., the Sam., Vulg., and Syr. 



Hi LEVITICUS. 



16 will not do all my commandments, but that ye break my covenant : I also will do 
this unto you ; I will even appoint over you terror," consumption, and the burning 
ague [wasting away, and the burning fever'^j that shall consume the eyes, and cause 
sorrow of heart [the soul to pine away'^J : and ye shall sow your seed iu vain, for your 

17 enemies shall eat it. And I will set my face against you, and ye shall be slain 
before your enemies : they that hate you shall reign over you ; and ye shall flee 

18 when none pursueth you. And if ye will not yet for all this hearken unto me, then 

19 I will punish you seven times more for your sius. And I will break the pride of 

20 your power ; and I will make your heaven as iron, and your earth as brass : and 
your strength shall be spent in vain : for your land shall not yield her increase, 

21 neither shall the trees of the land" yield their fruits. And if ye walk contrary 
unto me, and will not hearken unto me ; I will bring seven times more plagues 

22 upon you according to your sins. I will also send wild beasfs [animals*] among 
you, which shall rob you of your children [make you childless'"], and destroy your 

23 cattle, and make you few in numbi^r ; and your high ways shall be desolate. And 
if ye will not be reformed by me by these things, but will walk contrary unto me ; 

24 then will I also walk contrary unto you, and will punish you yet seven times for 

25 your sins. And I will bring a sword upon you, that shall avenge the quarrel of 
lomit the quarrel of'^J my covenant : and when ye are gathered together within 
your cities, I will send a pestilence among you ; and ye shall be delivered into the 

26 hand of the enemy. [;] And [omit And^ when I have broken the staff of your bread, 
ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, and they shall deliver you your bread 

27 again by weight : and ye shall eat, and not be satisfied. And if ye will not for all 

28 this hearken unto me, but walk contrary unto me ; then I will walk contrary unto 

29 you also in fury ; and I, even I, will chastise you seven times for your sins. And 
ye shall eat the flesh of your sons, and the flesh of your daughters shall ye eat. 

30 And I will destroy your lugh places, and cut down your images,'' and cast your 

31 carcases upon the carcases of your idols,'^ and my soul shall abhor you. And I 
will make your cities waste, and bring your sanctuaries" unto desolation, and I will 

32 not smell the savour of your sweet odours. And I will bring the land into desola- 

33 tion : and your enemies which dwell therein shall be astonished at it. And I will 
scatter you among the heathen, and will draw out a sword after you ; and your laud 
shall be desolate, and your cities waste. 

34 Then shall the land enjoy her sabbaths, as long as it lieth desolate, and ye be in 

35 your enemies' land ; enen then shall the land rest, and enjoy her sabbaths. Am 
long as it lieth desolate it shall rest; because [all the days of its desolation it shall 

11 Yer. 16. For H /HS = terrijr the Sam. reads n7n3 = ^cknesa as a general term including the specifications that 

T T V T T ..- 

follow. The word ii rendere-l in the A. V. of Jer. xv. R a.s here, and in Vs. Ixxviii. 33 ; Isa. Ixt. 23, trouble. It does not 
occur elsewhere. The idea is that of " mens' hearts fiiilmg them for fear," Luke xxi. 26. 

12 Ver. 16. nSnti' = wasting awai/ is well expressed hy the coTisumption of the A. V. in its etymological sense, hut is in 

danger of being mi- un lerstood nf the snecific die ase of that name which is rare in Palestine and Syria. The LXX., how- 
ever, has \liu}pav. nn^p, LXX. TTupeToy, according to all auihoritied should be burning fever, Fuvei-s are the moat cooi- 

mon of all diseases in Syria and the neighboring countries. These words occur only in the parallel, Deut. xxviii. 22. 

18 Ver. 16. 1^3 J niino. The literal trHn-lation ia more expressive than the paraphrase of the A. V. 

" Yer. 20. For VlKn 21 MSS. and the LXX. read mtiTI. 

15 Yer. 22. DJHN ilSst?. The literal rendering is sufficient. 

V : ■,' T : • 

11 Yer. 25. n-ia-DpJ ^'^PJ ''*■ " avenging the covenant vensteance." As this cannot be expressed in English the 

Dp3 ^9 better left untranslated than rendered by qtiarrel, which it doi-s not mean. 

1' Ver. 30. D^'JISri- In most other places where the word occurs (2 Chr. xiv. 6 (4); xxxiv.4; Isa.xvii.8: Ezek. 

V .. T ~ 

vi. 4) the marg. of the A. Y. has mn-images. Such was undoubtedly the original meaning of the word; but Gesonius {Thfs.) 
shows that the word was applied to imnges of B-ial and Astaitu as the deities of the sim and moun. The word indicates 
"idols of tlje Cauaanitibh nature-worehip." Keil. 

18 Yer. 30. DwvJ = something to be roUed aboutf a contemptuous expression for idols. The Heb. had three different 

words which are rendered idol in tbe A. Y., and seven which are rendered image. 

1® Ver. 31. More th'in 50 MSS., the Sam. arid the Syr., have the sing. The plural refers to " the holy things of tbe woi^ 
ship of Jehovah, the tabernacle and temple, with their altars, and the rest of their holy furniture, as in Ps. Ixviii. 36; Ixxiv. 
6," Keil ; and not to the sanctuaries of false gods (Rosen, and others). 

» Ver. ;». Here also it is better to keep to the literal rendering of the Heb. OJl lUfj? flX n3K'jT HBtJ'n D''~'73. 

The land should rest not merely because, but it should actually rest the time which it had not rested. 



CHAP. XXVI. 1-46. 



195 



36 rest that which'"] it did not rest in your sabbaths, when ye dwelt upon it. And 
upon them that are left alive of you I will send a faintness^' into their hearts in the 
lands of their enemies ; and the sound of a shaken leaf shall chase them ; and they 

37 shall flee, as fleeing from a sword ; and they shall fall when none pursueth. And 
they shall fall one upon another, as it were before a sword, when none pursueth : 

38 and ye shall have no power to stand before your enemies. And ye shall perish 

39 among the heathen, and the land of your enemies shall eat you up. And they that 
are left of you shall pine away in their iniquity" in your''' enemies' lands; and also 
in the iniquities of their fathers shall they pine away with them. 

40 If they shall confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, with their 
trespass which they trespassed against me, and that also they have walked contrary 

41 unto me ; and that I also have walked contrary unto them, and have brought them 
into the land of their enemies ; if then their uncircumcised hearts be humbled, and 

42 they then accept" of the punishment of their iniquity : thea will I remember my 
covenant with Jacob, and also my covenant with Isaac, and also my covenant with 
Abraham will I remember ; and I will remember the land. 

43 The land also shall be left of them, and shall enjoy her sabbaths, while shp lieth 
desolate without them : and they shall accept'^* of the punishment of their iniquity : 
because, even because they despised my judgments, and because their soul abhorred 
my statutes. 

44 And yet for all that, when they be in the land of their enemies, I will not cast 
them away, neither will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly, and to break my 

45 covenant with them ; for I am the Lord their God. But I will for their sakes re- 
member the covenant of their ancestors, whom 1 brought forth out of the land of 
Egypt in the sight of the heathen, that I might be their God : I am the LoPwD. 

46 These are the statutes and judgments and laws, which the Loed made betweea 
him and the children of Israel in mount Sinai by the hand of Moses. 



21 Ver. 36. Ijlb an-. \€y LXX. SeiXi'a, "Vuig. ptwor. It " signifies that inward anguish, fear, and despair, which rend 

the heart and destroy the life." Keil. Comp. Dent, xxviii. 65. 

22 Ver. 39. j'l U is either miquMy (as here twice and in the next verse twice), or the punishment of imiuUy (as in ver. 411. 

The phrase " perish in one's iniqnity " is however sufficiently common, and there is no occasion to change the translation 
here. The UF^ii = witSl tbeon at the close of the verse refers to the iniquities. 

23 Ver. Sg.^ior yaitr QJ- more than 80 MSS. read theit QD-, so also the Sam., LXX., Sym., Iheod., Vulg. and Syr. as 

the tpxt in ver. 41. 

24 Vers. 41, 43. ?V"IV The same word as is used in vers. 34, 43, the land sball enjoy Iier sabbaths. The 

literal rendering is perhaps too bold for our version ; but the meaning is really this. " The land being desolate shall Lava 
thsblessingoficst, and they having repeated shall have the blessing of chastisement. So the LXX. and byriac. Clart. 
Comp. Isa. xl. 2. fljljr r\S1J- 

^ "■ '' " ' sequent history of the nation is had in view. The 

chapter contains : first, promises upon their obe- 
dience (3-13) ; it then describes the consequences 
of disobedience (14-39), which are put hypothe- 
tically, but evidently contemplated as likely to 
occur ; and finally, looks forward to the resto- 
ration of the covenant on the repentance of the 
people (40-44), which is also put hypothetically, 
but is evidently prophetic. Ver. 46 forms the 
conclusion of this whole series of legislation. 

Objection has been made to the Mosaic origin 
of this chap, by rationalistic critics on account 
of its prophetic character. Certainly it is pro- 
phetic, and if this be objected to any portion of 
Scripture, the objector must be met on other 
than merely exegetical grounds, but here the ra- 
tionalistic argument may be fully met in a dif- 
ferent way. It is impossible to conceive that 
the author of the remarkable legislation con- 
tained in this book, possessed of as intimate 
knowledge as he must have been of the people 
under his charge, should not have foreseen that 
they would fail to maintain the standard of holi- 
ness here required, and that consequently God, 



EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL. 

Lange here again insists that vers. 1 and 2 are 
properly the close of the foregoing section. It 
was already too late to adopt his division when 
his work appeared ; but independently of this 
the connection with the present chap, is prefer- 
red. The verses reiterate the most fundamental 
requirements of the law, and thus form an ap- 
propriate introduction to these concluding pro- 
mises and threats. 

The whole precepts and prohibitions of the 
Book of Leviticus have now been given, and here 
the people are incited to their faithful observance 
by promises of blessings on their obedience and 
curses upon their disobedience. This arrange- 
ment is both natural in itself, and is in accord 
ance with the analogy of the warnings and pro- 
mises (Ex. xxiii. 20-38) at the close of the " Book 
of the Covenant," (Ex. xx. 22— xxiii. 19) and in 
the parting exhortations of Moses (Deut. xxix., 
XXX. ). The passage in Exodus, however, relates 
to the conquest of the land, while here the sub- 



196 



LEVITICUS. 



whose holiness and majesty it has been his ob- 
ject to set forth, would visit them for their 
transgressions. It is but a step beyond this to 
look forward to the e£fect of chastisement and 
humiliation in producing repentance, and when 
this had been effected, his knowledge of the 
mercy and loving-kindness of God assured him of 
the restoration of the people to His favor. See this 
point admirably treated byKeilin a note on p. 468. 

Lange : " The germ of this whole setting forth 
of blessing and curse already lies in the deca- 
logue itself (Ex. XX. 5, 12), but especially as a 
conditional promise of blessing in the section 
Ex. xxiii. 23-33. It is appropriate to the pur- 
pose of Leviticus that this germ now comes here 
to its development, that by the side of the pro- 
mise of blessing on the keeping of the covenant 
comes out very explicitly the threatening of curse 
on the breach of the covenant; for the contrast 
of blessing and curse goes forth from the reli- 
gious behaviour or misbehaviour towards the law 
of Qod as a whole, as all particular commands 

are gummed up therein It must not be 

overlooked that the subject is here always Israel 
in its totality, the nation as a whole. The date 
of this section is thereby shown to be very an- 
cient ; for it would have been otherwise from the 
days of Messianic prophecy. Then the contrast 
comes forward very strongly: the apostate Is- 
rael, and the Israel reforming itself; also the 
contrast : the Israel of the mass, and the Israel 
of the poor, of the humble, of the purified rem- 
nant. For this reason it would be a false infer- 
ence to consider the conditional prediction of our 
section as apodictical, or indeed to suppose that 
the curse would fall upon every individual of the 
nation of Israel. The apostasy of Israel has 
often been treated as if the flower of its elect had 
fallen under the curse, although history declares 
that the Gentile church was grafted upon the 
stock of the Jewish, and Paul can designate the 
unbelieving portion of the Jews as ' some," not- 
withstanding its numerical majority, in contrast 
to the dynamical majority whose central point is 
Christ Himself. The national curse has then 
been fulfilled only in a conditional degree in 
contrast to the dynamical blessing overmastering 
all curse ; but nevertheless in a degree which 
has shown in fearful majesty the reality of the 
threatening of the curse. It is a vain attempt 
when one sneks to intimate, like Enobel, that 
our prophecy looks back upon that which has 
already occurred in isolated particulars ; at all 
events, this creates no prejudice against its Mo- 
saic origin, for its fulfilment has been progress- 
ing even to the present day, and is not yet fully 
accomplished. Yet even at the present day the 
pmphasis falls upon the fearful realization of the 
curse upon the nation ; upon individuals, how- 
ever, as such, only in proportion as they trans 
mit the fanatical or unbelieving spirit of the 
community. 

" Our section, moreover, is characterized as a 
prophetic word in thai it brings into view in 
grand outlines a future which it cannot and will 
not describe with verbal definiteness. Yet a 
progress consonant to nature is to be observed 
in the gradations of the curse, which one might 
enjoy as a physiological picture of development. 

" If we suppose that one may speak of the Di- 



vine government or word blamelessly if the sec- 
tion before us is invested with a less mysterious 
aspect, we overlook the fact that the course of 
things immanent in life remains the same al- 
though the prophetic character of the word be 
set aside ; that the chapters of calamity remain 
the same although one seek to erase the super- 
scription from the punishment and from the judg- 
ment. Strange that one should think the world 
will thereupon cheer up when he traces back the 
dark destiny of a people to a gloomy fate, instead 
of to the justice of the living God. It is the very 
nobility of apostate Israel that its Jehovah is, 
and has been, jealous with such burning jealousy 
over its fall ; and it would even seem worthy of 
contempt if It were considered as the football of 
a gloomy destiny — its sorrows without reason, 
without proportion, and without purpose. Cer- 
tainly also the continuing motive for the rejec- 
tion of Israel itself is its ill-will-against Jehovah, 
or indeed against the Gentiles, in return for 
which it must acknowledge in its history its well 
deserved visitation 

" That the bearing of God towards Israel was 
an impartial bearing, which could only be ob- 
scured through the idea of a national God, is 
proved even by our section with its threatenings 
in presenceof the development of the history of Is- 
rael itself : they have been brought out of Egypt, 
and Canaan must become their land ; but when 
they apostatize, they must lose Canaan and must be 
scattered among the heathen (Keil, p. 169 [Trans, 
p. 468]). Not only the impartiality indeed, but 
the jealousy of Jehovah must be made manifest 
in this. The idea or key of the whole history 
and destiny of Israel is : vengeance of the cove- 
nant. The people could fall so low because they 
stood so high, because they were the first-fruits, 
the first-born son, the favorite of God (Jeshu- 
run). But for this reason especially the pro- 
mise of their restoration is bound up with the 
prophecy of their curse (Isa., Jer., Ezek., Hos., 
etc., Rom. xi ). Knobel gives prominence to the 
peculiarly elevated language of this section ; it 
cannot be explained by the ordinary mechanicism 
of 'Elohistic and Jehovistic documents.' " 

This chapter forms a part of the same Divine 
communication With the preceding one. 

Vers. 1, 2. These verses include substantially 
the first table of the decalogue, and by this short 
summary the whole duty of the Israelites tow- 
ard God is called to mind and made the basis of 
the following promises and warnings. On ver. 
I see the Textual Notes. Ver. 2 is a repetition 
verbatim of xix. 30. Here, at least, it must be 
understood to include the whole of the " ap- 
pointed seasons " as well as the weekly Sabbaths. 

A. The Blessing. Vers. 3-13. 

With ver. 3 a new Parashah of the law begins, 
extending to the close of Leviticus. The paral- 
lel proper lesson from the prophets is Jer. xvi. 
19 — xvii. 14. " The subject here is not the iso- 
lated good conduct of individuals, but the keep- 
ing of the Covenant of the people as a whole and 
its general tendency to blessing ; the contrast to 
which, the breach of the Covenant, is moulded 
into the tendency to curse." Lange. 

Ver. 4. Lange : " Rain in its season appears 
here as the first gift of Jehovah. When He gives 



CHAP. XXVI. 1-46. 



197 



the rain from heaven, the earth gives i(a produce 
and the fruit-trees give their fruit; there is 
formed a chain of gifts whose beginning lies in 
the mysterious hand of God. " The allusion here 
is to the showers which fall at the two rainy- 
seasons, and upon which the fruitfulness of Pa- 
lestine depends, viz., the early and latler rain 
(Deut. xi. 14). The former of these occurs after 
the autumnal equinox, at the time of the winter- 
sowing of wheat and barley, in the latter half of 
October or beginning of November. It generally 
falls in heavy showers in Nov. and Bee, and 
then after that only at long intervals, and not so 
heavily. The latter, or so-called latler rain, 
falls in March before the beginning of the har- 
vest of the winter crops, at the time of the sow- 
ing of the summer seed, and lasts only a few 
days, in some years only a few hours (see Ro- 
binson, Pal. ii., pp. 97 sqq.)." Keil. [Also 
Robinson, Phys. Oeog. of the H. L., p. 263.] 
" In consequf^nce of these rains the land should 
yield so rich an increase that your threshing 
shall reach unto the vintage, and the vin- 
tage shall reach unto the sewing time 
(for the next year). [Ver. 5. Comp. Amos 
ix. 13.] 

" Vers. 6-8. The second yet higher gift of 
blessing is peace in the land, and that in relation 
to wild beasts" [HJ^T HTl, an evil animal, for a 
beast of prey, as in Gen. xxxvii. 20. Keil] " as 
well as to war; therefore they shall lie down 
as a herd which no beast of prey and no robber 
shall affright. Yet more : neither shall the 
s^)70rd go through your land, because they 
should drive back triumpbaatly from their bor- 
ders the enemies who should make any attack. 
The aggressor should fall by the sword upon 
the border." On the language in ver. 6 comp. 
Job xi. 19; Ps. cxlvii. 14; Ezek. xxxiv. 25-28. 
Ver. 8 is "a proverbial mode of expression for 
superiority in warlike prowess." Comp. Deut. 
xxxii. 30; Josh, xxiii. 10; Isa. xxx. 17. 

Vers. 9,10. Lange: "The third blessing is 
fruitfulness : increase upon increase of the peo- 
ple, and the strengthening of the Covenant under 
the special support of Jehovah." The multipli- 
cation of the people was a part of the covenant 
promise (Gen. xvil. 4-6), and its fulfillment 
established the covenant (ib. 7) ; not merely 
preserved it, but became the means by which it 
should be extended ever farther and farther. 
In view of this increase the promise of ver. 10 
becomes more emphatic: so far from a dearth 
being caused by the multitude, the new store 
should be reached before the old could be con- 
sumed. This constitutes the fourth particular 
of the blessing. 

Vers. 11-13. Lange: "The fifth blessing is 
the highest: the flower of their religion and 
religiousness. Jehovah will establish His dwell- 
ing (His living habitation) among them. — And 
I will walk among you, etc. — This promise 
touches typically even upon the height of the 
Christological incarnation. Jno. i. 14." [As this 
whole chapter has in view their residence in 
Canaan, so this promise in particular does not 
refer to God's leading His people in their wan- 
derings, but to His continual manifestation of 
Himself in their midst in their settled home. — 
F. G.l "Tor these promises, spiritually and 



dynamically understood, Jehovah, the personal 
God of Israel, makes Himself security ; and He 
has given them their deliverance from Egypt as 
a proof and pledge. They shall not become the 
slaves of men through distress, but shall stand 
upright as the servants of God." That is, the 
yoke of bondage which bowed down their heads 
as beasts of burden had been broken, and God 
had made them in consequence walk upright. 

B. The Curse. Vers. 14-38. 

Vers 14, 15. Lange: "The breach of the 
Covenant. He begins with the external con- 
tempt of the ordinances of the covenant, and 
goes on to the internal scorn and rejection of 
the covenant law, a transgression therefore of 
the commands in their totality." This is care- 
fully to be borne in mind in regard to these 
warnings. These "judgments are threatened, 
not for single breaches of the law, but for con- 
tempt of all the laws, amounting to inward con- 
tempt of the Divine commandments and a breach 
of the covenant (vers. 14, 16) — for presumptuous 
and obstinate rebellion, therefore, against God 
and His commandments." Keil. Single sins, or 
sins of individuals, are not the subject, but the 
general apostasy of the nation. 

Vers. 16, 17, contain what Lange describes as 
"the punishment in the first grade;" it is the 
warning of visitation upon apostasy alone be- 
fore it has become complicated with the added 
guilt of obdurate persistency. Three punish- 
ments are mentioned which are to be sent toge- 
ther, and not singly as they were offered to the 
choice of David after his sin in numbering the 
people (2 Sam. xxiv. 12-14) — disease, famine 
and defeat. It is easy to see bow all these might 
(and historically did) come upon Israel as a 
natural consequence of their neglect of the 
Divine law ; but they were none the less judg- 
ments of Him who had commanded that law and 
ordained that nature itself should protect it. 
Lange justly says: "One must not overlook the 
spirit of the Divine action ; it is called visita- 
tion (ver. 16), and henceforth this is the prin- 
cipal thought and purpose which pervades all 
the punishments. It is also of a deeper meaning 
here that Jehovah will set His face against 
them : for their enemies are His instruments, 
and they will be smitten." Comp. Ezek. xxxiii. 
27-29. 

Vera. 18-20. According to Lange, "the pun- 
ishment in the second grade." or the first of the 
more severe measures to be visited upon obdu- 
rate disobedience. Here, and in each of the 
three remaining stages (vers. 18, 21, 24, 28), 
the expression seven times is used. It is at 
once the number of perfection, indicating the 
full strength of the visitation, and also the sab- 
batical number, reminding the people of the 
broken covenant. Comp. Gen. iv. 15, 24; Ps. 
Ixxix. 12 ; Prov. xxiv. 16 ; Luke xvii. 4. 
"There are five degrees in the ever seven times 
more severe punishment. God punishes so, that 
He always in wrath remembers mercy, and gives 
time for repentance. But no punishment is so 
great that a greater cannot follow it." Von Ger- 
lach. 

Vers. 21, 22. Lange: "The punishment in 
the third grade. The godlessaesa becomes ag- 



198 



LEVITICUS. 



gressive ; they walk inimioally towards Jehovah, 
the apostasy advances to bolder idolatry and 
contempt of God. But meanwhile, Jehovah yet 
stands still, and only sends against them the 
forerunners of His vengeance: ravaging beasts 
— a symptom of falling into decay : robbers of 
children, calamities among live stock, depopu- 
lation, desolated highways. The beasts may 
here be understood not merely literally." Comp. 
Judg. V. 6 ; Isa. xxxiii. 8 ; Ezek. v. 17 ; xiv. 
15. "DJ> 'IP ^7n {to go to a meeting with a 
person, i. e.., to meet a person in a hostile man- 
ner, to tight against him) only occurs here in 
vers. 21 and 23, and is strengthened in vers. 24, 

27, 28, 40, 41, into D;? '"Ipa ^Sn, to engage 
in a hostile encounter with a person." Keil. 

Vers. 23-26. Lange: "The punishment in the 
fourth grade. Now Jehovah also becomes ag- 
gressive and acts inimically towards them, as if 
He would destroy them. Now the breach of the 
covenant is decided, and the sword comes over 
them as the avenger of the covenant. Pictu- 
resque delineation of the three dark riders. Rev. 
vi., only that here the plague goes before the 
famine." The idea of the text is clearly that 
by the inroads of the enemy Israel would be 
sbut up in their citie'i, and while besieged there, 
would be visited with pestilence and famine. 
Such calamities were repeatedly experienced, 2 
Kings vi. 24-29, etc. Comp. Isa. iii. 1 ; Jer. 
xiv. 18; Ezek. iv. 16; v. 12, and especially the 
story of the siecre of .lerusalem by the Romans. 
To break the staff of bread is a frequent prover- 
bial expression for the infliction of extreme 
scarcity. One oven should suffice for the bread 
of families ordinarily baked in ten, and in its 
scarcity it should be dealt out by weight. 

Vers. 27-33. Lange: " The punishment in the 
fifth grade. Now Jehovah moves against them 
verily in fury, and the last catastrophes follow : 
despair even to madness; the eating of their 
own chiMren (Knobel, Keil, and the Jewish 
history) [oomp. Deut. xxviii. 53; 2 Kings vi. 
28, 29; Jer. xiv. 12; Lam. ii. 20: iv. 10; Ezek. 
V. 10. Also Jos. Bel. Jud. V. 10, 3.— F. G.]; 
overthrow of their idolatrous cultus, in the sar- 
castic conception th.it the dead bodies of men 
fall down on the mock dead bodies of their idols, 
carcases upon carcases" [comp. 2 Kings xxiii. 
16; Ezek. vi. 4. The high places refer to 
places of idolatrous worship as in use among 
the Canaanites and most other nations, and 
which must have been already sufficiently fami- 
liar to Moses and his people. — F. G.]; "over- 
throw of even the real historical sanctuary; 
repudiation of the sacrificial eultus, ver. 31 " 
[comp. 2 Kings xxv. 9; Ps. Ixxiv. 6, 7]; "de- 
solation of the land, so that even the enemies 
settling therein recognize the dismal footprints 
of punitive justice, deportations of the people 
(one after another, comp. the Jewish history 
from Alexander to Hadrian)." Comp. Jer. ix. 
16-22; xviii. 16; xix. 8; Ezek. v. Also Deut. 
iv. 27, 28; xxviii. 37, 64-68. 

Effects of these Visitations. Vers. 84-39. 

Vers. 34, 35, express the restorative effect 

accomplished by the punishment itself. The 

land must needs enjoy its Sabbaths while it lay 



desolate. In regard to the kingdom of Judah, 
2 Chron. xxxvi. 21 expressly fixes the length of 
the Babylonish captivity with reference to the 
number of unobserved Sabbatical years. These 
constituted the Sabbaths of the land, the weekly 
Sabbath of one day being too brief for effect 
upon the soil. Vers. 36-39 describe in fearful 
terms the effect of the Divine visitation upon 
the remnant who should escape immediate de- 
struction. On the language of ver. 38 comp. 
Num. xiii. 32 ; Ezek. xxxvi. 13, 

C. The Restoration of the Covenant. 

Vers. 40-45. 

Lange: "The first thing is the acknowledg- 
ment and confession of guilt. But the repent- 
tance would be thorough only in case the 
misdeeds of the fathers were acknowledged 
along with their own misdeeds, see Ps. li. 
The view that Jehovah has interposed, con- 
tending against them because they contended 
against Him, is the second thing, ver. 41. — 
(Repeated declaration in regard to the cause 
of the punishments.) The humiliation under 
the judgment of their having an uncircumcised 
heart, i. e., of their being heathen in a spiritual 
sense, is the third. Yes, they come now to bleaa 
the punishments of their misdeeds, to rejoice 
over them, since God has visited them in this 
manner (IS"]'). Keil accepts the translation of 
the LXX. £vSoKT](yovaLv ra^ dfiapria^ avrav, " they 
will take pleasure, rejoice in their misdeeds, 
i. e., in the consequences and results of them." 
We hold with Luther to the idea of t'lj? (see 
Gesen.) as sufficient punishment; the paradox 
itself Ofelix culpa could not be translated: they 
have pleasure in their misdeeds. But to salute 
the cross is a proof in action of a deeper reli- 
giousness, which here already germinates." 
[See, however. Textual Note 24. — F. G.] 

"Ver. 41. In a religious sense the divine par- 
don is the cause, in a moral sense the conse- 
quence of the repentance of the people ; the 
remembrance of the Covenant with Jacob and 
Isaac and Abraham, i. e. an ever-deepening, 
inward remembrance of the old love, appears to 
awake in Jehovah, for it does awake in the con- 
sciousness of the people. The holy land itself, 
which cannot be forgotten and is kindly, receives 
now a peculiarly affecting form. The land 
whose mourning is changed to feasts, and the 
people whose penitence is changed to feasts, 
accord so affectingly with Jehovah, that, so to 
speak. He reveals Himself again as justifying: 
because, even because they despised my 
judgments, and because their soul ab- 
horred my statutes. And yet for all that— 
their pardon is approaching : viz. the restoration, 
and that truly entirely according to the analogy of 
the restoration from the land of Egypt. That this 
promise is effective for the nation of Israel, but is 
not to be understood of the spiritual Israel as 
such, needs no argument. At the close again, 
'^J^.' V^-" [The promise of mercy upon Israel 
when they should repent and turn to the Lord, 
was certainly a promise to the covenant people, 
and was repeatedly fulfilled in their history, 
especially in the restoration from the captivity 



CHAP. XXVI. 1-46. 



199 



of Babylon. But the promise (Jer. xxxi. 31-34) 
was that in the days to come God would make a 
new covenant with His people of a more spirit- 
ual character, and in the Ep. to the Heb (viii. 
10-12; X. 15-18)' we are told that this has been 
accomplished in the Christian Church springing 
from the bosom of the Jewish. The continued 
faithfulness of God to His people according to 
the promises of this section, must therefore be 
now looked for after a Christian and spiritual, 
rather than a Jewish and temporal fashion. — 
F. G.] 

"And thus it is conformable to the truth of a 
personal God that He should attach the utmost 
importance to affliofing the personal life of His 
people, and then reanimating it again. If it is 
said; What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain 
the whole world, and lose his own soul? so is it 
likewise said : What shall it harm a man, if he 
shall lose the whole world, and his soul thereby 
be delivered ? Would a philosophy in opposi- 
tion to this, which has sunk the personal life in 
impersonal things, be a higher wisdom? 

"It is to be understood that the principles of 
this Divine government over Israel apply, ac- 
cording to their modifications, to His govern- 
ment over every nation." 

At the beginning of this chapter Lange says : 
" It cannot be concluded from ver. 46 that Levi- 
ticus should properly end with this section ; 
ver. 46 much rather looks back to ver. 3, and 
makes it clear that the subject here is the Cove- 
nant bond between Jehovah and the people of 
Israel." Ver. 46 undoubtedly looks back imme- 
diately to XXV. 1, the beginning of the Divine 
communication of which this is the end ; but as 
it also forms the close of ch. xxvi., so we cannot 
but regard this chapter itself as closing the 
Book of Leviticus proper. The analogy of this 
with other portions of the law has already been 
pointed out, and the reasons for regarding ch. 
xxvii. as an appendix will be mentioned in the 
treatment of that chapter. 

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL. 



I. The warnings and promises of this chapter 
show it was foreseen that much of the Mosaic 
legislation was likely to be neglected by the 
people. Nevertheless God gave it. The same 
is true of much of Christian duty, both in regard 
to definite observances as baptism and the Lord's 
Supper, and still more in regard to the standard 
of Christian life and character. But because 
man does not come up to its requirements, the 
law is not thereby foiled of its purpose ; its re- 
quirements were not lowered to the level of 
human weakness and sinfulness, but rather de- 
signed to set forth so much of the Divine holi- 
ness and purity as would be instrumental in 
raising man to a higher level. " It was not like 
the legislation of ordinary states, intended pri- 
marily to meet the exigencies of existing facts 
and to keep offenders in order. Its purpose was 
to help and instruct the best of the people, not 
merely to chastise the worst. Other legislators 
have taken their starting points from human 
facts- Moses took his from the character and 
purpose of God." Clark. And in this, to the 
thoughtful man, is a really powerful evidence 
of the Divine authorship of the legislation. 



II. In vers. 39, 40, the iniquity of their 
fathers is made a part of the sin for which the 
people were to suffer, and on the confession of 
which they were to be forgiven. As this is 
God's revealed word, so does all history show 
that it is in accordance with His government of 
nature that in nations, as in individuals, the 
sins of the fathers are visited upon the children ; 
but all this is nevertheless under the law that 
the sincere repentance of the children shall 
avert from them the punishment of their fore- 
fathers' sins as well as of their own. 

III. Illustrative of ver. 41 is 2 Cor. vii. 10 
and Heb. xii. 11. The punishments of God 
leading to repentance, however grievous they 
may seem, are yet truly occasions of rejoicing 
in view of their higher object. 

IV. In ver. 46 the covenant legislation of Mt. 
Sinai is expressly said to have been given by 
the band of Moses. This fact is sufficiently 
patent throughout the whole story of the legis- 
lation ; but its emphatic mention here has a 
double use: first, in showing that this book 
claims a contemporary origin; and second, in 
bringing out the fact of the necessity of a medi- 
ator between man and God. If Moses was only 
a human mediator, especially strengthened and 
authorized for this purpose ; yet he points for- 
ward typically to the one true Mediator from 
whom alone man may know the will of God, and 
through whom alone he may draw near to His 
inapproachable majesty. 

V. Although it is abundantly evident from 
the warnings of this chapter that man is unable 
so to keep God's commandments as to claim any 
reward as of merit ; yet it is also clear from its 
promises, and especially from these as contrasted 
with the warnings, that He does look with favor 
upon and will bless and reward the honest effort 
to do His will. These things are spoken of 
Israel as a nation, and are true of all nations in 
all time ; but nations are made up of individuals, 
and the principles of the Divine bearing towards 
man are as true of the component elements as 
of the mass in its totality. 



HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL. 

Lange: " The great contrast of blessing and 
of curse which lies in the law— which the law 
strengthens. The law speaks not only of curse, 
as many imagine; it speaks also of blessing. 
For it is one thing to be occupied with the 
works of the law and to seek righteousness 
throu-'h the law and by means of works (ac- 
cording to Gal. iii. 10 sqq.), and another thing 
to stand under the law in the true fear of God, 
and to strive after its righteousness until one 
comes to the righteousness which is of faith 
(according to Bom. vii.). The law of Jehovah 
ever stands under the protection of the Law- 
giver. It is the rule of His power ; it is the 
Spirit of the world's history ; it is the ^otceot 
conscience (Bom. ii.), and the disposition of the 
heart. The blessings of fidelity to the law : the 
piety of a people, the fruitfulness of the land, 
peace, victory, etc., etc. (xxvi. 1 sqq-)- . ^he 
fearful gradations of the curse. Particular 
blessings. Particular curses. The final pro- 
mise of the restoration of Israel out of the state 



200 



LEVITICUS. 



of the curse. Jehovah will remember Hie cove- 
nant for all those who reform themselves." 

" There is a marvellous and grand display of 
the greatness of God in the fact, that He holds 
out before the people, whom He has just deli- 
vered from the hands of the heathen and gathered 
round Himself, the prospect of being scattered 
again among the heathen, and that, even before 
the land is taken by the Israelites, He predicts 
its return to desolation. These words could 
only be spoken by One who has the future really 
before His mind, who sees through the whole 
depth of sin, and who can destroy His own 
work, and yet attain His end. But so much the 
more adorable and marvellous is the grace, 
which nevertheless begins its work among such 
sinners, and is certain of victory notwithstand- 
ing all retarding and opposing influences." 
Auberlen. 

God promises in vers. 11, 12, that He will set 
His tabernacle and will walk among His people 
— a typical promise, fulfilled in Christ who 



tabernacled in us (John i. 14), and through 
whom we become Temples of God the Holy 
Ghost (1 Cor. iii. 16, 17; vi. 19), and God will 
•'tabernacle for ever" with us (Rev. vii. 16; 
xxi. 3). Wordsworth. 

Origen deduces from this chapter a commen- 
tary on 2 Timothy ii. 5: "If a man strive for 
masteries, yet is he not crowned except he strive 
lawfully." Our efforts to obtain God's blessing, 
our hope of avoiding His wrath, must be in the 
way of His commandment. We can only please 
Him by seeking to do His will, and He has made 
it known to us. 

There is ever a due relation between the tem- 
poral and the spiritual, and these promises show 
that the rewards held out before the Israelites 
were of a spiritual as well as a temporal charac- 
ter; so it is to be remembered that along with 
the more spiritual rewards of the Christian reli- 
gion, it has the ** promise of the life that now 
is," as well as of that which is to come. Calvin. 



-A. F I=» E iTID 1 22:. 

Of Vows. 

Chap. XXVII. 1-34. 
1, 2 And the Loed spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and 
say unto them. When a man shall make a singular vow, the persons shall be for 
the Lord by thy estimation [speciaP vow, the souls shall be to the Lord according 

3 to an^ estimation]. And thy' estimation shall be of the male from twenty years 
old even unto sixty years old, even thy' estimation shall be fifty shekels of silver, 

4 after the shekel of the sanctuary. And if it be a female, then thy' estimation shall 

5 be thirty shekels. And if it be from five years old even unto twenty years old, then 
thy' estimation shall be of the male twenty shekels, and for the female ten shekels. 

6 And if it be for a month old even unto five years old, then thy' estimation shall be 
of the male five shekels of silver, and for the female thy' estimation shaU be three 

7 shekels of silver. And if it be from sixty years old and above ; if it be a male, 

8 then thy' estimation shall be fifteen shekels, and for the female ten shekels. But 
if he be poorer than thy' [be too poor to pay the'] estimation, then he shall present 
himself before the priest, and the priest shall value him : according to his ability 
that vowed shall the priest value him. 

9 And if it be a beast, whereof men bring an ofiering unto the Lord, all that any 

10 man giveth of such unto the Loed shall be holy. He shall not alter it, nor change 
it, a good for a bad, or a bad for a good : and if he shall at all change beast for 

11 beast, then it and the exchange thereof shall be holy. And if it be any unclean 
beast, of which they do not offer a sacrifice [an offering'] unto the Loed, then he 



TEXTUAL AND GEAMMATICAL. 

* Ver. 2. " ^^J N^/Sn does Dot mean to dedicate or set apart a tow, bnt to make a special vow." Keil. 

* Vera. 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, etc. " The second 3 in ?|3'ljf3 is formatiTe of the noun, by rednplication of the third radical ; 
It is not the pronominal Butfix." Horsley. "The Heb. suljat. 'j'ljf, estimation or voZue, is never found in Scripture, but with 

the pronoun of the second person joined to it ; and which is an etepletive, having no use but to distinguish it from the mean* 
ing of an ordinance, or laying in order." Delgado. According to FUrst "the «l^. refers to the person valued." The T.YY, 
Onls., Tulg. and Syr, omit the pronoun altogether. 
» Ver. 11. ]3-|p. See Textual Note > on ii. 1. 



CHAP. XXVII. 1-34. 2J1 



f!*'),P'"^ent the beast before the priest: and the priest shall value [estimate*! it 

13 r=7; !■ , %?u°^ °^ ^f '■ ^? ^^^J" y^^"^'* ^*' ^^"■"'^ t'le priest [according to the' 

sh^lT ^„hT "Xi^" P'ffu^' 'V^4' \^f ^^* "■ ^^ ^^^1 ^-^ ^11 ^^deem it, then he 
snail add a fifth ^ar< thereof unto thy' estimation. 

14 And when a man shall sanctify his house to be holy unto the Lord then the 
priest shall estimate it whether it be good or bad: as the priest shall estimate it, 

AA.^^^ It stand. And if he that sanctified it will redeem his house, then he shall 
1ft A <^°e.J"'ii'«»'' of tae money of thy' estimation unto it, and it shall be his. 

r- T"^ ■/ S^°, , sanctify unto the Lord some pari of a field of his possession 

[inheritance'], then thy' estimation shall be according to the seed thereof: an homer 

i^ of barley seed sW^ be valued at fifty shekels of silver. 'If he sanctify his field from 

18 the year of jubile,_ according to thy' estimation it shall stand. But if he sanctify 
his field after the jubile, then the priest shall reckon unto him the money according 

,„ *P the years that remain, even unto the year of the jubile, and it shall be abated 

19 from thy estimation. And if he that sanctified the field will in apy wise redeem 
It, then he shall add the Mthpart of the money of thy' estimation v unto it, and it 

20 shall be assured to him. And if he will not redeem the field, or if he have sold the 

21 field to another man, it shall not be redeemed any more. But the field, when it 
goeth out in the jubile, shall be holy unto the Lord, as a field devoted;' the pos- 

22 session [inheritance^] thereof shall be the priest's. And if a man sanctify unto the 
Lord a field which he hath bought, which is not of the fields of his possession 

23 [inheritance*] ; then the priest shall reckon unto him the worth of thy' estimation, 
ewew unto the year of the jubile: and he shall give thine' estimation in that day, 

24 cw a holy thing unto the Lord. In the year of the jubile the field shall return 
unto him of whom it was bought, even to him to whom the possession [inheritancb'] 
of the land did belong. 

25 And all thy' estimations shall be according to the shekel of the sanctuary : 
twenty gerahs shall be the shekel. 

26 Only the firatling of the beasts, which should be the Lord's firstling, no man 
shall sanctify it ; whether it be ox, or sheep [one of the flock'], it is the Lord's. 

27 And if it be of an unclean beast, then he shall redeem [free*] it according to thine' 
estimation, and shall add a fifth part of it thereto : or if it be not redeemed, then it 
shall be sold according to thy' estimation. 

28 Notwithstanding no devoted thing, that a man shall devote unto the Lord of 
all that he hath, both of man and beast, and of the field of his possession, shall be 

29 sold or redeemed : every devoted thing is most holy unto the Lord. None devoted, 
which shall be devoted of men, shall be redeemed [freed*], but shall surely be put 
to death. 

30 And all the tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land, or of the fruit of 

31 the tree, is the Lord's : it is holy unto the Lord. And if a man will at all redeem 
ought of his tithes, he shall add thereto the fifth part thereof. 

32 And concerning the tithe of the herd, or of the flock, even of whatsoever passeth 

33 under the rod, the tenth shall be holy unto the Lord. He shall not search whe- 
ther it be good or bad, neither shall he change it : and if he change it at all, then 
both it and the change thereof shall be holy ; it shall not be redeemed. 

84 These are the commandments, which the Lord commanded Moses for the chil- 
dren of Israel in mount Sinai. 

* Yer. 12. FoZitofum is quite as good a translation of 7|1j?; but afi the A. V. has esUmation in all other plactis in this 
chapter, it should be retained here. 

^ Ver. 16. ')r)^r\i^=poS8''s8ion here m^a-ns possewion by inharitanoe, and it ia better to marls this in the translation as 
pnrrhased fields (ver. 22) come under another law. 

* Ver. 17. A conjunction is here supplied by the Sam., 16 MSS., <he LXX., Chald. and Syr. 
' Ver. 26. DE'. See Textual Note ' on xii. 8. 

8 Vers. 27, 29. ni3^=/''ee or deliver. It is a different word from the 7KJ of the second clause of ver. 27 and of both 

TT -T 

clauses of ver. 20, and should be differently translated. 

28 



202 



LEVITICUS. 



EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL. 

The question of the relation of this chapter to 
the rest of the book is partly a matter of form, 
and partly to be determined by the contents. 
As to the former, the preceding chapter of pro- 
mises and warnings is an appropriate close of 
the legislation, and its last verse certainly has 
the air of the subscription to a finished work. 
The present chapter also closes with an abbre- 
viated form of the same subscription. It may 
be compared to the close of John xx., after 
which ch. xxi. follows plainly as an addition. 
As to the subject matter: our chapter is very 
clearly distinguished from the rest of the book 
in that it treats of special voluntary consecra- 
tions to the Lord; and yet it is connected with 
the foregoing, in that these also are to be brought 
under the same generafl law of sacred fidelity. 
The chapter therefore constitutes precisely what 
is understood by an appendix, appropriate to the 
book. Lange's objection to this seems based 
upon a different idea of the word, and his argu- 
ments go to show only that it is appropriate. 
He says, "1. With our section corresponds Num. 
vi.; XXX.; Deut. xxiii. 21 ; Judges xi. 35 [34-40] ; 
Eccl. V. 5. According to Keil this section 
should be an appendix — contrary to the declara- 
tion at the close of ver. 34. He gives as his 
reason : " The directions concerning vows follow 
the express termination of the Sinaitic law-giving 
(xxvi. 46), as an appendix to it, because vows 
formed no integral part of the covenant laws, 
but were a freewill expression of piety common 
to almost all nations, and belonged to the modes 
of worship current in all religions, which were 
not demanded, and might be omitted altogether, 
and which really lay outside the law, though it 
was necessary to bring them into harmony with 
the demands of the law upon Israel." Accord- 
ing to this apprehension, however, much of the 
Mosaic legislation must stand in an appendix; 
indeed, it may be said of the sacrifices, that they 
are the theocratic regulation of a primeval sac- 
rificial custom, and not originally theocratically 
commanded. We accept then the view that the 
prescriptions of this section are attached to the 
foregoing chapter as a law of keeping the cove- 
nant in particulars, m. in relation to the pledged 
word, or as a law of particular and individual 
duties under the law of keeping the covenant 
as a whole." [We cannot see that this could be 

better defined than by the word Appendix. 

F. G.] " The superscription of this section 'Of 
vows' is not truly congruous with the whole. 
The unity is: of special consecrations, or of the 
keeping holy of special covenant duties in rela- 
tion to their remissibleness or their irremissi- 
bility, and indeed 1) of voluntary and remissible 
vows or consecrations, vers. 1-27; 2) of the 
extraordinary, but commanded and irremissible 
consecration, or of the ban, vers. 28, 29; 3) of 
the consecrated holy first-fruits, or of the tithes, 
partly redeemable and partly unredeemable. 
Vers. 30-33 (34). 

2._ " The religious fundamental thought of the 
section. Cursorily considered, it appears a kind 
of regulation for the remissible and irremissible 
special duties of the covenant, and in particular 



it assumes the external character of a tax ; tha 
ideal germ of the whole, however, is again the 
keeping holy of the personal life in relation to 
the personal Jehovah, the manliness of indivi- 
dual piety; one might say : the keeping pure of 
the religious vow, of the word given to God; the 
Divine ordinance of the ban ; the holy fruit-tax 
which is appointed for the maintenance of the 
priests and Levites in the same way as the tem- 
ple-tax for the support of the temple and the 

sacrifice 

" 3. The vows. On the meaning and the na- 
ture itself, oomp. the lexicons, especially botli 
the articles in Herzog's Eeal-encyklopddie. Wri- 
tings on this subject of Weise and others." [See 
also the archseologies, Art. vows in Smith's Bib. 
Diet., and important observations scattered in 
Michaelis' laws. Art. 73, 83, 124, 145.— F. G.]. 
" We distinguish promissory vows and vows of 
renunciation, , ... so that it may be not with- 
out meaning that the vows are spoken of here, 
as efBoient Levitical consecrations; the renun- 
ciations, or Nazarite vows, on the other hand, in 
the book of Numbers, the book of the social re- 
lations of the commonwealth. Samson was qua- 
lified as a Nazarite for a theocratico-political ac- 
tion; Paul's Nazarite vow also was devoted to 
ecclesiastical politics (Acts xxi.) ; and James the 
Just had consecrated himself as a Nazarite to the 
deliverance of his nation. The religious vows, 
as such, form a parallel to the peace offerings and 
partly indeed were connected with them. The 
ethics of the Old Testament vows consists in this: 
first, that they are not commanded but volun- 
tary, Deut. xxiii. 22-24 (consequently not the 
object of the mediaeval so-called consilia evange- 
lica) ; and secondly, that as a pledged word they 
must be held inviolable (Prov. xx. 25 ; Eccl. v. 
3, 61, yet not literally, since equivalents for their 
discharge were legally prescribed ; thirdly, that 
the neglect of their fulfilment is to be expiated 
with a sin offering (v. 4-6). The vows were for- 
mal promises given to God for the benefit of the 
Sanctuary ; they had for their object not only 
cattle, houses, and lands, but also persons, of 
course, dependent children and slaves. The ex- 
amples of Jacob (Gen. xxxv. 14) and others, 
show how significantly the vows of the Old Tes- 
tament operated. The superstitious misinter- 
pretation of the vow of Jephthah, according to 
the corrections of Hengstenberg, P. Cassel, and 
others previously, appears yet capable of being 
held tolerably righteous. It is indeed one of the 
exegetioal prejudices in which, from different 
motives, literal orthodoxy and negative criticism 
come together." [The question of the actual 
sacrifice of Jephthah's daughter has always di- 
vided opinion in ancient as well as modern times. 
Jewish tradition is decided for the actual sacri- 
fice as an unrighteous act. There are several 
reasons why it is not likely to have taken place: 
no priest could have been found to offer it ; nor 
could it possibly have received the Divine ac- 
ceptance ; and it is contrary to the most pro- 
bable interpretation of the closing verses of the 
story (Judg. xi. 37-40). Moreover it is unlikely 
that Jephthah would have committed such an act 
when he was not bound to it by his vow ; the 
vow was an alternative one, — that he would de- 
dicate what met him to the Lord, or offer it as a 



CHAP. XXVII. 1-34. 



203 



Bacrifice. That this is the true sense of 1 and 
not AND, as in the A. V., is plain, for even the 
most rash of men must have remembered the 
great improbability that the first thing he met 
on his return would be either one " of the flock 
of the herd," or a pigeon, the only animals admis- 
sible in sacrifice. There is therefore in the exe- 
cution of the vow of Jephthah no just ground for 
the absurd charge of the allowance of human 
sacrifices among the Israelites. — F. G.]. "There 
is no question that the vows, on account of their 
legal character, belong more to the Old than to 
the New Testament; although they still have 
their place in the New Testament time also, but 
certainly not in the sense of the mediaeval, ava- 
ricious priesthood." 

The general principle on the subject of vows 
is clearly laid down in Deut. zxiii. 21-21 : they 
were not obligatory, and no sin was incurred by 
not making them ; but once made they were to 
be conscientiously kept, and their neglect (ch. 
V. 4-6) required the expiation of the sin offering. 
It appears from this chapter that nothing could 
be made the subject of a vow which was already 
marked out by the law as belonging to God; but 
anything else might be, and having been vowed, 
might be redeemed, with the exception of the 
sacrificial animals, and except also things or per- 
sons devoted, vers. 28, 29. The subject of this 
chapter is the ordinary vow, and has no refe- 
rence to the vow of the Nazarite, Num. vi. 1-21. 
The exceptional conditions under which the vow 
was not binding are detailed in Num. xxx. 

Vers. 1—25. regulate the commutation of vows ; 
vers. 28, 29 declare the incommutability of things 
devoted ; vers. 30-33 declare what tithes and 
under what conditions may be commuted: while 
ver. 34 closes the whole. Under the first head, 
vera. 2-8 relate to the commutation of persons ; 
9-13, of cattle ; 14, 15, of houses; 16-25, of land. 

Vers. 2-8. Lange: " According to Knobel the 
consecration of persons means that one allots 
himself, or another of whom he has the disposal, 
to the service of the Sanctuary. He cites as ex- 
amples the consecration of Samuel, the Gibeon- 
ites. the augmentation of the temple slaves by 
David and Solomon, Ezra ii. 58; viii. 20; Neh. 
vii. 60 ; xi. 3 (p. 583). Keil, on the other hand, 
asserts that in every vow of a person redemption 
must take place according to the value, with re- 
ference to the Mishna (see p. 179). [Trans, p. 
480 and note. Keil also cites Saalschuiz, and 
thinks Oehler wrong in referring to 1 Sam. ii. 
11, 22, 28, in proof of the opposite view.— F. G.]. 
"But the appointed valuation little accords with 
this. It is inconceivable why in this case old 
men and old women should have been redeemed 
at a smaller cost than men and women in their 
vigor. Keil himself makes prominent that the 
valuation was conformed to the vitality and skill. 
Besides the diversity of the valuation, it was en- 
trusted to the priest to value a poor man less, 
from which it does not follow that he muithe re- 
deemed but only that he might be. The fact that 
children under five years of age could not be 
consecrated, points also to the ability to serve. 
In reeard to the difference of valuation, Lange s 
areument does not seem to be a determining one ; 
on either theory the valuation would naturally 
be based upon what might be called the actual 



worth of the person ; but there would be no ob- 
ject in 11 valuation at all except for the purpose 
of redemption, and it is expressly provided that 
all persons who had been vowed must be valued. 
The diminished valuation of a poor man was a 
merciful provision analogous to the alternate sin 
offering in case of poverty. Notwithstanding 
Lange's view, it seems to point very strongly to 
the universality of redemption ; otherwise there 
would be no reason why the poor man should 
not have worked out his vow, or why he should 
have been redeemed at a lower rate than others 
whose services were of the same intrinsic value. 
In saying " that children under five years could 
not be consecrated," Lange must have overlooked 
ver. C, which expressly provides a valuation for 
those vowed from one month to five years. The 
form of expression in ver. 2, moreover, seems to 
contemplate redemption in all cases of personal 
vows. The objection to this view is that a per- 
sonal vow thereby becomes only a ronndahout 
and awkward way of consecrating the amount 
of the redemption money to the Herd ; but the 
moral effect appears to have been different, and 
with the personal vow there is to be supposed a 
sense of spiritual consecration to God which was 
not removed by the payment of the redemption. 
Kaliach speaks very strongly :: "To our author 
vowing a person to God meant neither offering 
him up as a sacrifice, nor dedicating him to the 
service of the temple, and much less selling him 
as a slave, but simply redeeming him by money 
in favor of the sacred treasury ; so foreign were 
the two former alternatives to his mind, that he 
utterly ignored them, and' stated the third as a 
matter of course, and the only one to be con- 
sidered." 

Vers. 9-13. Vows of animals. The right of 
redemption in tliis case depended upon the na- 
ture of the animal ; if it was one suitable for sa- 
crifice (vers. 9, 10), after being once vowed, it 
could not be redeemed or exchanged, and the 
result of an attempt at exchange was that both 
animals should belong to the Lord. It does not 
follow that the animals were to be immediately 
sacrificed, but they may have been put into the 
herd from which the public sacrifices were taken. 
The case of animals of the sacrificial kinds, with 
blemishes which unfitted them for the altar, is 
not especially mentioned; but after the analogy 
of ver. 33, these probably went to the support 
of the priests. If, on the other hand, the ani- 
mal was unclean (vers. 11-13), it must be valued 
by the priest ; then it might be redeemed by 
adding one-fifth to its value, or else it belonged 
to the sanctuary. Keil thinks it was then sold 
for the benefit of the sanctuary; but in this case 
the original owner would have had no occasion 
to redeem it at a higher price since he could 
have bought it at its estimated value. It is more 
likely therefore that such animals were retained, 
at least for a time, for the use of the priests and 
Levites. Keil considers that the Heb. ['3 .... 
r31 means " 'between good and bad,' i. e., neither 
very high as if it were very good, nor very low 
as if it were bad, but at a medium price." The 
A. v., however, is in accordance with the an- 
cient versions, and is sustained by Gesenius. 

Vers. 14, 15. The law for houses is the same 



204 



LEVITICUS. 



as for unclean animals. It relates probably only 
to houses in the cities, as those in the country 
would come under the following law for land. 

Vers. 16-24. Lange: "Lan<ls, a,. Inheritances. 
If they were not redeemed they lapsed in the 
year of Jubilee to the Sanctuary. If they were 
redeemed, the price was determined partly ac- 
cording to the money value of the seed for the 
land, partly according to the number of sowings 
or seed years to the Jubilee year, and a fifth 
part of the amount must be added besides. These 
ordinances applied also to the purchaser (the 
under tenant). A field was taken for the mea- 
sure of valuation which yielded until the year of 
Jubilee one Homer (225 pounds, or two bushels 
of seed)." [The expression (ver. 16) accord- 
ing to the seed thereof is generally under- 
stood to mean, according to the seed required to 
sow it; but the difference is immaterial; it is 
merely an expression of the measure of valuation, 
and the proportion will remain the same what- 
ever it be. The value of the homer of barley, 
however (estimated by Thenius at 225 pounds), 
is so great, amounting probably to about twenty- 
seven dollars, that it is necessary to understand 
it, as Lange has done, not of the single homer, 
but of a homer annually during the forty-two 
years (omitting the seven Sabbatical years) in- 
tervening betweeu two Jubilee years. This 
would make the money value of the single homer 
of barley about 64 cts.; but it is to be remem- 
bered that on the average it was to be paid many 
years in advance, so that we cannot estimate 
from this the actual price of the barley. Others 
however (as Clarke and Keil) think it was an 
annual payment as it accrued. The meaning of 
the expression, ver. 20, if he have sold the 
field to another man is uncertain. Accord- 
ing to Knobel it means "if he has fraudulently 
sold the field to another, and taken the price to 
himself, after having vowed it to the sanctuary." 
In this case the confiscation of the field to the 
Lord would be the penalty upon his trickery and 
deceit. Keil rejects this view, and snppuses that 
the owner continued to cultivate the land him- 
self, paying a yearly reut to the sanctuary ; in 
such a case the bails of sale would be the pos- 
sible surplus of the produce above the yearly 
rental, and the fault of the seller " consisted simply 
in the fact that he had looked upon the land 
which he vowed to the Lord as though it were 
his own property, still and entirely at his own 
disposal, and therefore had allowed himself to 
violate the rights of the Lord by the sale of his 
land." Wordsworth, following Jarchi, suggests 
another interpretation; that the proaoun Ae is 
used impersonally, and the expression means, if 
the field had been sold by the treasurer for the 
benefit of the sanctuary. The object would then 
be to make the title given by the sanctuary in 
all cases perfect. A simpler explanation is to 
understand have sold in a pluperfect sense= 
had sold — viz.: before making his vow. In this 
case he would have no claim upon it until after 
the Jubilee (except by redemption), and there- 
fore his vow could only be accomplished by the 
land falling to the sanctuary at the Jubilee. 
The reason for the snme re-uU in case of refusal 
to redeem is apparently based upon the persist- 
ent wish of the owner. He might redeem at any 



time up to the Jubilee; and if he did not, he 
showed that he wished absolutely to give the 
field to the Lord. It does not appear that the 
landed possessions of the sanctuary ever grew 
large in this way. — F. G.]. "A. Purchased pos- 
sessions. Since these must fall back in the Ju- 
bilee year to the heir, they could only become 
the subject of vows in a very limited sense." 
The vow of a purchased field required (ver. 23) 
the immediate payment of its fullvalu3 (without 
addition) to the year of Jubilee. In this case 
the actual occupation and usufruct of the land 
undoubtedly remained with the one who had 
made the vow, subject to the ordinary law of re- 
demption (XXV. 28-28). The requirement here 
of immediate payment does not imply that in the 
former case (ver. 19) the payment was annual 
(so Keil, Clark, and others), but only that here 
the money must be immediately paid down as 
the only security for its payment at all. 

Ver. 25 simply provides that the standard of 
all valuations must be the shekel of the 
sanctuary — a silver coin estimated at 54 cents. 
It was divided into 20 gerahs of 2.7 cts. each. The 
LXX. uses the word diSpaxp"i, which ii employed 
in Matt. xvii. 24 for the A<iZ/-shekel, the Alexan- 
drian dpaxiiil being double the Attic. 

Vers. 26, 27. The positive law concerning 
vows is now completed. It remains to treat ne- 
gatively of certain things which were not al- 
lowed to become the subject of vows. First, all 
the first-born of animals are excluded as already 
belonging to the Lord, and therefore incapable 
of being given to Him either by vow or in any 
other way: no man shall sanctify it. A 
firstling of an unclean beast, however, might 
be redeemed by adding a fifth to its valuation — 
otherwise it was to be sold for the benefit of the 
sano'uary. The reason for its peremptory sale 
in this case, instead of its retention for use, was 
doubtless the tender age of the firstlings, so that 
if they were retained they must have occupied 
much time and care. Lange : " Keil remarks 
' By this regulation the earlier law, which com- 
manded that an ass should either be redeemed 
with a sheep or else be put to death (Ex. xiii. 
13 ; xxxiv. 20) was modified in favor of the re- 
venues of the sanctuary and its servants.' 
Comp. WiNEK, etc. We cannot consider this cor- 
rect. Concerning the first born of an unclean 
beast, the law was peremptory. And how should 
the law-giver here come back once more to the 
unclean beast ? Nevertheless, a special ordi- 
nance concerning the first-born might certainly 
be met with which had dropped out through a 
defect under the law of unclean animals." 
Keil, Clark and others must have overlooked the 
fact that the law of Exodus is only a special law 
concerning the au, but making no mention of 
other unclean animals ; while here the law is a 
general one which, as often in general laws, does 
not mention the already known and established 
exception. It had been but a year since the law 
for the asa was first given in Exodus, and less 
than this since its repetition in Ex. xxxiv. 20. 
The time is too short, therefore, for the reason 
given by Keil and Clark for its modification. 

Vers. 28, 29. From redeemable vows is also 
to be excepted every devoted thing, whether 
of man, or beast, or land. This is the first in- 



CHAP. XXVII. 1-34. 



205 



stance of the use of the word Din, and it occurs 
afterw!>rds in the law but seldom (Num. xviii. 
14; Deut. vii. 26, 6m; xiii. 17). It is introduced 
as a term already familiar. It is translated by 
various words in the A. V. (as curse, accursed, 
dedicated, devoted, appointed to utter destruction, 
etc.), but etymologioally and by usage always 
means irrevocably cut off from all common use- 
in the case of persons, devoted to destruction — in 
the case of things entirely surrendered to the 
Lord to be disposed of at His will. "What 
was devoted could never be offered in sacri- 
fice; but in all places where mention is else- 
where made of the ban laid on any thing (Num. 
xviii. 14; xxxi. ; Deut. ii. 34; xiii. 12-18; xxv. 
19 ; Josh. vi. 17-19 ; Mai. iv. 6) this appears as 
a dedication to destruction, as a fulfilling of the 
Divine vengeance, as an honoring of God on 
those in whom He cannot show Himself holy and 
glorious." Von Qerlach. In regard to inani- 
mate objects the meaning is therefore clear 
enough ; but the expression -which shall be 
devoted of men (ver. 29) has been the occa- 
sion of some difficulty. This much is certainly 
plain: that the sentence of cherem once pro- 
nounced was absolutely irrevocable, and in 1 
Sam. XV. 21, 33, we have an instance of the pro- 
phet's indignant rebuke of the attempt to set it 
aside. Beyond this, the only instances of the 
cherem in Scripture are those which rested upon 
an express Divine command. Jephthah's vow 
does not come under this category at all, for that 
was a vow either to offer a burnt offering, or to 
devote to the Lord ; but the cherem is not treated 
as a vow at all, and is separated from ordinary 
vows by being irredeemable. The general sense 
of the passage, historically interpreted, is there- 
fore that man may not interfere to thwart the 
purpose of the Almighty : Jehovah's sentence of 
destruction must aiways be unflinchiogly carried 
out. Ver. 28, however, clearly asserts that an 
individual man might devote persons belonging 
to him in the same way that he could his ani- 
mals or fields, while ver. 29 requires that any 
one so devoted must be put to death. The mean- 
ing of this very mysterious provision must be 
gathered from the historical instances of the che- 
rem. It could have applied only to the devoting 
of those who were already manifestly under the 
ban of Jehovah — those guilty of such outrageous 
and flagrant violation of the fundamental law of 
the covenant that they manifestly came under 
the penalty of death. Such persons, instead of 
being tried and condemned, might be at once 
devoted and put to death. Lange's exegesis 
is as follows: " That which had been placed un- 
der the ban was absolutely irredeemable. No ob- 
ject was banned, however, or consecrated to Je- 
hovah by an irrevocable reversion (for the use 
of the Sanctuary in the case" of impersonal things, 
or for death instead of capital punishment in the 
case of persons) through any private will ; only 
.IihoTih, or the community in His service, exe- 
cuted the ban. The various particulars of the 
ban are explained by Knobel, p. 588." See also 
Selden de Jure Gent. IV., vi.-xi.; Waterland 
Scripture vindicated. Works IV., p. 226-229. 

Vers. 30-33. Tithes also are to be excluded 
from the possible subjects of vows, since they 
already belonged to the Lord ; in certain cases, 



however, they might be redeemed like vows. 
The tithe, like the thing devoted, is referred to 
as something already familiar. From Abra- 
ham's tithe to Molchizedec (Gen. xiv. 20) and 
Jacob's vow (Gen. xxviii. 22), and probably from 
still far earlier times, it had been immemorially 
an essential part of the worship of God. The 
tithe is here spoken of, therefore, not for the 
purpose of enjoining it, but to exclude it from 
vows, and to prescribe how far and under what 
conditions, like vows, it might be redeemed. In 
Nutn. xviii. 20-32; Deut. xii. 6, 11 ; xiv. 22, di- 
rections are given as to the use and the collec- 
tion of the tithes. "According to Rabbinical 
tradition, the animals to be tithed were enclosed 
in a pen, and as they went out, one by one at 
the opening, every tenth animal was touched 
with a rod dipped in vermilion. Comp. Jereta. 
xxxiii. 13; Ezek. xx. 37." Clark. The tithe was 
applied, of course, only to the increase of the 
flock and the herd, i. e., to animals which had 
never been tithed before. Lange : " It must not 
be overlooked that the tithes were a ground-rent 
in favor of the hierarchy, primarily of the Le- 
vites, who again must themselves pay tithes to 
the priest ; and were also a perpetual theocratic 
civil tax which could not properly be maintained 
in Christian times by the side of other taxes, 
notwithstanding the strong Old Testament dispo- 
sition of the middle ages in this matter. It is 
easy to see that at the present day, by the side 
of the modern forms of voluntary and involun- 
tary taxes, ecclesiastical and secular, tithes can 
only be claimed by an overstrained literal zeal." 
The law (32, 33) absolutely forbade the redemp- 
tion or exchange of the tithe of sacrificial ani- 
mals, as in case of a vow ; other tithes were also 
under the same law as the vow, and mijjht be 
redeemed by the payment of their value with one- 
fifth in addition. 

Ver. 34 closes this appendix, and forms, as it 
were, a second close to the whole book of Levi- 
ticus, the aim and object of which has been holi- 
ness — holiness to be typically acquired by the 
sacrificial system prescribed to point to " the 
Lord our righteousness ;" and to be preserved by 
those many legal enactments superadded to the 
great law of faith, " because of transgressions, 
until the promised seed should come." 



DOCTEINAL AND ETHICAL. 

I. In the law for the redemption of personal 
vows is again brought out very strongly the 
equality of all men before God. Differences were 
made according to sex and age, but none accord- 
ing to social position and rank. The redemption 
for the high-priest himself was precisely the 
same as for the day-laborer. 

II. In the prohibition of vows of the first-born, 
of tithes, etc., which already belonged to the 
Lord, the general principle is taught that man 
may not make that a matter of extraordinary 
piety which already forma a part of his ordinary 
duty. In a sense this would absolutely exclude 
all vows, since the Christian requirement is that 
we should devote ourselves with all that we have 
to Him who gave Himself for us, and indeed the 
highest standard of the Christian life, making 



206 



LEVITICUS. 



of that life itself one perpetual vow, neoeasarily 
supercedes all minor vows ; but nevertheless 
practically, special dedications of ourselves and 
ours may be made, and when made are to be sa- 
credly kept. See Eool. v. 4, 6. 

III. Here as elsewhere Moses is made only 
the channel and instrument by whom the laws 
are given ; their authorship is expressly referred 
to the Lord Himself. Accepting this as a truth, 
the wonderful character of this legislation occa- 
sions no diffiouliy; but if with the negative cri- 
tics, it be denied and the legislation be referred 
to human authorship, we have in this book the 
impossible phenomenon of a legislation wholly 
occupied with the promotion of holiness, and 
yet stamped with fraud and deliberate forgery 
upon its very front. We have also a legislation 
far superior to that of any nation of antiquity, 
and indeed morally superior to any that has 
ever existed except under the influence of Chris- 
tianity, proceeding from a people whose history 
shows them to have been unfitted for the concep- 
tion, much more the enactment of even a very 
inferior code. 

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL. 

Lange: "The religious observance of vows. 
Before all things man must not be willing to 
cheat Jehovah; also he must be thoroughly ho- 
nest and true in his vows, his professions, his 
fasts, his devotion, and his religious duties gen- 
erally." 

Also under exegetical : " The importance of 



these prescriptions is that they oppose all un- 
manliness in relation to a pledged word, confir- 
maLion vows, marriage vows, ordination vows, 
false discharge of fasting that has been vowed 
by fish-eating and the like ; the removal of all 
evasions of criminal justice and of churchly dis- 
cipline, and finally, of all frauds in regard to 
the duties which one owes to the cultus and to 
the religious rights of the community. The or- 
dinance concerning the irremissibility of various 
actions shows clearly that there can be a true 
freedom within this obligation. The sanctifioa- 
tion of manliness — thus might the whole section 
be entitled." 

Also under the same : " It is an old story that 
worldliness, cunning, and impiety, very willingly 
put obstructions in the way of religious, theo- 
cratic, and ecclesiastical discharge of duty, and 
the complaints of the Old Testament of the want 
of manliness in this matter, which was connected 
with dimness of faith in the Omniscient, have 
been continually repeated even to the present. 
But here Jehovah, who deals faithfully and re- 
liably with His holy people, approaches with the 
demand in regard to them, that they should hold 
themselves holy, and faithful, and trustworthy 
in all their business in regard to Him. If moral 
laxity begins first in concealments in relation to 
God and His institutions, it will diffuse itself 
more widely until it completes its process of dis- 
solution in religious and moral deceptions, espe- 
cially in the province of all religious and moral 
vows." 



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